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Sword Art Online: of Death Games and Diapers


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36 minutes ago, WriterForce6XV said:

If I lived on my own, I'd probably give it a shot. But I live with family members who don't know about the kink, and it's a small house, so they can hear what I'm saying more easily than I'm comfortable with. Appreciate the thought, though!

Darn, I worried that might be the case. The only thing I could do to help is offer my services to help you edit your works, but regardless of whether you do your own editing or not, you've already got that down pat.

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2 hours ago, Stanley79 said:

I like the friendships developing gradually with some bumps in the path.

Thanks for the feedback! I like it when people tell me what specifically they like/dislike. Much more useful than typical vague statements of enjoyment. 😄

And yeah, the story's first two arcs are loosely based off of the first two floors of SAO Progressive (specifically, the manga), so the character and relationship progression is slower since Progressive's aim is to go through all 100 floors with no timeskips. Though after the first two arcs, I'll be doing a minor timeskip to floor 25 (it's like around a third of a year, from early December to the end of March), because it's one of the more interesting floors in SAO from a lore standpoint and a bunch of major developments happen right after it's cleared.

Catch you when I update next!

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Yo, we’re back with another chapter! Sorry about the delay, had to deal with some shit the past few days. Hopefully I can get back on track now, though. Anyway, not gonna keep you reading this author note much longer. See you below!


Sword Art Online: Of Death Games and Diapers

Chapter Nine: Boss Battle, Part I


“Let’s win this thing. Come on, let’s go!”

With a short cry, Diavel pushed the doors open with all his might.

As the parties began their advance into the boss room, Kibaou stayed behind just long enough to growl something out to me as I passed him. “Listen up. Don’t get cocky. Know yer place.”

I didn’t even pay his words any attention. I was too busy analyzing the boss room for myself.

Was it always this vast?

Looking at the first floor boss room for the first time in many months, my first thought was not about getting into formation, or anything focused on the current situation. My first thought was to question myself and my memory.

“There he is…” Diavel breathed out as he momentarily halted his advance, gazing far out into the distance. I followed his line of sight and found myself face to face with the enemy we’d come here to defeat, all the way in the back, accompanied by his three goons.

One of the members in his party, who seemed even more rattled than Diavel, spoke aloud, “King of Kobolds, boss of the first floor… «Illfang, the Kobold Lord»!”

Since the 20th floor of the dungeon had already been mostly mapped out except for this room, its area could be estimated by looking at the blank area on the map. But even so, actually seeing it with my own eyes made it feel a lot larger than the numerical digits.

A room purposely designed spaciously in order to contain gigantic monsters inside.

With our advance halted at the moment, I almost wondered if we were going to issue a retreat order straight away on fear alone. We may have already been in the boss room, but in Aincrad’s boss rooms, the doors wouldn’t close even after the battle against the boss started. So even if events took a turn for the worse, we could retreat without having to wait for total annihilation. But if we just turned and dashed away, the enemy’s long-ranged Sword Skills would cover more ground than we could, and in the worst case, we’d be stunned.

“His main weapon is a «Bone Axe»! His backup is a «Talwar»! And he’s got three sentinels!” Diavel shouted, pointing his silvery sword right at Illfang’s throat as it got up from its throne and jumped to the center of the room in an instant. “It all matches the intel! We can win! Follow my lead!”

“Yeah!”

After riling up the raid team, Diavel led the charge, and the battle against the first floor boss truly began.


“All right! The boss is in pattern C!” Diavel shouted, pointing his sword at the boss. “Commence attack! Tank team A, pull back! Team D, advance!”

As Diavel’s men advanced on the boss, Asuna couldn’t help but stare in wonder when she got her first chance to rest. It was incredible. Even against this gigantic monster, with the threat of death hanging over their heads, they kept fighting, like it didn’t scare them at all.

They’re all… so tough.

