The Apathy Of A Gamer Chapter 10 Chapter 9

Like the previous chapter, this is only one half of the chapter. The reason is once again because the chapter is too long, and must be split into two parts. The second half will come out later this week to hopefully boost reader retention.

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Christmas time. A time where everyone around the world celebrated the holiday. Lights and decorations would be set up in towns and cities. Large Christmas trees erected that people could gather around. Santa clauses appearing to wish people a happy holiday, or hear a child's wishes, and if you were lucky, snow fall that would be strong enough to play in and build snowmen. A joyous time, so of course nearly every country around the world celebrated Christmas.

Apparently, that was true for Sword Art Online, too.

In every town all across SAO, Christmas lights were strewn across nearly every building, inn, and npc home. Blue lights, green, red, every color you could see. Massive Christmas trees with big yellow stars on top and wreaths with little red bows, the whole get up. Even inside a fantasy world that was supposed to be disconnected from everything else still celebrated Christmas. Even the npcs had some new dialogue to fit the occasion.

Vendors had appeared in the largest town of each floor, selling a variety of event items that would only be there for the last couple weeks of December. Christmas hats and outfits, reindeer horns, and of course the most popular items being the Christmas-themed foods. Since five floors had been unlocked, there were more types of foods in the game people had access too, but they still weren't easy to get. The items in the shops were inexpensive at best. Everyone had a chance to enjoy the holiday at a cheap price, even the ones who were too scared to leave town.

And it was working. Players all throughout the game; the ones out in front and the ones remaining at the beginning. They were all enjoying Christmas. In spite of the looming death facing those who were brave, despite the fear each and everyone of them had, it was nice to forget and enjoy the holidays; the only connection they had to the real world. A small slice, but it was one they would make the most of. Anywhere inside a town, both npcs and players alike wore bright smiles. It seemed everyone was happy to indulge in this joyous tradition.

Well... almost everyone...

"My immersion..." A black haired boy muttered, a scowl on his face. Kirito; The Grinch, wasn't all too pleased about celebrating. He didn't have anything against Christmas and actually did in fact enjoy the holiday. However, he did not appreciate SAO's lore getting trampled into the mud. This was supposed to be a medieval world with fantasy powers. The only technology it was supposed to have were antiquated stuff like swords and candles or something akin to magic like the floating castle, Aincrad. Yes, there were sword skills, but they were all apart of the world's lore. Multi-colored Christmas lights that would glitter and shine, as well as glowing stars on trees was NOT medieval. "Don't you guys care about what kind of media you consume?" Kirito sighed. No, probably not. It seemed he was the only one here with any class.

He flicked the snow that had lightly dusted his shoulders off his «Coat of Midnight» and readjusted his collar. He didn't mind the cold and preferred it over warm weather. Some of the floors would experience weather changes and typically lined up with how the real world's weather would be. Some didn't, as those floors had a general theme to abide by. It would be weird for a dry blazing desert to suddenly get rain.

Kirito expected the colder weather change, but not Christmas suddenly becoming a thing. Maybe some people would celebrate on their own, sure, but not the actual game itself. He couldn't accurately predict it because beta experience didn't matter. Obviously, it wasn't Christmas time when they all had played back then. It was a weird decision for sure. If all towns had a Christmas theme to them, that would include the humid desert ones. That just didn't make any sense. Kirito's ire grew at the thought.

That was it. The world and its lore, the npc's and mobs; none of it mattered anymore. Giving credit where it was due, it was certainly something game developers would do. Holiday events were a normal thing in MMORPGS, so it would make since for SAO to have one. He wondered if Kayaba had given the order to program Christmas with the intention of giving the players some real world relief, or if it was just an order from the higher ups funding the project.

He would never know.

With a finger flick, Kirito accessed his menu. "Well, at least there is this," he smiled. Pressing the quest icon, he read it once more. It was a holiday event quest that had players do a scavenger hunt in search of «Reindeer». They were a limited time mob that only spawned throughout the week leading up to Christmas day. Excluding dungeons, they could spawn on any floor at any time at any place, and players had to find and kill them.

«Reindeer» were nonaggressive and would run away if they were alerted of a players presence, so using the «Hiding» skill was recommended. They were surprisingly hard to track too, because despite spawning across all of the floors, they didn't leave hoof prints behind. That's why it was also recommended to use the «Searching» skill to find them more efficiently.

It just so happened that Kirito had both those skills.

It also just so happened that those two skills of his were rather high.

It also just so happened that he finished the quest in just a couple of hours and this was the second time he had accepted it.

On his first time through, he thought the quest would just turn out average, since it only gave xp and he was overleveled, it wasn't much. Since it was a limited time quest though, he had to at least give it a try. That decision would prove to be fruitful, as Kirito learned a hidden secret tied to the quest. The secret was that the quest was a rare mob spawner.

Rare mobs usually spawn on their own randomly and players just had to get lucky to find them. Rare mobs typically dropped a rare item, material, or ingredient that was basically impossible to get your hands on. It was different this time because the quest triggered a direct chance for a rare mob to spawn, rather than just hoping to God you were in the right place at the right time.

The mob was a «Silver Reindeer». Rather than being the normal spawning ones that was brown, these were silver and had prettier horns that were shaped differently. Their mechanics were the same as the normal reindeer and it wasn't harder to kill or track it, either. The only difference was the rare chance it had to spawn and what it dropped.

On one of Kirito's last kills needed for the quest, he found one. His reward for killing it wasn't an item, but a bunch of xp. He was close to leveling up anyway, but it had pushed that small gap needed and he leveled up to 27. That alone was enough incentive for him to keep grinding the quest until it disappeared.

There were a few other quests that had came with the holidays, too. A quest to help a father get enough col to buy gifts, a quest to help a baker get enough ingredients to make treats, and a quest to help fix a broken toy. All relatively simple quests, but one look at them told Kirito all he needed to know.

They were escort quests. Excluding the scavenger hunt, every single quest he found involved escorting some npc. Even with the possibility of those quests having rare rewards, there was no way in winter wonderland he was spending the holidays escorting a bunch of slow ass npcs. He'd had enough escorting when he took on that elf quest with Sinon. Those kinds of quests were way outdated, anyway.

Reindeer hunting was where it was at. Sure, it may be a little cruel to kill them because they were defenseless, but that wasn't going to stop him. Just throw him on the naughty list, or something. At this point, he was used to getting a bunch of col. A little more wouldn't hurt.

The dark haired boy shook his head quickly, ridding another pile up on his head. The white powder was a stark contrast to all the black he wore. He didn't know the spawn rate for the rare reindeer. The quest required the player to kill ten before turning in the quest. He just so happened to kill the silver one on his ninth. It could have a higher rate of spawning than ten. It could be one in a hundred, or even more.

"Oh well." Kirito shrugged his shoulders. You never know until you try.

---

Black

This one was black.

Not brown like the normal reindeer and not silver like the rare type that blended in with the snow, but black. The contrast of its fur was way deeper than the others and a stark difference to the snow on the ground and along the dead trees. Its antlers were nearly pitch black as well, just a little bit lighter than its fur. The name above the mobs head was «Dark Reindeer».

'Then its also gotta be special, right?' Kirito thought, readying his sword. This was now his third time doing the quest. Unlike his first time when he found a silver reindeer, he didn't find anything rare on his second attempt. His hopes were a little crushed and he thought maybe his assessment was wrong, but he didn't give up. He knew that if you could do the quest multiple times and it had spawned once, surely it would happen again. Even if he had found a rare one already, it shouldn't matter. There would be no point in doing the quest again if they were only limited to one per person. His judgment was on point, but not perfect.

A screech filled his ears as he'd split it in two before dissipating out of the world. The reward menu then appeared.

Reward

White Christmas

Kirito originally believed that the quest would only spawn «Silver Reindeer» as the rare monster spawn. What he didn't expect was that other types of rare reindeer could spawn as well. He berated himself as he put his sword away.

'You can do better. Think of every possibility.' It may not be necessary to do so for a quest like this, but other quests in deeper floors would try tripping him up every chance they could. If he wasn't prepared, he could fall for some trick or trap. He had never been afraid playing SAO and never thought he would be, but when the unexpected arrived like it did against Baran on floor two, he needed to be ready for it.

With that thought, he opened his menu to check out «White Christmas».

It was an equippable item. Pulling it out, Kirito held up the choker in his hands. It felt similar to a belt and was snow white. The clasp in the front was a shiny metallic, pretty red square. There were also small vertical rectangles colored the same red on each side of the buckle, giving it more flavor.

"So, it's an accessory." Kirito didn't really dig chokers, but if the stats were good, then he'd wear just about anything. Opening its stat menu...

Nothing.

It was a cosmetic.

"Well that's just great." A rare spawning mob had given him a useless item. It just had to be a cosmetic. There wasn't even a point in having it, especially in a game where the equipment you wore was your lifeline. He was tempted to just drop it, or even break it in half so it wouldn't waste space in his inventory. Not because the item was heavy; it was actually as light as a potion. He just didn't want it.

Kirito held his chin. Although, when he thought about it, there was one use for it. Storing the choker back in his inventory, he continued his quest thinking about how much it would sell for.

