Sword Art Online: Phantom Reaper || SAO OC

58 - Gratitude

February 8th 2026 - 1:40pm

On floor 22 of Aincrad, Kirito and Nyx lay napping in the living room of Kirito and Asuna's log cabin, while Asuna, Yui, and Yuuki were all busy in the kitchen.

It wasn't long before the boys were woken up by loud screams and when they realized where the sound came from they both rushed to the kitchen where the girls were.

The scene before them was far different from what either expected. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling were covered in a rainbow-colored, sticky, gel-like substance. It dripped from the ceiling in long strands, creating a sight that was difficult to believe belonged to this usually well-kept home.

"The hell happened here?"

In the center of the room stood the three girls who'd created this mess and each of them was covered in the same gel-like mess.

"The jam... the jam..." Asuna stammered for an answer and Yuuki spoke up as she wiped off the red gel from her left cheek.

"It just suddenly exploded!"

The boys both shot them curious looks. Nyx sniffed the air and picked up a burnt stench intertwined with the sweet fragrance of fruit.

Kirito silently reached toward Asuna's face, picked a piece of blue gel off her nose, and tasted it. "Blueberries... It's definitely jam. But why would it explode?"

"Yeah, I thought you said making jam was easy." Nyx said after him.

A pile of yellow gel began moving and soon Yui leaped up from it. Cutely rubbing off the jam from her face, Yui began explaining with a helpless expression.

"When Mommy organized the stuff in the food database, she found a lot of fruit and tried to mix all of them to make jam. A <<grenade pineapple>>was probably mixed in, and it likely exploded from the heat."

"So that's what it was..." Kirito sighed and began looking around the kitchen.

The grenade pineapple was a specialty fruit from the Salamander territory. They were both inedible and highly explosive. They were usually not eaten but used in combat as hand grenades.

"I thought you guys were making jam. Wouldn't it have disappeared by now?" Nyx questioned as he looked around.

Yui tilted her head, poked the large stain of strawberry jam covering Asuna's head, and analyzed its properties. "It's probably because it exploded before it became jam. It does not have the properties of a <<food>> object. It's still a <<fruit>> object."

"Doesn't fruit stay durable for around half an hour though?" Kirito sighed and crossed his arms. "This is gonna be a nightmare to clean."

"Yeah well you guys can have fun with that, I'll be seeing myself off now." Nyx playfully waved goodbye and turned to walk out of the room.

Asuna and Yuuki exchanged glances, smiled to themselves, and nodded. Both of them scooped up as much of the multi-colored jam as possible and sprinted toward him.

"Take this!"

Kirito knew what they were planning and dove out of the way. Before he realized what was happening, Nyx's signature purple coat was splattered in bright colors.

The girls burst out laughing and with a low growl, Nyx turned to face them. "The hell was that for?"

"Now you're as messy as we are, so you're part of this too." Yuuki rationalized with a sweet smile.

"Is that a fact?" He squinted his eyes at them. They looked at him with wide, pleading eyes while Kirito smiled with his arms crossed.

Nyx took off his coat, leaving him in his dark grey clothes and black boots - the first time since his avatar had been forcefully changed that he altered his outfit at all.