“I told ya, drink that damn pot!” a familiar voice growled from behind Asuna, instinctively making her turn around. Kibaou was forcing a teammate whose health lie in the red to drink a potion. But a Kobold Sentinel was closing in on them already. “Hurry! Drink it faster!”

But tougher than anyone else

Asuna raised her rapier, preparing to strike the Kobold from behind. “S-swi…”

“Switch.”

Suddenly, before Asuna could even react, her partner flew by her and landed an intense combination of blows on the enemy’s exposed back so quickly the fencer couldn’t even follow the sword strikes with her eyes, only able to watch the red damage lines appear on its body after the fact. Two strikes, three, four, and then a casual stab through the back of its head as she turned around and went into her inventory and grabbed a potion of some sort, one that looked different from the kinds used to restore HP.

And all of that was without the system assist, using only her left sword…

‘Psssssssss…’

Asuna was so awestruck by her partner’s battle prowess that she didn’t even notice her bladder release, even as her diaper swelled and her crotch grew warmer.

Just as the swordswoman bit the cork off the potion to open it up, the upper half of the «Ruin Kobold Sentinel» exploded, and her sword quickly bounced back to her side as she walked back over to Asuna, seemingly unaware of how everyone in a fifteen meter radius of her had stopped to stare at her moves.

I thought she was probably strong already… Asuna thought to herself as she stared unabashed at the swordswoman walking towards her. But saying it like that doesn’t do it justice.

There was something about the way the dual-wielder fought, even with just one sword, that couldn’t be summed up by strength alone. Something that transcended measuring scales like power or speed, and felt as if it ascended into a higher dimension.

As a beginner who had never played a net game or been in a FullDive environment before, Asuna couldn’t put it into words. But if she had to try, it felt like everything was optimized. Every movement had a purpose; nothing was wasted. And as a result, her techniques were quick and her sword had serious weight, even with casual strikes.

One of the main things they had worked on while practicing party combat was efficiency. At the time, Asuna had wondered why her partner had seemed so concerned with it. It didn’t matter how you killed an enemy as long as it died and you didn’t, right?

Wrong, and now she understood why. Eliminating wasted movements created more time to act, and that time widened one’s view. These Sentinels were much stronger compared to the mobs she almost died to, but she could clearly see their each and every move.

“I told ya, don’t get cocky,” Kibaou growled at her partner as she casually drank her potion. He grabbed her on the shoulder to stop her from walking away, but she didn’t even bat an eyelash. “I’ve heard all about how ya stole all the «LA Bonuses» on the bosses in the beta. The tale of the «Dual-Bladed Demon».”

“…”

The dual-wielder didn’t even acknowledge his presence, much less reply, still drinking her potion. Was what he said true? What was a “LA Bonus?” And more importantly, what the heck was with that nickname…? It sounded like something an angsty child would come up with… and Asuna was expected to take his claims seriously?

Kibaou’s allegations continued. “I figure you’re after the Last Attack on this one too. But that ain’t—”

“Miss fencer? Watch out,” the swordswoman said, walking out of Kibaou’s death grip like it couldn’t even slow her down and nearly knocking him over in the process. “The next wave of Sentinels are a higher level. We’re up.”

“O-Okay!”

She’d have to ask her partner what Kibaou was talking about later… right now, they had more pressing matters to deal with.


“I’ve heard all about how ya stole all the Last Attack Bonuses on the bosses in the beta. The tale of the «Dual-Bladed Demon».”

When I first heard this, I almost choked on my stamina potion even if I outwardly remained composed. For someone like him to bring something like that up along with my most common beta epithet… what the hell was going on?!

LA. Last attack.

He didn’t lie, and he didn’t make that story up. In the beta, in battles against bosses, I prided myself on having a good grasp of the boss’s remaining HP to gauge when to use my strongest Sword Skills on the boss and get the LA bonus. But that story from the beta was just that— a story from the beta. In the current situation, it made no sense to prioritize the LA.