Ping

A small yellow message notification blinked in front of him. With his low friend count, it could only be from one of two people. He tapped it.

Message

Sinon:

I want to talk to you about the Christmas event that's been going on. There's a few things I want to talk about, so lets have dinner together. Don't even think about getting any weird ideas.

Kirito checked the time. It would be getting dark in roughly an hour. He hadn't yet talked about the event with her or Asuna. Doing so was a good idea and the possibility for him to learn something from her and not the other way around was actually there for once. Their discussion could lead somewhere interesting.

Message To

Sinon:

Sure, let's meet up in an hour.

He'd meet her in about an hour. He still needed to finish his quest and he wasn't about to waste daylight.

And he definitely wouldn't get the wrong idea.

---

"I'm still not used to the fact that you have blue hair," Kirito said, resting his head in his hand.

Sinon sighed. "I was hoping it wouldn't make me stand out too much." She lifted her hand to play with one of her bangs. "If it's really that distracting then I guess I could change it back."

"No, no, it's cool." Kirito waved her off. "I like it. It looks nice on you."

The girl scoffed back at him, pulling the top of her scarf up over her face. "Whatever."

A small smile crossed Kirito's face. He couldn't even try hiding his shock the first time he had seen her hair. Add the blue eye change and the sword on her waist and he almost didn't recognize her. When she'd seen his confusion, she laughed at him. In fact, she had hoped she would surprise him with her new look. It kind of irked him when she gloated about it, as if she had somehow gotten one over him. It wasn't much of a win, so he let her have it in favor of complimenting her appearance. He knew she was still working through some things from before and put two and two together. She was trying to move on and he wanted to support her.

That, and he really did like her new look. It was... stylish. Outgoing, almost. A lot different to how she appeared before.

Sinon looked back at the boy with a scowl. "And what exactly are you smiling about?"

"Nothing, nothing." He waved her off again. "So, why do you carry your sword on your waist and not your back?"

"Huh?" Sinon gave him a confused look.

"You carried your spear on your back. Why don't you do that for your sword as well?"

"Because you can't carry a spear on your waist." She stated derisively, rolling her eyes. "Why does it even matter to you?"

"It doesn't," Kirito replied, thumbing over his shoulder where his sword rested upon. "Back is the superior way, though."

Sinon stared blankly at him. "...Lean back then."

Kirito raised an eyebrow. He shrugged and obliged her, leaning back.

*Clink*

...

He tried again.

*Clink*

...He couldn't.

"Pfft-" A stifled laugh escaped through Sinon's hand as she tried holding it back. Kirito looked back at her, completely complexed. His expression only increased her giggles further until they freely spilled out. "You can't lean back because your sword is in the way."

Kirito blushed. "Yes, I can," He shot back, reaching for his sword. "If I just take it off-"

"Take it off?" Sinon echoed teasingly. "My sword is still on and I can lean back as much as I want." She demonstrated while crossing her arms. "I thought your way was superior?" She mocked, her condescending smile on full display.

His blush deepened as her laughter filled his ears. "W-Well, it's still superior while traveling and in combat." He grumbled.

This time, it was her who was waving him off. "Yeah, sure thing, guy."

Just as he was going in to reply and save face, he was cut off by the npc delivering them their food. Kirito sighed and lamely took his sword off. Slowly, he set it down next to him, which only sparked more laughter, though Sinon at least did him the courtesy of trying to hide it again. That's twice she had 'gotten' him now. He couldn't keep letting her get away with this injustice. He needed payback and he would get it. When her guard was down, he'd get her.

It was inevitable.

"S-So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Kirito said with a cough, trying to change the subject and put the whole thing behind him. He could still feel his embarassment on his face.

"Hmm..." Sinon smirked, pondering whether or not she should let him off the hook. Eventually, she decided she would go easy. "You read my message, didn't you? You should already know."

"O-Oh right, the Christmas event."

"Mhmm..." Sinon hummed. "What do you know about it?" She asked, as she picked up her silverware.

"What do you mean what do I know about it? It isn't like anything like this was in the beta." He picked up his own fork, taking a bite of his food.

"I already know that. I'm a beta tester too, remember?" She pointed out. "I'm asking because if anyone would have figured anything out, it would be you."

"Yeah, that's true." Kirito said unconsciously, not even denying it as he sipped his drink. "I'm pretty sure I figured something out."

"Like...?" She gestured for him to continue.

He set his drink down, smirking. "Ladies first. What do you got?"

"You can't be serious?" She deadpanned, to which he simply kept eating. A small growl left through her gritted teeth. "Alright, fine. I'll go first." She pointed her fork at him. "But you ARE gonna tell me what you know."

"Yeah, sure," He said a bit muffled.

"And swallow your food before talking to me."

"Yeah, sure," He said again, this time clearly.

The girl's eyebrow scrunched up as she bit back her anger. She couldn't tell if the boy was messing with her, or if he really had no table manners. "Whatever." She wanted that info, so she'd put up with his irritating act. "I don't really have much. I've done escort quests all day hoping that it would lead me somewhere, but it hasn't." A depressed sigh left her as she thought back to those slow, grueling travels. "The quest rewards were decent, but not worth doing all of them. Maybe if I do all of them it'll unlock something?" She mumbled to herself. She wasn't able to speculate for long when she was interrupted by chuckling from across the table. "Hey, what's so funny?"

"You actually did all those escort quests?" He laughed, making her blush.

"No, not all of them. I've only done around half." Her hand slapped the table. "What's so funny about it, anyway? They're quests, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they're quests." Kirito confirmed. "Just not very good ones."

"They aren't that bad. They give a good amount of col and xp."

"Really?" Kirito asked sarcastically. "Tell me how much fun walking those npcs back and forth all day was. From what I'm hearing, you must've had a blast." The girl fell silent at his words. He urged her, "Come on, surely you had a good time doing those escort quests. I would know. After all, we did one together."

"...It sucked." She stated bluntly, giving in to his taunts.

"Hah!" He laughed, earning him a kick in the shin. "Hey, don't be mad. You're already halfway done. You can finish out the rest tomorrow, easy."

A full growl left her as she stomped her foot. "Okay, asshole. I get it. I wasted my time. They aren't worth doing." She grumbled in disappointment.

Kirito thought for a moment, the clattering of porcelain and silverware filling his ears as Sinon ate, silently fuming. "No," He stated, gaining the girl's attention. "They might be worth doing."

"Really?" She asked in disbelief. "You just sat here and laughed at me for doing them and now you want to tell me it's worth it?"

"I said it might be worth it." Kirito replied. The look on her face told him that explanation wouldn't cut it. "I mean, you're probably right when you said there might be a reward when you do all of them."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Unlike with the reindeer hunting quest, you can't repeat those escort quests." He spun his fork in his hand. "If you do all of them, it makes sense that you would get a special reward at the end."

The girl laid back in her chair, closing her eyes. "Yeah, I guess you're right..." Her eyes snapped back open as she realized his intentions. "Wait, you just want me to be your guinea pig so you can find out if they are worth doing or not, don't you?!"

Kirito swiftly looked away. "No, of course not..." He looked away, laughing wryly when he began hearing teeth grind. "A-After all, I'm sure other people are doing those quests. We'll eventually find out from them." He turned back and gave her a sugar coated smile. "But if you do finish it and get something good, feel free to tell me?"

He got kicked in the shin again.

The boy cleared his throat. "A-Anyway, you should just hunt some reindeer."

Sinon scoffed. "That's awfully vague. You find out something about it?" She questioned. She let him take a bite of his food, patiently waiting for him to continue, but was increasingly getting annoyed as he took another bite before then going for a sip of his drink. It was like he was drawing it out on purpose. Her finger irritably tapped the table several times, finally losing her cool once Kirito went back for another bite. She slammed one of her hands down. "Quit eating and tell me!"

"Hey, you're the one who asked me out to dinner. Is it so wrong for me to enjoy it?"

"I knew I'd regret this." Sinon made an exasperated sigh, palming her forehead. "You just have to be as annoying as humanly possible, don't you?"

"No, I'm just hungry," Kirito said purposefully, making her face twist in anger. He had to physically bite back his smile. It was way too easy to mess with her, just as she had messed with him.

Honestly, he really did enjoy talking to her and having her as a friend. It was kind of weird. When he had first logged into SAO, he hadn't intended to make any friends. He deleted all of the ones that he made in the beta because he didn't want or need them. His excuse was that it was his play style and he wanted to be left to his own devices. While that was partially true, that wasn't completely it. The truth was that all of those "friendships" he had made during the beta didn't feel real.

Deep down, he could tell. From the moment he logged into SAO for the first time, he'd felt more alive than he ever had. The amount of fun he had on that first day and exploring the virtual world was an experience like no other. He doubted that he would ever feel that kind of euphoria again. The only thing that had ever come close were continued sessions inside SAO.

So when a bunch of random players started appearing before him asking him for advice, asking to party up, asking to prove his gaming skills, and praising him when he went out of his way to do so. It all just felt so artificial. They didn't really care about him, they just cared about his ability and status as a pro gamer.

The famous solo player Kirito was all they cared about.

