Progressive Factor II: Lacrimosa Of A Reaper

Southward Bound

Jaymes, January 3rd...

"Why are you putting your fish on Asuna's plate, Kirito? Do you not like fish?"

A sad smile on his face, Kirito faces Kizmel as he sets his fried fish on Asuna's plate. "No, I love fish,"

"Then why are you giving it all away?"

"Um…"

With a happy, fish-fed smile, Asuna answers for him. "Kirito did something bad, so he's paying for his crime."

"Oh... What did he do?"

"Well..."

"You see, I kind of invaded Asuna's personal space...er, meaning that I got a little too physically close for her comfort."

"I see... And what's your reason for not eating at all, Jaymes? Did you do the same to Koharu?"

Jaymes sighs as he glances at his plate, now under the ownership of Koharu. Too hungry to force a smile, he replies, "I made her worry, that's all."

"And don't forget you were flirting with some girl in the early hours of the morning."

At seven in the morning, Kirito and Jaymes were being punished severely. On Kirito's end, he woke up early to find his left hand had crossed the boundary set by Asuna, his left hand settled on her shoulder, and their legs intertwined. He could not do anything about her clinging to his body, so he resigned to his fate once Asuna woke up.

As for Jaymes, he happened to wake up a bit earlier than Kirito and couldn't return to sleep. Feeling restless, he decided to explore the castle on his own. He took a break in the courtyard when he received a message from Lisbeth. He didn't expect to have much conversation with her, but when he checked the time, he had been out longer than expected and missed more than one message from Koharu. At least she doesn't know of his late-night talk with Mito...

When both boys saw each other and their respective partner's scowls, they traded a silent message through their eyes. "We screwed up."

Kizmel couldn't directly sympathize with Jaymes' issue since she had never "flirted" before, but she did find some ground with Kirito. "It would seem that, compared to other dark elves, my persi…personal space…is rather narrow. Tilnel did like to cling to me, after all…We were practically joined at the hip when we were children, so I suppose I became used to the feeling. And this flirting thing, if that's what men and women do when they're trying to get the other's attention, Tilnel and her husband did it a lot back then."

It has been a while since Jaymes heard mention of Kizmel's sister and brother-in-law. Tilnel was a herbalist, while the other was a wolf handler. According to her, the two were killed by Forest Elves a month before she met Jaymes, Kirito, Koharu, and Asuna. That would have been around the time SAO launched. Ignoring that fact, Kizmel's memories may go back decades, knowing how long-lived elves are. However, he's used to such stories in games, serving the purpose of filling out a character's backstory and other details. There was no such person as Tilnel or the wolf handler, and they're artificial memories implanted into Kizmel to make her more relatable to players.

That's what Jaymes thought, but then Diavel died right before his eyes. Not that he was close to the blue knight, but he understood Kizmel's feelings.