Not only did someone tell Kibaou I was a former beta tester, but that person even knew my playstyle. Which meant that I was almost certainly dealing with another former tester on the other end of Kibaou.

And then it hit me like lightning. Kibaou had been using the informant, Argo the «Rat», to attempt to buy both of my swords with a sum of money higher than their market rate. But even though I refused the offer, he didn’t spend the money on anything else. No, he couldn’t spend it.

The money wasn’t his to begin with.

The real buyer must’ve been someone else. And with Kibaou between Argo and them, no matter what I did, I wouldn’t have found out who the original buyer was. This person gave Kibaou beta information, manipulating him and inciting his hatred of the testers. Which meant that the buyer’s motive for buying my swords wasn’t to gain powerful weapons— it was to take mine away from me. They wanted to weaken me so I couldn’t properly use my skill at getting LA Bonuses.

Between Sentinel waves, I swallowed my pride and walked over to Kibaou, alone. He saw me and sent me a glare before I arrived, but still broke away from his party to confront me.

“Kibaou…” I called out in a low voice, just loud enough for him to hear over the clashing from the battle with the boss. “Whoever told you that story, how did they get that information on the beta test?”

Kibaou looked at me like I was an idiot for even asking. “Ain’t it obvious? They put up a grip of cash to buy the info from the Rat. All so’s they could sniff out the hyenas in the raid party.”

My retort was swift and severe. “Well then, they’re a liar, and you fell for it hook, line and sinker,” I said with an exasperated sigh. “Argo would sell her primary stats for the right price, but she doesn’t sell beta information on other players. Even to other testers.”

As I explained all of this, the look on Kibaou’s face became almost apoplectic. Which meant that whoever I just insulted must’ve been someone he held in high regard. In my head, that confirmed who it was straight away, but I’d still need to verify it myself.

“Watch yerself, girlie,” Kibaou finally told me before turning away to focus on the incoming wave of Sentinels. “Keep up talk like that, and it won’t just be monsters out fer yer life.”

After threatening me, he walked back to his group, and I walked back to Asuna. She looked at me with a quizzical stare. “What did you talk about?”

“I’ll explain after the next wave,” I replied, barely even paying attention.

Go over it one more time. Make sure it’s not a mistake.

In giving Kibaou the eighty thousand credits to buy off my swords, they intended to interfere with me getting the LA on the boss. But even though I still had my swords, their goal had more or less been achieved. As part of the raid’s extras, I could only deal with the Sentinels. I’d never get anywhere near the boss with them in the way.

Which meant that the identity of our mystery player would be someone with the intention of landing the LA themselves. If it weren’t, they wouldn’t have been willing to offer up such an ungodly sum of money in order to buy my weapons from me. Not only are they not worth that much, but that’s too much money spent if the intention was just to weaken me out of spite. And being able to LA the boss themselves would more or less make them break even.

It wasn’t a mistake. It can’t be anyone else… I thought, eyes finding their way to the cause of it all. His back faced me. He and his team drew closer to the boss as the last of its third HP gauge disappeared.

As its health dipped into the final gauge, it tossed its Bone Axe aside and reached for its second weapon. Right on cue, the person aiming for the LA shouted out. “Yes! He dropped the axe! We’re nearly there!”

Diavel…

“Here comes his secondary weapon, the Talwar!” the knight shouted, completely unaware he’d just been found out. “Everyone remember what to do? The basic’s the same, deflect the weapon, hit his throat!”

You’d really go this far…?

“The next strike will finish this! Team C, up front!” our leader shouted, he and his team closing in.

Just as he finished saying that, Illfang grabbed the hilt of his secondary weapon. As it drew it and held it high over its head, I immediately noticed something wrong. This boss king and the Kobold king I knew were slightly different. It wasn’t the color, size, face or voice. The source of the murky feeling growing in the pit of my stomach wasn’t from its body, but rather, the weapon in its right hand.

“Do you know what a Talwar looks like…?” I asked Asuna, instinctively drawing my second sword.