It really shouldn't have bothered him. Of course people were going to approach him asking to be friends and ask to team up. It happened to live streamers and other tourney winners all the time. It really, really shouldn't have bothered him.

But it did.

Even if this world wasn't real, it felt real to him. The day SAO was announced as a death game, he'd felt joy. He could finally live in a world where he felt like he belonged. Where he was happy. This was his reality.

And when all of those guys began following his tail everywhere he went, piggybacking off of him and calling it "friendship." All of a sudden, his reality started to feel a whole lot less real.

He hated it.

So he deleted all of them and didn't look back. He wasn't gonna look back, even if he had to lie to himself and ignore the pain in his heart for leaving the people who could have used his help to die. But this was his choice and there wasn't going back on it now. If he ignored that voice in the back of his head and started thinking that everyone he could've helped was equally as fake as those guys in the beta were; who tried taking away his reality, it made him feel better.

That's all they were; just people trying to take his world away from him, including that girl with the mouse whiskers... No, he didn't feel bad about deleting her. Even after the genuine feelings he had in his heart and all the times they had shared information with one another on an equal ground. He didn't feel guilty about reading his name in the paper she wrote, asking him to come out and if she had done anything wrong...

He didn't.

"I should have known you'd pull something like this. Whatever, don't tell me," Sinon spat out, pushing her hands on the table to stand up. "What a waste of time," She muttered under her breath.

"N-No, wait!" Kirito swiftly and unconsciously reached over the table, grabbing one of her wrists in a show of his true feelings leaking out.

"H-Hey, let go!"

"I'll tell you! I was just in my head for a moment!" He hurriedly confessed, trying to soothe her anger.

The girl glared at him for a moment before huffing and sitting back down. "You better not be pulling my leg." She grumbled from under her scarf.

"I'm not." He looked over his shoulders and gazed around the restaurant. "But uh, after we eat dinner and leave?"

"I knew you we-"

"We got eyes on us." He cut her off, half whispering. Their corner seat didn't really matter after making a commotion like they had. More than a few heads turned to look their way.

Sinon looked around and sighed, understanding his concern. "Sorry, guess it's my fault." She apologized, whispering back. They had picked this location because it wasn't very popular compared to others. Now that there were a decent amount of places to get food at in the game, a restaraunt like this that served mediocre food wasn't a big deal anymore. That didn't really matter now. "Wait a sec, no it's not, It's yours," She said after contemplating over it. "You're the one who made me mad because you wouldn't tell me." Her brows furrowed, getting angry again.

"You're right. I shouldn't have been stalling and just told you."

"So you WERE messing with me."

"I'll make it up to you." He sighed after feeling her foot bounce off his shin a third time. Thankfully, they didn't hurt. "Lets finish up and we'll leave."

Within a few minutes, they were paying for their meals and leaving.

---

"That's really all you have to do?"

"Yeah, simple as that."

The blue haired girl hummed, pondering what she learned. "You make it sound way easier than it is. All day I've been hearing about how hard those reindeer are to catch every time I'm in town and you wanna tell me that if you catch a certain amount, a special one will spawn? I don't buy it."

"Hey, I didn't say you had to catch a certain amount. I don't know the exact number, or if you even need to catch any. From what I got, they just randomly appear."

"Yeah, but aren't they harder to find than the normal ones?"

"Of course they are. They're rare, remember?"

"That's not what I meant, smart ass." She shook her head. "The reindeer have a high hiding ability and are easily provoked. Do the rare ones have an even higher hiding skill?" Sinon asked the swordsman in black, leaning closer to him.

Kirito mulled over her words for a moment. His head lightly tilted to the side. "I don't really know."

"Wh- huh?" Sinon's head fell back, befuddled. "You found several of them and more than one rare type. You're telliing me you can't tell?" She exclaimed ludicrously.

He folded his arms. "Well if you're asking me if I searched for them harder, then the answer would be..." He drawed out, making her lean in again. "Maybe...?"

Sinon deflated, throwing her arms in the air. "You're unbelievable, you know that? Why is it so hard for you to give me a straight answer?"

"I'm sorry, but I really don't know. I guess I can say I was trying as hard as I could to find the reindeer from the start, so it wasn't like I could try harder..." His words drew out, making the girl grumble incoherently under her scarf. "If it's any consolation; I didn't think they were too hard to find. I'm pretty sure the only real difference between them other than the loot and color is that the rare ones just have a lower spawn rate."

"So you DON'T think they are harder!" Sinon stomped one of her feet against the powdery snow below. "Why didn't you just say that to begin with, you idiot!" She turned away with a scoff.

The boy scoffed back at her, placing his hands in his coat pockets. "Well, sorry..."

He didn't really know where to go after eating dinner and had a feeling that Sinon would get pissed off at him if he took her to a secluded room inside an inn. Instead, he looked for and found a bench to sit on at an unpopular street in town. It was late, so there weren't any players walking by. He was confident more and more people would stay up longer the closer they got to Christmas day, but today wasn't it.

Stretching his arms above his head, he decided that it was probably time to reel it in for today. "That's all the info I got. The only tip I have is to try your hardest to find them. You'll get to hang of it." He stood up.

"Wait a second," Sinon said, also standing from the bench. "Your story doesn't match what other people have experienced. They are supposed to be difficult to find, but you keep claiming that it's easy."

"What do you want me to say? Either everyone else sucks, or I'm just that good." He yawned.

Sinon's eyes narrowed at him, the tense blue staring deep into his being. There was a hint of a yellow ring inside of them, showing just how unnatural and artificial they were. He liked both her new hair and eyes, but it felt very off-putting when she glared at him like that. He recognized an incredibly similar look in Asuna's eyes as well.

The look of a mean girl.

His body shivered at the thought. He didn't actually think Asuna was that mean. He felt the same with Sinon, although she had a lot more bark in her. Still, the two of them could scare the baddest baddies away with that kind of look.

She took a step toward him, making the boy gulp. "How high is your searching skill anyway?" She questioned, causing his shoulders to tense. His reaction didn't go unnoticed. "Bingo." She confirmed aloud, poking him in the chest. "You can find and catch them easily because you have a high searching skill. You probably don't get noticed by them either because of a high hiding skill too, huh?"

Another gulp, this one more audible than the last. Just because they were friends didn't mean he wanted her to know all his skills. Her deduction skills definitely weren't novice level.

"I guess those skills wooould help with finding them..." Kirito said vaguely, not accepting or denying her claim. "But they certainly won't help you escort all those npc's!"

That earned him a punch to the arm.

"Fine, fine, you can keep your secrets for now. I got enough info out of you today." A satisfied smirk spread across her face. "I'll get some more out of you some other time."

More some other time? He felt like she'd just mugged him, or he'd got his lunch money taken away from a bully. Now she wanted to make this a routine?

"I'll finish the escort quests and see if there is anything special while you find some more reindeer, 'kay pal?" She padded his shoulder firmly, before standing up to leave.

He felt like a victim.

Unlike Asuna, Sinon always did a good job at not saying his name publicly, even if there wasn't anyone around. She was a more guarded person naturally, though Kirito wasn't sure why. He speculated it was because she's a gamer girl, which usually led towards harrassment from a bunch of guys. There was a feeling that made him believe it was more deeply rooted than that, but he couldn't be sure. It wasn't his business to pry into irl stuff, anyway.

What was in fact his business was how much of a doormat she'd made him out to be today. He could be the more mature person and let bygones be bygones. He could let her get away with down-talking him and just ignore it. Pretend it never happened.

But that wasn't happening.

It was payback time.

Kirito leaned down and gathered up some snow from the ground, packing it into a firm, round ball. As he watched her walk away, admiring her bottom for a moment, he called out, "Hey, Sinon!"

She turned around.

SPLAT

The snowball nailed her right in the face.

Hard.

She had to take a couple steps back to catch her fall; the force of the balled up snow nearly taking her off her feet. She stood there frozen solid, clumps of snow falling off her absolutely dumbfounded face. Kirito cupped his hands into a circle. "Thanks for the date! We should do this again sometime!"

Then he took off.

As he ran, the boy heard her voice echo from behind, "Bastard!"

The two of them were both taught a lesson that day.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

---

"What exactly am I looking at?" Kirito mumbled to himself as he held a large paper in his hands. Like the previous few days, he had been reindeer hunting to capitalize on as much loot as he could.

He felt like he was either getting jipped, or that the spawn rate for the rare reindeer was higher than he surmised because he hadn't ran into as many as he thought he would have over the time he'd spent hunting them. He had ran into a few «Silver Reindeer» and got a good amount of xp from killing them like before. He'd even run into another type of reindeer, the «Gold Reindeer» which would drop ten thousand col; a hefty sum at this point of the game.

Unfortunately, his luck appeared to have run out there, as the only rare reindeer that had spawned since then had been a «Dark Reindeer» that had dropped another cosmetic. The item was called «Naughty or Nice» and that's all he'd learned about it before banishing it into the deepest depths of his inventory. Another cosmetic meant another item headed towards an npc shop.

Kirito hadn't sold the other one yet because he kept forgetting to. If they weren't so completely useless, maybe he'd spend more effort remembering he had them in the first place.

Other than that slow spawn, the rate was roughly what he estimated. It didn't seem like there were any conditions to get rare reindeer to spawn. It was just pure RNG.

