Progressive Factor II: Lacrimosa Of A Reaper

Kirito's Idea

Koharu

The rest of Liten's story was short. After gaining her set from Lisbeth, she leveled up by hunting treants on the third floor and was recruited by ALS on the following floor. At Lisbeth's advice, she joined the green guild and later met Shivata of the DKB. For all other details about their relationship, Koharu will keep to herself.

Afterward, Kirito finally got them to the more pressing issue-the problem within ALS. Liten had vaguely introduced it to Shivata before, but not in detail. Liten, not wanting to directly betray her guild, kept her lips tight, but Kirito spoke for her, that ALS plans to leave the countdown party early to take on the fifth-floor boss.

Liten, now that the problem is out in the open, gave more details. As a new recruit, she wasn't part of the boss strategy meeting reserved for the longtime members, so all she knew came from her group leader. ALS held such a meeting on the twenty-eighth about information obtained from a beta tester. According to the source, an essential item is a drop from the floor boss and depending on who received it could dramatically change things for the ALS or DKB.

The meeting was split between jointly managing the item by both guilds and making a decree to honor it before the fight during the party. But since the item cannot be jointly managed, it was believed that ALS, while they're ahead, should ensure they get the item. Liten didn't know whether Kibaou was initially for or against joint management, but he approved the strategy.

Liten, Shivata, Mito, and Kirito had no clue what the item was. Liten, as a new member of ALS, had no clue due to her exclusion from the party and her leader's vagueness. Her group was going to petition Kibaou today before she received Shivata's message. Shivata and the DKB hadn't heard of anything themselves. Mito and Kirito, both former beta testers and participants in the battle against the fifth floor's boss, didn't remember.

And then, Koharu remembered what another beta tester had told her days ago.

"Oh, there was a special LA for beating the labyrinth boss. It was the Guild Flag, if I remember correctly. It provides bonuses to people within a guild. Nothing we need to worry about, though. Leave it to ALS or DKB to figure that out."

When Koharu revealed that, Mito and Kirito recalled that such an item dropped and immediately recognized the danger of the flag. The flag itself is not dangerous, nor is the idea of one guild possessing it-but for the sake of balance and harmony between an already volatile relation between ALS and DKB, they recognized the importance of either guild keeping the flag.

Later, Kirito and the girls went for lunch. While the others spoke on Liten and Shivata's relationship (and how far they could go because of the Harassment Code), Koharu's mind was on her missing partner. He hadn't contacted her since this morning when he told her he was going to Mananarena to follow a lead on the player-ghost and has been silent since. He's alive and well (his health bar has been constantly watched), so he's focused solely on the lead.

"Yo, Koharu," prods Mito with her fork as the four all eat jumbo roll cake with excessive helpings of banana-flavored cream on top at a secret restaurant in the town. "You and Jaymes sleep together, right? So how does that work?"

"Huh?"

"Mito! Not you too!" Asuna shouts. "You can't ask her that!"

"What? They're the closest boy-girl pair in the game that I can ask. If we want to figure out how Liten and Shivata's relationship can work, whether it's dependent on who the target player is and all that emotional closeness crap Kriito just spewed, why not ask the best source? So, Koharu, what is the secret?"