“Huh? Isn’t that a kind of sword…” As she looked at its weapon herself, the realization dawned on her, too. Then, the horror began to set in. “From south Asia…?”

I immediately started advancing, shouting at the top of my lungs. “No! Get back!

“Hey, not so fast!” a familiar voice called out as a sword put itself in my way. With my movements momentarily halted, Kibaou used his chance to close the distance and block me. “You that desperate for the LA? It belongs to sir Diavel, punk! No interferin’ now!”

I shouted back twice as loud, getting right up in his face. “Don’t be crazy! You have to stop them! His backup weapon is a Katana! That Kobold Lord is different from the beta!

Even Kibaou couldn’t help but soften his glare upon hearing that. He looked between me and the boss for a second or two, before the horror set in for him, too. “It’s… different?”

Diaveeeel!” I cried, desperate for my words to reach him. “Get awaaaaaay!

But the sound effects of Illfang’s Sword Skill drowned out my voice.

The Kobold king’s huge body shook the floor as it jumped high into the air. It turned its body in midair, building up power and momentum before falling down with a flash of crimson light. A horizontal, three hundred sixty degree spinning attack.

The starter, AoE Katana skill, «Tsumujiguruma», one of the strongest starting skills in the game.

Five vivid red lights appeared, looking almost like pillars of blood.

Though it was an AoE skill, it had a lot of stopping power. And the terror didn’t quite end there. Yellow lights rotated around the heads of the five people who collapsed on the floor. A temporary state that kept you from moving for a few seconds. They’d all been stunned except for Diavel, who’d blocked the attack with his shield.

I forced my way past Kibaou in an instant and made a mad dash for the boss, Asuna following close behind me. But of course, we weren’t fast enough. It began charging a follow-up attack aimed at one of Diavel’s men.

Is this the end?

But as the katana— no, the «Nodachi» came down for the stunned player’s head, Diavel rushed in and blocked the combo with his shield again. Even though he blocked it, he still took damage from the attack, and it put him in the yellow.

Do our hopes of clearing the game end here?

Asuna and I passed the tank parties with ease, running as fast as we could. I made a gesture toward the boss with my right sword and shouted, “Hurry up, tanks! He’s gonna attack again! Get team C out of there before they’re wiped out!”

Agil of team B responded, he and his party starting to follow us to the boss. “We’re on it!” he shouted as a Kobold Sentinel got between us and the boss. “But what about you? Your equipment’s too light to—”

“We’ll draw him away!” Asuna and I shouted in sync.

As we ran towards the boss, Asuna and I both attacked the Sentinel at the same time, me with a full-powered «Slant» that broke its weapon in two to stun it and Asuna hitting it in the throat with «Linear». We didn’t even slow down long enough to see if we depleted its HP, but I heard a shattering SFX from behind a few moments later.

As we neared the boss, Diavel looked back at us, and I finally got a good look at his eyes from close up.

I… recognize those eyes.

His name and appearance had completely changed, but that look in his eyes was the same. We’d previously met face to face in the other Aincrad; I might’ve even talked to him at some point. He was an original beta tester, just like me. And like me, he’d fought while trying to hide that until today. But since he had made close friends while hiding his past, he must’ve faced a pressure far more intense than mine.

As he turned back to the boss and blocked another attack with his shield, Diavel shouted out. “Good! Deflect his weapon! I’ll strike his throat!”

But it was precisely because he had the knowledge of an original tester that he made such a fatal mistake.

“This should do it!” he shouted, putting his sword in the pre-motion for a Sword Skill.

I shouted as fast as I could. “No, Diavel! Focus on defense! Diavel!!

As Diavel’s skill continued charging, Illfang started one as well. But Illfang’s skill would activate first. Katana skills charged faster than one-handed sword skills. A low, sweeping skill that had enough range to not only hit Diavel, but also hit Asuna and I at this distance.

“Don’t start your skill motion!” I shouted, realizing I might be too late immediately afterwards. “Diavel!