That had been the case up until now.

Just a few minutes ago, Kirito had come across another new rare reindeer type. Unlike the others that would be a different color and drop a specific thing, be it xp, col, or a shitty cosmetic, this one had been completely different.

It was called a «Crystal Reindeer». Like the other reindeer, it appeared alive and moving. However, it was not of the living. It was made of what looked like glass and was completely see through. It didn't have eyes and it looked like its antlers and limbs could snap off at even the slightest touch. The glass glowed with a multitude of different colored lights, nearly every visible color in the color spectrum reflecting off the impossible creature.

The reindeer was as beautiful as it was unnatural. Kirito could tell in an instant that it was more rare than the other ones.

Despite this, the player hadn't hesitated a second when killing it. When he dashed towards the monster, it nearly got away. Much like the other ones, it hadn't detected him. Instead, it was much faster. If he had missed his swing, he didn't think he could catch it before it despawned, even with his high level and agility.

Thankfully, his skill with a sword hadn't failed him and he shattered the glass animal. Once it burst, the death effect blew past the clearing loud and wide, as if a floor boss had been cleared. The triangular glow effect was way more pronounced than it had usually been on other monsters. Instead of the usual blue coloring the lights took, the effect shared the same rainbow color-wheel the reindeer had glown and each shaped triangle was smaller, totalling way more individual pieces.

It was an incredible sight that had come from such a small creature. A sight Kirito wouldn't soon forget.

Such a mob even existing, special or not, was still strange. Either he wasn't actually suppose to catch it that way, or he wasn't supposed to catch it at all. The «Crystal Reindeer» had to have shared some of its code with floor bosses to explode like it had.

Was it evaluated on the same priority level as a boss?

The whole situation made Kirito reevaluate the event and how the mechanics for the reindeer worked once more. Perhaps, after finding a certain number of reindeer, the final one that would spawn would be the «Crystal Reindeer», or maybe it only spawned once and whoever found it only had one shot before it would disappear forever?

Whatever the case, the super rare item it should have dropped was his. That led to his current predicament.

"Maybe it's a treasure map?" Kirito questioned, holding the item up and looking at it from different angles. It certainly had all the signs of being a treasure map, with drawn in trees and trailing lines that lead to a big X. However, there were a few things that separated it from a traditional one. Namely, the two sets of numbers at the bottom of the paper.

"I'll figure it out once I find the spot," Kirito said, folding it up. It looked like the big X was drawn on top of a pond. That was a big enough lead already. A super rare mob more rare than most which then led the player on a treasure hunt. Kirito felt his excitement bubble up like it were boiling. Whatever it was, wherever it was taking him, it had to be beyond exceptional. All he had to do was start searching.

And searching...

It wasn't until nighttime and the artificial moon was up in the sky when Kirito finally found what he believed to be the place. Since they had unlocked the fifth floor and that was where he had killed the «Crystal Reindeer», he initially believed that the spot would naturally be somewhere on that floor.

He was wrong.

After wasting a bunch of time wandering on that floor and realizing it wasn't there, Kirito trekked down towards the fourth floor. Considering that the fourth was no longer a barren canyon and now water themed, he probably should have started there. Still, he remained undettered and excited as ever.

Searching vigilantly, Kirito did his best to follow the map and eventually ended up in a small clearing. The location was inside the «Bear Forest» with an average sized pond that, much like the rest of the rivers and lakes on the floor, refused to freeze over. He hadn't been entirely sure this was the spot, but after quadruple checking the trail on the map, it washed away his doubts once they appeared to match perfectly.

Kirito had been to the «Bear Forest» many times before, but not in this precise area. Just because he hadn't been here didn't mean other players hadn't. It wasn't like the area was blocked off in any real way. The only real obstacle was that the spot was surrounded by trees and shrubbery on all sides excluding the entrance. Honestly, someone could get to the same spot without even following the trail leading here. It seemed that the only significance of the trail was that it was the easiest way to navigate to the place.

The location would definitely be serene for anyone who loved wandering forests. A small area with a pond that was blocked out from the world on all sides except the pathway and the sky. A place that sounded straight out of a video game and the perfect spot for treasure.

Fully believing the treasure was at the bottom of the lake, Kirito dived straight in without a second thought. After swimming completely down and around the pond a few times, as well as catching a «Freeze» debuff, he stiffly and shamefully swam back up.

His «Freeze» debuff couldn't have been more accurate. He usually didn't mind the cold, but swimming in negative temperature water and getting blasted by piercing winds afterwards was a combo he hadn't prepared himself for. Kirito was freezing his ASS off.

A player wasn't supposed to feel pain in SAO, but he could definitely feel it right now. Experiencing the pain of freezing temperatures was now something Kirito could confirm existed in the game and must've been overlooked by the development team, or more precisely, Kayaba. The reverse could also be true with experiencing extreme heat.

"T-T-This s-s-sucks." Kirito clenched his shivering arms around his body in a vain attempt to keep himself warm. His precious coat felt paper thin right now. Jumping into a pond at the height of winter had to be at least top three dumbest things he had done so far in the game, along with revealing his name, and fighting a couple floor bosses solo. Sinon getting a facial wasn't anything compared to the cold he was feeling now.

A loud sneeze escaped the black haired boy. He could remember blasting white stuff all over her face as much as he wanted, but it wouldn't make him any warmer. Kirito drunk a potion to heal back some health. Unfortunately, the potion didn't cure his effect or warm him up. Though his health bar was near full, he personally felt like he was gonna die if he were out here much longer.

Swiftly pulling out the map, he tried to piece together what the numbers were asking of him. With his mind racing a mile a minute, he figured it out instantly. He would've slapped himself if his arms weren't ice blocks.

They were the date and the time. He didn't understand them at first because the digits were all pushed together and didn't have dashes or colons between them. If he had spent more time thinking about it earlier, he would have been able to figure it out. Since the map was dropped from a limited time mob, then this was likely a map to a limited time event. Said event would only appear in this spot once it was the correct time at the exact time of day.

"T-T-That's just g-g-great," Kirito admonished himself. He jumped in that damn pond for no reason. Now he really wished he didn't jump the gun so quickly. "A-At least I k-k-know where it i-i-is." He forced his stiff arm to reach for his quick-access belt. A rectangular blue crystal with metal adorning the sides was pulled out from it.

The item was a «Teleport Crystal» and is extremely rare at this stage of SAO. In fact, it was his only one, but using it in this situation was worth it. It had the ability to teleport a player to any city in SAO with its teleport gate unlocked. He wasn't sure if he could make the trip back to town in his condition. It wouldn't actually kill him, but he would be even more miserable than he was now.

It was time to get out of here.

"Teleport, Karluin." Kirito kept his stuttering at bay and held the crystal up. It lit up with a pale blue glow which spread across his entire body, warping him out of the area. "Much better." He breathed out a sigh of relief, a refreshed grin on his face as he stood at the teleport gate of the ruin city of «Karluin».

Now that he was in a safe zone, his «Freeze» status effect was removed. The teleport had also dried up his wet body. All negative status effects would immediately be removed from a player the moment they enter a safe zone, even if they were on the brink of death from a deadly poison. This also accounted for the «Missing Limb» effect and whatever limb or limbs the player was missing would instantly reappear. Such was the conveniency of a safe zone.

Now that he could actually feel the clothes he was wearing, Kirito readjusted his coat. He noticed that it and some other parts of his clothes were looking a little worn. He would need to get them repaired at a tailor.

"I'll do that tomorrow." He yawned, walking towards his inn room. "No wait, I might not have the time." He frowned. Today was Christmas Eve. Naturally, tomorrow would be Christmas. Asuna and Sinon had been blowing up his message box all day today, asking him about what his plans were for tomorrow. He quickly told them both that he would be happy to spend the day with them.

Key word.

Both.

He wasn't looking forward to introducing them to each other, but he made his bed and now he'd have to lay in it. If they were going to continue to be friends, then it was bound to happen eventually. He didn't wanna imagine the repercussions of blowing one of them off the entire day for the other and he didn't think he could juggle both of them at once, either. They were bound to get suspicious if he kept excusing himself and running back and forth between them.

Best get it over with now. The sooner the better... probably. Who knows, they might even get along...

...Hopefully.

A chill ran up his spine as he imagined it and he shook his head to rid those negative thoughts.

Let future Kirito deal with it.

All he really needed to do was spare enough time to make it to the event. The map had the event's date set on Christmas day. The time was numbered 2330, or what should translate to 11:30 p.m. He would need to end his day with them around eleven at least, so he could make it back to the location.

Kirito turned the corner, nearing the inn with his hands stuffed in his coat pockets per usual. There weren't too many players roaming around this time of night, especially because tomorrow was a holiday many would be celebrating.

And that's when he saw her.

A small figure not even five feet tall hidden under a brown cloak. The edges of dirty blonde hair just barely visible from under the hood.

Whisker marks on her face.

It was her.

Argo the Rat.

He froze near instantaneously. She was talking to some other person who also wore a brown hooded cloak, although theirs was a few shades darker than hers. The two of them were just a couple houses down from the inn, lightly tucked in a small alley way. She was leaning against the wall facing Kirito's direction and he was only able to visibly make her out because of his high «Searching» skill.

It was definitely her, though.

He didn't know what to do. On one hand, it hadn't looked like she'd noticed him. The conversation she was having currently held most of her attention. Now was the perfect time to run away. On the other, he would have to pass her to get to the inn and he didn't want to get any closer to her. He could retreat down the street and make his way around the other to get there, but his feet wouldn't budge.

There were a few occasions that had come up where he thought she would make an appearance and he had done his best to avoid those situations. The boy meticulously avoided any type of mass player meetings or gatherings for the sole purpose of avoiding Argo. Of course he knew that someday, inevitably, they would come across each other.

His plan was to either avoid confrontation with her or, if worse came to worse and he actually had to talk to her, act like a dick and avoid giving her any sort of leeway. If she asked for his name, he would give her an alias. Even then, there was a chance those diversions wouldn't work. She was a clever girl and could probably squeak something out of him through his guard.

That couldn't be allowed to happen. Especially if she became suspicious and intrigued with him.

He knew she was looking for him more than anyone else was. There was a tremor ringing deep inside his heart when he thought of that. Usually, he excused it as her being greedy and only wanting info on him and his knowledge to sell. Likely, there was some possible truth to that.

However, as Kirito stared down at Argo, looking at her the way she was now, he knew.

The frown on her lips, the clenching of her hands, her head tilted downwards irritably. There was an almost palpable aura of depression that seemed to emanate off of her.

Realistically, it could have been something else that made her like that. Maybe she had gotten into an argument with a few guys earlier. Maybe she got bad RNG, or didn't meet her xp quota. Maybe she had gotten some bad info, or one of the people she was supposed to meet up with bailed on her. Maybe she just simply had a bad day and nothing more. There could be any number of reasons why she was like that...

...But he knew why. He could play around and pretend like he didn't know or make excuses, but he knew. All it took was one look at her for him to know he did that to her.

As much as he wanted to deny it, they had been friends. In the beta, the two of them were around each other every day without fail. He considered her a leech and had even openly said it to her face, but she always stuck around. There were any number of times he had carelessly blown her off so he could do his own thing, but she stuck around. He'd given her the slip multiple times, but she would just track him down through the friend tracker. His finger hovered over the delete option on more than one occasion, but he never deleted her.

It didn't matter if he had decided to delete all of his friends when the real game began. He didn't have to keep her added, even in the beta. He wasn't obligated to be close to her and with all the people who used to surround him, he could easily make an excuse that he didn't have the time and cut their relationship off there.

But he didn't.

He couldn't quite pin point the reason, but there was something different about her than the others. It wasn't because she was a girl. There were many female avatars who approached him and some had definitely tried to flirt or seduce him. Recalling those situations, he was able to recognize that most, if not all of those girls were dudes. Even so, he got the feeling that Argo was a real, genuine girl.

That wasn't what made him more interested in her.

No, it was something else. Maybe the fact that they had more chemistry together than anyone else. She messed with him constantly and he would always bite back. They would bounce jokes and jabs at each other incessantly. If an outsider looked at them, they would probably believe the two of them were enemies.

And they would have been wrong. Somewhere at some point, Kirito began to consider her a real friend. In the beginning, she was a leech who would attempt to suck him dry out of all of his information and milk his fame to get even more info out of others. Then, she was a puppy dog who would just follow him around no matter where he went. Then, she was just a friend.

She had cracked him. Somehow, she was able to get passed his defenses and form a real friendship with him.

Many people have tried and an equal amount have failed. The only true exception had been her. She had managed to make him open up a bit and in return, she opened up to him, too.

Their relationship didn't seem so one sided anymore. She wasn't around just to get something from him and he wasn't acting so coldly towards her anymore. They talked how they would find the time to play the full release of the game together. She'd tease him about how she would find secrets that would blow past him completely. She knew he always kept the best ones to himself. She never managed to figure any of them out.

He remembered that she'd told him that she wouldn't tell anyone if he told her those secrets and there was a part of him that believed her. There were times where he would tell her something and she wouldn't tell anyone. Secrets that they would share between the two of them.

What started out as a give and take relationship had quickly formed into one of true friendship. Unlike other people, she had his back. His heart twisted and torqued through those recollections.

She had his back.

But he didn't have hers.

He ruthlessly deleted her at the start of the game without remorse, severing their friendship forever.

Somewhere inside him, Kirito knew that he should face the consequence of his actions. Own up to what he did and confront her.

However, he didn't want to.

He wasn't going to.

He couldn't.

Once Argo had finished her conversation with the other player and began walking in his direction, he simply stood there in place, his head down and his hair over his eyes. The crunching snow under her footsteps became louder as she walked directly next to him. They were a meter apart, near shoulder to shoulder.

And she continued on past him, as if she hadn't even noticed him.

That was it.

Of course she couldn't recognize him. He was no longer in his beta avatar.

Kirito felt the force holding him in place release its hold slightly. He was left all alone on the street, not a single person in sight. The boy dressed in black had wanted that in the first place and he'd gotten it. He wanted them to go away and they did.

And yet, the weight of the tension was still there, clawing at his innards.

With weak steps, Kirito made his way to the inn, thoughts of the whisker-faced girl spiraling through his mind.

---

"Who's she?"

This was not what Kirito wanted to do first thing in the morning.

After reaching his inn room, he had tried and failed to get any sleep after his pseudo encounter with Argo. Despite trying his best to get his mind off her, he couldn't. The depressed look on her face kept him up all night, which then made him feel depressed also. It hadn't helped that he had a big day and really needed the shut eye.

Now here he was, out of the frying pan and into the fire.

The impending doom he had thought about yesterday was now readying its might. The dreaded meet up with both Asuna and Sinon was here and he was already gassing out. It sucked that his exhaustion had stacked on top of his anxiety for a crit.

Kirito sighed and mustered up the low amount of energy he had. The near run in with Argo really did a number of him. Regardless, he had no choice but to push her to the back of his mind. This was happening, no matter how muddled his thoughts were, or how tired he was. Might as well try to snuff the flames before they grow.

"She's a friend." Kirito waved, answering both of their questions. "Anyway, I'm tired. You two up for some coffee?" He asked, walking towards an npc vendor.

"Hold on!"

Both of them yelled out, moving to stand in front of him. They each shot each other a small glare before turning back to him.

"You didn't tell me you had another friend!" Sinon voiced sharply.

"Yeah!" Asuna followed. "You didn't say you were friends with..." She paused for a moment, peeking over at Sinon. "...with another girl!"

They both stepped towards him menacingly, their hands tethering to their hips. It took everything he had to stand his ground and not back away.

Kirito swallowed hard. "I know, I-" He hesitated as he began hearing voices from the sidelines. A bunch of dudes were gathering around and talking to one another. Some were covering their mouths whispering, while others were pointing at him angrily or laughing, not an ounce of secrecy.

"See that? He got caught lacking."

"Two-timing, ey? My man."

"Busted."

"This dude has two chicks? Bullshit!"

'Oh, come on. It doesn't look that bad.' Kirito knew he had some explaining to do, but it wasn't like he was dating either of them. They're taking it way out of context. He looked back at the two girls. They looked even more pissed now.

Great, thanks guys.

"Listen, I'll talk, but..." Kirito leaned his head in closer to whisper to them, since they had walked close enough to stand directly in front of him. "It needs to be somewhere else." They both predicted he would say that, as their responses were instant.

"Fine!"

Asuna and Sinon both grabbed one of his arms, dragging him away from the growing crowd. He was outright getting booed now, one of the onlookers even yelling, 'Get him!' to the girls.

He didn't know the guy, but he better watch his back outside the safe zone.

"Wait, the coffee shop is in the other direction." Kirito's immobile arms tried to point, not getting very far. Their grip on his arms became tighter.

"You said it needs to be somewhere else, right?!" Asuna began.

"So we're going somewhere else!" Sinon finished.

"Yeah, but... why are we leaving the safe zone?" He inquired, his concern making him hesitate.

"Why do you think!"

They each shot back. They were really good at that. That had to be like, the fifth time they had said the exact same thing at the exact same time. They'd even finished each others sentences at one point.

Kirito would have commented on it, but it wasn't worth the extra trouble. He was in enough heat already. The boy couldn't help but groan. In a way, he was lucky. It was a guy's dream to have two hot women clinging to his arms. When he thought about it like that, it didn't seem all that bad.

Then he realized he'd be missing out on his coffee.

It was a sad morning.

---

"Why isn't your hood up again?" Kirito asked Asuna. It had taken him a solid hour to get her and Sinon to calm down and hear him out. The two of them had both thought that he'd been playing games with them and his secret about keeping his identity wasn't really serious. If someone else knew about him, how many other people would, they questioned.

He quickly cleared that notion up fast and even showed them his friends list to prove they were the only friends he had. Convincing them of that had been the easy part. For some reason, they were still mad at him, even after he explained everything. He couldn't understand why. As far as he was concerned, he had been completely honest with them and hadn't lied about anything.

Asuna flicked her long hair back, the top part braided around the back of her head. "I thought I'd keep it down. Try something new." She huffed grumpily, her cheek jutting out.