Illfang’s skill activated and sent his Nodachi straight at Diavel’s head right before our leader’s skill finished charging. I grabbed Asuna by the shoulders and pulled her right down to the ground just as Illfang’s skill deftly slid past Diavel’s shield and cleaved his head in two while catching Diavel’s sword with its mouth.

Illfang’s skill just barely missed us, the long blade sailing right over our heads. But I could only watch in horror as Diavel’s mutilated head struggled to say something with his mouth, the only part that hadn’t been cut off.

“Take it…” came his strangled, desperate cry as his left arm reached out to point at me. “from here—”

He couldn’t finish what he was saying.

His avatar shattered before he even got a chance.


Yup, Diavel is dead, as expected. I could have written it in such a way that he’d live a bit longer, but I’ve done that in SFW stories already so I didn’t feel like doing it again.

Also, I think I’ve finally figured out how to write without aggravating my Carpal Tunnel too much. So looks like I’ll be writing at full speed for some time yet.

Anyway, back to chapter fifteen. Feel free to comment/critique and see you next time!

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Allow me to say, it's odd for me to switch sites on which I'm critiquing but then I realized the first time I really went through your stories, it was here.

 

So why not just change that back up and show my support here again, I'll say this it was a great Ninth Chapter (I honestly didn't expect Diavel to survive him not surviving is a rather pivotal plot point that can change just about everything to some degree if he does.)

But you did set it up in a way where it still made me think "Oh, maybe he'll survive this time." and very many kudos to that, everything else is generally well written and I don't have much to comment on but the usual "It's good." and to keep up the work, I'm also glad you found a solution to the Carpal Tunnel.

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2 hours ago, Kiriko said:

Allow me to say, it's odd for me to switch sites on which I'm critiquing but then I realized the first time I really went through your stories, it was here.

 

So why not just change that back up and show my support here again, I'll say this it was a great Ninth Chapter (I honestly didn't expect Diavel to survive him not surviving is a rather pivotal plot point that can change just about everything to some degree if he does.)

But you did set it up in a way where it still made me think "Oh, maybe he'll survive this time." and very many kudos to that, everything else is generally well written and I don't have much to comment on but the usual "It's good." and to keep up the work, I'm also glad you found a solution to the Carpal Tunnel.

Ancient history, lol. You been commenting on my stuff for a while, I can barely keep track anymore. 😛

Actually though, I have written a fic where he does survive past the first raid. It can change things quite a bit, but I didn't really feel like doing it again. It complicates things quite a bit, especially if you try to keep him alive through the entire Aincrad arc. Which is why even in the fic where I kept him alive through the raid, I ended up killing him off a dozen or so chapters later, and using him as a plot device and footnote in the ascendance of that story's Kiriko along with her main rival.

As for why my story made Diavel's survival seem like a possibility. Aside from the above actual experience writing fics where he survives, I tend to utilize a fair amount of subversive writing elements when I play along with canon plot threads, the main reason being that half of such threads are stupid enough to warrant eradicating, but I don't like to let people know which ones I feel like axing in any given story. If someone knows me well enough they'd be able to figure a lot of them out on their own, but that only really applies to a few specific friends of mine online, one of which is also my editor.

Thanks for the feedback and sorry it took so long to respond! Catch you next time!

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So, this is the second to last chapter of the floor one arc. Who here is ready to move on to floor two? Because I am. 😛

Anyway, not much else to say. Catch you at the bottom!


Sword Art Online: Of Death Games and Diapers

Chapter Ten: Boss Battle, Part II


“Take it…” came his strangled, desperate cry as his left arm reached out to point at me. “from here—”

He couldn’t finish what he was saying.

His avatar shattered before he even got a chance.


As Asuna stood back up behind her partner, the boss charging yet another Sword Skill, the black-haired girl held out her right sword in front of Asuna, as if to halt her from taking part.