"Oh... cool..." Kirito faked a laugh. She huffed again and turned away. She'd probably wanted him to say something more, but he was more concerned with the predicament he was in.

The three of them were situated in a small cave away from the snow outside. It was still cold, but a lantern between them had helped. The two girls each had large rocks to sit on, while Kirito had to make do with the ground, not that he minded. Before Asuna had turned away from him, Sinon had already done the same and had even added her signature arm cross to go along with it.

It was starting to get awkward as hell. Things had cooled down, but they were still clearly upset with him. Though, they were probably even more upset at each other with how they had gotten in each other's faces.

It wasn't pretty.

After they finally stopped interrogating him, Sinon got the bright idea to start interrogating Asuna. Not having any of the blue haired girl's lip, Asuna blew her questions off and instead fired her own. Since neither of them were the type to back down, they swiftly turned on each other and butted heads. Quite literally, as both of their foreheads were pressed against each other, Kirito distinctly hearing each of their teeth grind. He would have admired the sight, as their breasts had unintentionally mashed together during the confrontation. However, he noticed the girl's fists were balled, signaling things were about to get physical.

Well, punching physical. Their chests had definitely touched. Thankfully, Kirito had managed to get between and stop them before hands could fly.

They avoided a cat fight from breaking out, but now they were stuck in this awkward situation. Kirito wished he knew how to salvage it. He raised a gloved hand up to his chin, thinking deeply. There had to be a way to make things better between them.

'Aha!' Kirito palmed a fist as he got an idea. Asuna and Sinon both noticed his expression change and turned their heads back to him.

He smirked.

"Why don't the two of you become friends?" Kirito asked, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?!"

Uh oh.

"Hmph, no way. Friends with her? Get real." Sinon spat.

"Why would I be friends with someone so mean?" Asuna added, causing Sinon to glare at her. Feeling the blue haired girl's eyes on her, Asuna glared back just as fierce.

Not good. His idea had the opposite effect. They were supposed to agree with him and start getting along, not get even more angry.

It had made since in his mind. Since they were both still mad at him for not telling them he had made a different friend other than them, it was his fault. Rather than be mad at each other, they should instead be friends. That way, they wouldn't need to be concerned about him and his identity.

Sure, they still would have been mad for that extra reason, but it would have cleared the air between the two of them. Since they were both girls, he thought maybe they would jump at the opportunity to have another girl friend. Girl's were a rarity, after all.

'I guess I thought wrong.' Kirito sighed. Such a shame. It wasn't like they didn't have any similarities. He was sure if they had met under different circumstances, they would have been great friends. The reason why they weren't was because of him. He must've messed up somewhere. Maybe if he hadn't been as tired, he would have been able to find the right words to say and a better way to introduce them.

"Okay, bad idea." Kirito admitted, noticing the rising tension between them appearing again. It had been at least worth the shot to ask. If they weren't going to be friends then fine. Things would likely get complicated and most definitely annoying, but he trusted they would still keep his identity concealed. That was all that truly mattered at the end of the day. Even if it irritated them, this little confrontation wouldn't break that promise.

At least they were aware of each other now, which eased one of his concerns. If he ever needed to reveal his name to another person, he would be able to do so without having to worry about another incident like this.

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that. Kirito still wanted to remain hidden as much as possible. In the first place, he shouldn't even have to worry about meeting and adding others, but such was the life of a pro gamer.

The price he had to pay for having two cute girls on his friend list; Deal with their bitching.

He'd roll with the punches as they come. Kirito really enjoyed their company, enough to where it was worth taking time out of his day to have them around on a semi-consistent basis. However, it could be a bit much. Asuna could be more than just a bit clingy with how much she worried. It was almost like when his mom wouldn't let him play mature rated games when he was younger. Motherly was a good way to describe her, which made it strange. A girl roughly his age babying him was not something he wanted. Kirito didn't believe he was all that attractive, but if that was how she looked at him, then he really screwed that up bad.

With Sinon... well... Sinon was just a bully. Granted, she was fun to be around and the two bounced off each other well. It was nice to have an ex-beta tester to talk with and pick her brain, even if she was usually the one to pick his. Still, there were moments between them where he felt the girl was one word away from opening her menu and challenging him to a duel on the spot. He wondered if the only reason she actually hadn't done so was because she knew she would lose. There were other times when they would talk and it was like she was a different person. A single harsh word would be enough to pierce her body and crumple her soul. Kirito recalled the time the former spear user called him up to her room for comfort... That had been an experience... an emotional roller coaster he'd never forget.

Sinon was a mixed bag. At times, she was the toughest boulder and others, the weakest glass. Bipolar was how he'd describe her.

A chilly wind blew into the cave entrance and Asuna shivered. Out of the three, she was the least dressed for winter. Although she wore a cloak, it wasn't very heavy and did little to keep her warm. Her skirt bared her thighs and though her socks covered most of her legs, they were still scantily thin. Kirito had his trench coat, so he was good. He could even button it up to be warmer, but his hubris prevented him from doing so. His run in with a freezing pond may have sharpened his desicion making by a hair, but it wouldn't stop him from being him. On top of her pants and scarf, Sinon had also bought a coat, expecting the cold weather from her knowledge as a beta tester.

"Ha-choo!" Asuna sneezed, wrapping the cloak tigher around herself in a vain attempt to keep herself warm.

"Why are you still dressed like that?" The boy asked, leaning back against the wall. "You know it's winter, right?"

"I-I thought my cloak would be enough to keep me warm," The longer haired girl replied. She shot him a small glare. "I-Its not like I knew the weather here would get so cold in the first place!" She whined, another chill permeating throughout her body. A small smirk appeared on Sinon's face and she bit back a snicker. Asuna couldn't see it from where she sat, but Kirito could.

'Yep... definitely a bully.' He thought to himself. He was glad Asuna was unaware of her amusement, or else he would be breaking up another fight. At this rate, being the barrier between these two would become a full-time job. He really wished he was sleeping in a bed right now. Better yet, he could be redoing the reindeer quest one last time before it went away for good. It was a stretch, but maybe he could get extremely lucky and get another map to a different location?

Thinking about quests, Kirito suddenly recalled his conversation with Sinon and turned towards her, "Hey, Sinon. Have you finished completing all those escort quests yet?"

That topic instantly killed any sort of joy Sinon had and a nasty glare took its place. "Yeah... I did them all..." She bit out.

The way she said that could only mean one thing.

"So... it was pointless?"

"It was pointless." She confirmed, sighing. Her fingers moved to open her menu. "If I had known any better, I would have kept trying to hunt reindeer. At least then I would have a shot at getting something good." An object landed in Kirito's lap as Sinon tossed him an item.

It was a white santa hat. Further inspection led to the confirmation of it being a cosmetic.

He laughed.

"Hey, it's not funny!" Sinon yelled angrily, her face warming up. "I wasted all that time! You could at least feel bad for me!"

"I do, I do!" He continued to laugh, holding his hands up. "If I were in your place, I'd be mad, too!"

Although he sounded genuine, his laughter only embarrassed Sinon further. She hid herself away behind her scarf. It couldn't bottle her emotions away, but it could at least conceal the frustrated look on her face.

All that time doing those lame escort quests for a cosmetic. To top it all off, it was a santa hat. Kirito couldn't help but comment, "You know you can buy santa hats at the holiday vendor for 100 col, right?"

"S-Shut up!" Sinon's voice came out muffled under her scarf.

"What, is it supposed to be special because it's white and not red? You know there's a place in the Town of Beginnings that lets you recolor items, right?" Kirito's laughter only grew, much to Sinon's ire.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" She buried her head into her knees for a second layer of defense. His laughter was pure torture. Anymore and she would die from embarrassment.

"Wait, I know!" Kirito snapped his fingers. "It's rare because it isn't called a Santa Hat, but a White Santa Hat! Go figure!"

Sinon had reached her breaking point, crumbling from the rock she were perched on and slumping against it. She sat there clutching her knees and hiding her face, too ashamed to look up.

Her HP may not have reached zero, but her soul certainly had.

Asuna looked back and forth between the two, completely clueless to what was going on. "I'm sorry, what exactly are you two talking about?" She cutely tilted her head to the right. "And why is it so funny?" She looked over to Kirito in search of answers.

The boy would have gladly filled her in if Sinon hadn't gotten the courage to peek out from her hiding place to shoot him a one-eyed glare over her arms.

Kirito lightly coughed into his hand, his grin still present. "Ah- it's not important, don't worry about it." Predicting another incoming glare, this time from Asuna, he continued. "But if you find yourself wandering town and come across a few npc's asking you to escort them, don't bother."

Asuna tilted her head again, this time to the left. "I don't follow. Why not?"

An exasperated sigh kept the auburn haired girl from continuing as Sinon lifted her head up, having managed to recollect herself enough to feel comfortable presenting herself. A light dusting of red remained on her cheeks. "Because it's useless. Didn't you hear me earlier?"

Asuna lightly glanced the girl's way. "I'm sorry. I don't believe I was talking to you." Her voice was cold, sharply turning her head away from the blue haired beta tester.

As if she hadn't been embarrassed at all, Sinon immediately turned and peered at her with rage. She'd already had it with this girl. After getting humiliated in front of her by Kirito, and then talked down to, she was more than ready to duke it out.

Kirito could see the storm brewing and wanted to nurse his head. Enough was enough. This couldn't keep happening between them.

"Let's do one." He intervened before Sinon could open her mouth. Since Asuna was too busy snubbing her, the boy was able to send a swift glance her way, silently pleading her not to aggro.

Sinon saw his plea and after a small internal battle, gave in with a brooding puff. Whatever the boy was planning, it better be good.

"Do what?" Asuna asked, turning towards him, She entirely ignored Sinon, as if the other girl wasn't even there at all.

"An escort quest." Kirito replied.

"Wait, what?" Sinon looked at him, perplexed. "I just told you several times th-

"Who cares?" Kirito waved her off. "I'm getting bored of sitting around here and you two look pretty restless. Might as well kill some time with a quest, yeah?" He stood up casually and stretched his arms over his head.

"Count me in!" Asuna stood up to join him. She had no idea what an escort quest was, but if Kirito wanted to do one, then she would happily join.

Sinon stared at him stupified, her mouth wide open. It was a big waste of time and she knew it. He knew it. So why? She tried rejecting the notion, make any sort of effort to refute. But the only thing she could do was stare as the two of them walked right past her.

"Well, you coming?" Kirito asked, looking over his shoulder. Asuna didn't bother, still refusing to acknowledge the other girl's presence.

"B-But it's Christmas?!" She finally managed to get out.

"That's right, so let's spread some holiday joy by helping npc's in need." He turned towards Asuna with a hand raised. "Doesn't that sound great?"

"Yeah!" She said excitedly, high-fiving him.

He turned back towards the confounded girl. "Come on, Sinon. Where's your Christmas spirit?"

Said girl could only stare at him blankly, once again dumbfounded by his proclaimations. He was the last person who would ever wanna waste his time doing some bum quest, so what the hell was this sudden one-eighty?

She watched as Kirito fired through his menu with lightning speed, as the idiotic long haired girl she hated got a pop up screen. Another flick of his menu and she got one, too. She then watched the clown woman accept his party request. Robotically, as if she were watching herself in third person, she begrudingly accepted his request as well.

Sinon thought about his intentions and believed this was some scheme the boy cooked up to try getting her and the buffoon to get along. It probably sucked having two of your friends not like each other. She understood that point-of-view, she did.

'But it's Christmas.' Sinon thought bitterly, a pang in her chest. She really, really wanted to spend the day together with him.

Alone.

She had to bite back the massive frown that threatened to split her face open. Out of everyone it could have been, it just had to be another girl, didn't it?

'And she's pretty.' Sinon's chest felt like it could burst with how twisted it were becoming. This sucked. This really sucked.

...

No, it wasn't over yet. There was still more time in the day. Christmas wasn't ruined yet. She'd let Kirito entertain the stupid bitch for a couple hours and after she buzzed off, the rest of the day could be spent with just the two of them. With her plan set, Sinon took a deep breath and stood up, standing to Kirito's right and away from the bimbo.

"Alright Sinon, lead the way." Kirito looked towards her, expectantly.

"What? Why do I have to?"

"You're the expert here. This is your field. With your knowledge, we'll find the best of the best escort quest."

His mockery would have landed if she hadn't already felt completely defeated.

"Yeah, yeah." She sighed, accepting her role without fuss. Acting as temporary leader, she walked ahead of him, making sure to shove him out her way harshly as she did.

She was still gonna make him pay later.

"The best one is near the center of town."

"Alright, let's go." Kirito followed after her, Asuna staying by his side. The three of them walked in silence for a few minutes before it was eventually broken.

"Ha-choo!"

"Oh, that's right. We'll get you a coat there as well, Asuna."

The girl smiled at him, rubbing her shoulders from under her cloak. "T-That would be n-nice."

Sinon rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

---

'This was a mistake...' Kirito thought as the three of them were walking an old lumberjack npc back home to complete their quest.

After dolling Asuna up in a warmer coat and black stockings that covered up to her thighs, they took on the longest and most rewarding quest. Of course, that meant that it was also the most boring. He didn't mind much at first, as he had wanted to waste as much time as possible. He asked for a boring escort quest and Sinon certainly delivered.

The quest was a bit more than a few hours long and they had to keep walking back and forth out of and into «Karluin». They did this by walking out of town through the east, then back inside to talk to an npc, then out the west, and so on. After doing such a monotonous thing for a long period of time, it had begun wearing the boy thin.

However, despite the quest's awful design, there was an even bigger annoyance.

"So he tries leaning back and realizes he can't because his sword's in the way!" Sinon laughed. "And then his face got so red from embarrassment!"

"No way! Really?" Asuna asked, wonder in her eyes.

"Mhm~" Sinon nodded. "Afterwards, he tried to play it cool by taking his sword off, but his face was so red!" Sinon pressed her hand over her mouth to keep herself from keeling over from laughter.

"Aww! I wish I could have seen it!" Asuna's pouted affectionately. "It would have been so adorable!"

The two girls continued to gossip about him as they lead the party. Their formation had the npc in the middle while he brought up the rear. Even so, given the way they were conversing and how loudly they were laughing, he could hear them loud and clear.

Although they couldn't directly see him from where they were walking, Kirito still felt obligated to lower his head in shame. It took everything he had. Gritting of his teeth, biting of the tongue, and slow, methodical breathing to keep his embarrassment buried inside.

'This was a mistake!' He thought once more. At first, everything had gone as predicted. The first couple hours went off without a hitch. The quest was still lame, but the two girls hadn't made any complaints. They simply walked on each of his sides as he made small talk with them.

Rather than all three of them conversing with each other, they talked to him individually, completely ignoring each other. Not a single incident or snide remark came from either of the two. It remained relatively peaceful up until they got to a certain part of the quest where a problem arose.

They would have to start protecting npc's from monsters.

Normally, this wouldn't have been an issue and the monsters they would need to fight weren't at all strong. The issue was that they needed to make a party formation. The main part of this quest required them to help a lumberjack deliver different types of wood to different people and help him get said wood. After escorting him out of town and letting him chop down a few trees, they would escort him back.

The monsters that would attack the party would target the wood, rather than the npc, or the players. If a monster lands even one solid strike on the wagon full of wood, it would be destroyed and they would have to redo that part of the quest. To defend the wagon, they needed to surround the npc dragging it.

Which had led them to an annoying predicament.

They were an odd numbered party, which meant they needed to alter between two players in front and one in the back. Quests like these were usually better for an even numbered party. If they had four people, they could have two people in front and back, or even have one person on each side in a diamond formation. They didn't need a forth person, as they were all strong enough to play their role and compensate for that missing link. Truthfully, Kirito alone could protect the wagon with how fast he was.

The problem wasn't because they were an odd numbered party. The problem was because two of their party members couldn't stand each other.

Since Asuna and Sinon didn't like each other, Kirito would inevitably be paired with one of them. He suggested a triangular formation instead, but that was shot down in an instant. It was Christmas and they were supposed to be doing the quest together. With so much distance between them, they wouldn't be able to talk to him. It would almost be like doing the quest alone and make it even more boring. That was no good.

Therefore, one of them had to be with him, which was also no good. If one of them were left by themselves, that meant the other girl would get to be alone with Kirito. That pissed them both off, as they both wanted to be paired together with him, which then led to an unfortunate situation that put him in the middle of a "which one of us do you like more," scenario.

Backed into a corner, the genius boy thought up a brilliant solution. Neither girl would give up on who would be where, so he proposed they alternated between the two of them until the quest was finished. That should have been the end of it, but of course, it could never be that easy.

Having done the quest already, Sinon brought up the fact that they would be escorting the lumberjack an odd number of times. That meant one of them would get to walk with him an extra time.

In the wise words of Asuna, "That's not fair!" Sinon didn't think so either, and so Kirito, having used up all of his intellect thinking of the first solution, could only think of one way to make it "fair."

For the final trip, both girls would walk together in front, while he walk alone in back. He thought at most, he would just have to break up a dispute or two if the girls looked like they were gonna get into it. Since they hadn't argued up to that point, Kirito believed he could spare the extra headache.

Boy was he wrong.

Instead of arguing and fighting, somehow someway, the two began getting along. Once he started tuning in to what they were discussing, he realized what had bridged the gap between them.

Him.

Or rather, the things they had to say about him. At first, Kirito wanted to give them some credit and act like this was a good thing. After all, they were finally starting to get along when he'd already lost all hope on that happening. The young man wanted to believe he felt joy knowing that Asuna and Sinon were becoming friends.

However, believing so would be a big fat lie. He no longer thought it was a good thing and rather than joy, he felt ignominy.

"He did what?!" Asuna asked Sinon, disbelieving what she heard. "I can't believe he did that!"

"I know, right!" The blue haired girl replied. "Who the hell gets the random idea to throw a snowball at someone's face in a place like this? I was freezing my ass off afterwards!"

Covering his ears with his hands wasn't enough. No matter what he did, Kirito could still hear them. He considered telling them to shut up, but that would only put more heat on him. Though they were gossiping about him right in his face, they weren't actively focused on the boy himself. He was fine avoiding the line of their crosshairs.