“Please… miss fencer,” she forced out in desperation. “You gotta retreat, even if it’s just you…”

Don’t…

Asuna clenched her teeth in frustration. This whole situation… was almost like another nightmare. Diavel died. Her partner was treating her like nothing more than a hindrance. She was…

Now!!

As the boss’s skill launched, the dual-wielder deftly parried each strike with her swords, matching blow for blow without even relying on the system assist. Once again, it was a dance of blades so fast, Asuna couldn’t even follow the strikes. Asuna could only see flashes of movement from moment to moment as her partner’s swords clashed with the boss’s massive katana, cancelling out the damage of every hit by parrying at the perfect moment in a rhythmic, steady stream of blows.

Don’t just leave me behind!

But then, finally, the swordswoman’s hard work at cancelling out every attack created an opening. Asuna didn’t hesitate for even an instant before unleashing a lightning-quick «Linear» through the boss’s throat, sending it reeling backwards.

“Don’t try to hog all the glory.” Asuna’s riposte was low in volume, but still firm and resolute. “We’re partners.”

They locked eyes for the faintest of moments. Asuna tried her best to stare down those violet irises with grit and determination, but underneath it all, she was scared. So scared, she couldn’t stop her rapier from trembling ever so slightly. But it had almost nothing to do with the enemy they were confronting.

I won’t be left behind!

Her fear wasn’t of the boss, or the thought of dying. Rather, just like the swordswoman had said at the first boss meeting, she didn’t want to get left behind the frontier. On this grand stage known as the frontlines of Aincrad, the thought of being reduced to the point of irrelevancy in clearing SAO to return to reality scared her more than anything else. And seeing her partner’s swords move so quickly she couldn’t even see them only made it worse.

But those violet eyes seemed to accept this and take her at her word. “… Okay. Let’s do this,” she said, before turning back to Agil’s team and shouting a command. “Team B, escort C to the safe zone!”

“Got it!”

As the boss recovered from its stun, its blade came sailing down at their heads, but the dual-wielder effortlessly deflected the blow with her right sword, then hit it in the stomach with a quick stab from her left. Its katana came in from the side, and she parried it with her left and stabbed its stomach with her right. It made a strike from the right, and she blocked it again, then tore into its stomach with a Sword Skill, sending it reeling again.

Sensing her chance, Asuna tore its chest and throat with an instant «Linear» from the side.

I can keep up with this! Asuna thought, feeling the restrictions of her human mind fade away as the strikes made by her partner and the boss became clearer and clearer. She won’t have to leave me in the dust!

As this three-member dance of blades continued, more and more people stared on in awe, rather than fear. Asuna began hearing words of encouragement from nearby members of the raid, as much as she tried to stay focused on the boss.

“No way…”

The dual-wielder blocked a horizontal slash aimed at their waists before shaving away at its health again with a quick, slanted skill to the gut. Asuna capitalized on the opening created even faster than before, hitting it through the jaw with another Linear.

“That cloaked princess is actually pretty good! Plus…”

Illfang used a skill from overhead, this time aiming for Asuna. Her partner deflected it with an uppercut skill using her left sword, cancelling it out and forcing the boss back just long enough for Asuna to hit it through the chest with another Linear, right through its heart. Its HP bar was losing a few pixels with every blow they landed, getting closer and closer to running out completely.

“Is it just me…”

The boss attacked with a horizontal sweep from the left, and the dual-wielder blocked it with a horizontal skill from her left sword before using the momentum to transition into a slanted skill through the boss’s abdomen with her right. Capitalizing on Illfang’s stagger once again, Asuna pierced through its snout again with Linear.

“Or is that black-haired princess…”

The last of its final HP bar starting to run dangerously low, the Kobold king unleashed a flurry of blows with reckless abandon, some aimed at Asuna and some at her partner, but the dual-wielder parried every single attack. But unlike when it did this the first time, Asuna could clearly see the trajectory of both their moves. The moment the tiniest of openings presented itself, she struck the boss with a Linear through the chest again, the impact forcing the boss a few meters back and giving the partners a chance to rest.