Usually, Kirito did his best to ignore others, but hearing pretty girls essentially mock him right in his face was brutal. Their words cut deeper than every blade in the game.

Damn. Girls were ruthless.

Under almost any circumstance, this kind of development would have made him happy. If the Kirito from an hour ago knew that Asuna and Sinon had found a way to get along, he would have been jumping for joy and praising the lord.

What a fool he was.

Getting slandered and bashed, having to stand there watching it happen. He didn't know the pain, the shame, the endurance and will it took not to fall over dead. The amount of times it felt like his ears were bleeding virtual blood. He just didn't know.

Kirito from an hour ago was a punk. He'd kick his ass.

Another story about how he was acting a fool, another round of giggles, another hit to his pride.

Rinse and repeat.

It was unfortunate Kirito already used his Teleport Crystal yesterday. If he'd still had it, maybe he could have teleported to a graveyard so they could bury him and his shame.

'Just bear with it for now. It'll all be over once the quest is complete.' That's right. That's all he had to do. Finish the damn quest and bounce. Then, he could head towards the spot on the map and wait for the timed event to happen. After that, he would head home to the inn and crash. Yes, that was his battle plan.

It didn't matter if today was a holiday. He was a gamer at heart.

He winced and buried his face behind his collar after Sinon made another comment about another time he had made an ass out of himself.

Honestly, she had no right to talk about his embarrassing moments. Didn't he just mock the hell out of her for being the proud owner of a white santa hat? Kirito might as well have burned her alive with how badly he disgraced her.

Part of the reason why he'd even wanted to do an escort quest was just so he could rub it in further. That backfired almost immediately. Now he was the one being laughed at.

"What a hypocrite." Kirito muttered under his breath. He may have been one too, but he could at least acknowledge that. She seemed completely oblivious. Or maybe she wasn't and this was all payback for decking her with that snowball.

Regardless, she was in for it now. Since she seemed to enjoy telling that snowball story so much, he figured she wanted to go another round. Since Asuna also seemed to enjoy listening to that story, then she must also want in on that action. And since they seemed to both equally enjoy chatting about that story, he wouldn't mind running it back.

After all, Kirito was a giver. He would be more than happy to give them a second story to talk about.

Picking a snowball fight now while he was outnumbered wasn't wise. He would need to find the right time once they were separated. Patience is a virtue and Kirito had plenty. Rather than get in a direct 2v1 now, he'd rather snake them both separately and underhandedly. Get them unexpectingly; like how he did Sinon the first time. Just wait and bide time.

Better have invested in a «Searching» skill because the grinch is gonna steal your ass with a snowball.

---

"Merry Christmas!" Asuna cheered, toasting her eggnog up high.

Sinon smiled and raised her own up, albeit not as enthusiastically and tapped it against Asuna's. "Merry Christmas."

The grinch, known by his in game moniker Kirito, didn't even bother raising his glass. "Happy holidays."

"No!" Asuna quickly rejected. "You're supposed to say Merry Christmas, not happy holidays!" She held her glass out to him.

Kirito lazily clinked them together. "Happy Hanukkah," He replied. A puffy faced glare was all it took to melt his resistance. "Alright, alright. Merry Christmas." He yielded, clinking his glass with Sinon's as well. Asuna smiled smugly at her victory and he couldn't help rolling his eyes.

The three were each seated on top of a pillow around a small table in Asuna's inn room. After completing the escort quest, Asuna said she wanted to spend the rest of the day celebrating. Of course Kirito couldn't refuse. Otherwise, he would never hear the end of it. There was also the fact that he wouldn't be much of a friend if he denied her, either.

They then spent the remaining daylight walking around and doing some shopping. Proper celebration required proper food and drinks. They didn't buy too much, but the amount of col they had each made from the escort quest was now long gone. It was soon dark and after walking some more to admire the nighttime scenery to see the Christmas lights on around houses, the group decided to take the party indoors.

They all had similar inn rooms, so they played rock paper scissors to see whose room they would use. Since Asuna lost, they went to hers.

"I dont understand how you two became friends so fast..." Kirito brought up, mumbling into his glass. "I thought only guys did that."

Another puffy faced glare, this time joined by an icy one.

"Don't underestimate us," Sinon stated, smirking at Asuna who smirked back. Originally, Sinon hadn't been so keen on the day's events turning out the way they had, but she was feeling better now.

She had wanted to spend the holiday alone with Kirito and that hadn't changed. However, after doing the escort quest with Asuna, she knew she wouldn't be able to shake the auburn haired girl away for today. She was just too clingly and persistent.

As much as Sinon didn't want to believe it, she had gotten a small impression that Asuna liked Kirito. She really hoped Asuna didn't also think that about her. Sinon's pride would take a hit if her true feelings were understood so easily. She didn't hate the girl. Not anymore, anyway. They had bonded and became friends. She was happy about that, but there was a part of her that still wished Asuna wasn't around. She had completely gotten in the way of her plans.

Regardless of how bitter she had felt about it, she put on a smile. She knew Asuna wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and so she needed to adapt to that. There was no way in hell she would let Asuna win and leave the two alone. She didn't think anything would happen between the two if she did, but Sinon wasn't about to take that chance.

After spending the day walking around and shopping together, Sinon cheered up. Even though her plans were torn to shreds, Asuna was good company and she was glad they were sitting together here now.

Unbeknowst to Sinon, Asuna had gone through a nearly identical experience as her.

She had plans to spend the whole day with Kirito, which had been swiftly tarnished by the blue haired girl's appearance. She had felt jealous and slightly betrayed by Kirito keeping secrets from her, which had led towards her investigating this new girl around him. It didn't take Asuna long to conclude that Sinon was an atrocious piece of garbage and that she hated her.

Yet, that conclusion was soon swayed once she got to know the short haired girl better during the escort quest. After they began talking about Kirito, she too got the impression that Sinon may have liked him and prayed that she didn't give off that same impression to her.

Of course, it wasn't that she liked Kirito, or anything. She definitely didn't. That much was obvious. She just didn't want the other girl to get that impression. That would be a catastrophic misunderstanding of their relationship. They were just friends and anyone with working eyeballs could see that. Asuna definitely had zero interest in him above anything but friends.

Regardless, none of that mattered at the moment. She may have felt bitter before, but now she was glad that Sinon was here together with them now. She just hoped the girl didn't get the wrong idea about her and Kirito. She definitely didn't like him like that.

Definitely.

Kirito looked between the two smiling girls. They appeared to be on the same wavelength, as if they were sharing their thoughts. If he didn't know any better, he would think they could read each others minds.

Whatever they were thinking about, it surely wasn't anything good. He shivered at the thought of getting verbally victimized by them again.

They may have gotten away with it before, but not this time. If they thought they could start gossiping about him directly in his face, then they better think again. He already witnessed what kind of damage they could do when they believed he couldn't hear them. He had been on the ropes before. There was no way in hell he would entertain a second round of that.

It would be way worse if he let that sort of outcome happen now. Kirito couldn't be entirely sure they would even gossip, but he had to assume the worst.

Better safe than sorry.

Before any funny business could brew, Kirito deployed his trump card. If there was ever a time to use it, it was now.

A yawn left his mouth as he stretched his arms above his head, "It's getting pretty late. Guess I should go..."

"Hey, wait just a moment!"

"Oh no you don't!"

The two girls briefly looked at each other. Sinon gestured for Asuna to go ahead, which she nodded. "We're not done, so you can't leave yet!"

Damn.

That didn't work.

He turned towards the long haired whiner. "We celebrated Christmas. Is there anything else?" He yawned again, keeping up his charade. His yawns were half genuine, as he really was tired. But honestly, he just wanted to get the hell up outta there.

"Of course there is! How could you forget?"

Kirito tilted his head to think for a moment. He then deadpanned. "You know, I wasn't serious about celebrating Hanukkah."

"Huh? Wha- no!" Asuna stumbled with her words, perplexed at what she just heard. "That's not what I meant at all!"

Sinon suddenly laughed loudly, "Oh my God! You didn't just say that, right?"

Asuna turned towards the blue haired girl, surprised at her outburst, before she too busted out laughing. Kirito blinked at their reactions, not understanding what was so funny.

It took him a moment, but realization struck him and embarrassment quickly filled the boy as their mellifluous laughter filled the room. Of course, he just had to go and make one of his corny jokes.

It was exactly the kind of outcome he was trying to avoid. Immediately, he proceeded to shoot himself in the foot. Now, they were laughing at him and he had to try with all his might to avoid turning red.

Damn, damn.

Better stop it before it gets worse. The boy coughed loud enough so that he could get their attention. "S-So, what was it you were saying, A-Asuna?" Kirito stuttered out, turning away so they couldn't see his face.

Asuna perked up. "Oh, right!" The girl proceeded to open her menu and fumble her way through it. She was way, way slower at using the interface than he was. It took her a second, but she eventually found what she was looking for. "I wanted to give you a gift!" She said as it appeared on the table. Both Kirito and Sinon leaned over to see what she pulled out.

---

Again, this is only the first half. The second half will come later. Thank you for reading.

More chapters often over 10k+ words on Patreon.

Chapter 10 - Chapter 9

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