“Cancelling out all the boss’s attacks and Sword Skills?”

Asuna and her partner stood almost back to back, swords at the ready for when the boss recovered. Their efforts were paying off, but it was still exhausting. Asuna’s body felt like it was screaming at her from the exertion, and she wasn’t even the one doing most of the work. But her partner didn’t seem any more exhausted than she was, despite having to handle two swords at once…

“Wow! Maybe we can actually win this…!”

I’ve got to catch up to her! I can’t just settle for second place!

Kibaou’s shouting broke Asuna out of her thoughts just as the boss recovered. “Ya idiot! If Linear was a strong enough skill to do real damage, we wouldn’t be havin’ this much trouble! We’re gonna hit our limit real soon!”

Illfang moved in for another overhead slashing skill, and her partner moved to block it with her right sword. But then, their good fortune ran out. The boss’s skill switched to an uppercut slash from below, and even though the dual-wielder had her left sword in position to block it, she still took some damage and got sent flying backwards.

And as Asuna saw her partner fly through the air, Illfang’s skill continued, coming down for the fencer’s head from above. She noticed just in time to look on helplessly as the boss’s «Nodachi» closed in, unable to react in time to dodge it from this range. Her eyes instinctively closed a moment before the impact, hoping for a quick, painless death.

‘Pfffffloorrbbrtt’

‘Clang!’

As the entire boss room trembled from a sudden impact right next to her, Asuna herself trembled for a very different reason. She had spent days trying to avoid the inevitable, and it seemed this moment was her reckoning.

She just wished she didn’t have to die while helplessly pooping her diaper…

But death didn’t come for her. She opened her eyes a moment later, only to find Agil of team B, blocking the katana that would’ve ended her with his massive battle axe. He looked down at her as she continued uncontrollably soiling herself, his entire body shaking as he resisted Illfang’s blade with all his might.

“I can’t let… a damage dealer play the tank role! Go on!” he grunted out, starting to force Illfang back by himself. “Anyone in team B with HP in the green, step up!”

As soon as Asuna finished, she made a mad dash for her partner, materializing a potion from her inventory just as the dual-wielder tried to sit up, HP just barely in the yellow. The fencer slid to a stop sitting right next to her party member and almost shoved the potion down her throat, and then nearly felt ready to vomit as she realized the maneuver she just did made the mess squish against the seat of her diaper.

The swordswoman gulped the potion down as quickly as possible before taking it out of her mouth and shouting, “Don’t surround him! He has an omnidirectional spin attack! Focus on defense, not answering his Sword Skills!”

“Got it!”

A savage bellow from the men in team B reverberated through the boss room, ending when the Kobold king roared in irritation. As Asuna helped her partner try to get up, she heard some of the members of the raid start talking, voices uneasy.

“Hey, do you think we should withdraw for a bit…?” one of Kibaou’s men asked, voice quivering.

Another from the same direction rejoindered. “But look how hard they’re fighting! We can’t back out now and let them die!”

“Idiots! They’re only after the Last Attack Bonus!” Kibaou shouted, before flipping the bird in the direction of Asuna and her partner. “Git yer asses outta here! We ain’t gotta indulge their greed!”

This retort set off a chain reaction of selfishness and anger among other members of the raid. People shouted in affirmation of Kibaou’s words, saying things like, “If they wanna die, let ‘em die!” and the even more reprehensible, “If they were really worth trusting, Diavel wouldn’t have died!”

The situation would get worse and worse if things played out like this for much longer. Asuna took a deep breath, steeling her nerves to do what needed to be done.

“Just tell me one thing…” she said, just loud enough that only her partner could hear. “Can you see through his Sword Skills?”

“… Yes.”

The raid members’ antagonistic attitudes only ramped up from there. Soon, they would pass the event horizon for being able to defeat the boss. The crowd was feeding off its own negative energy to get worse and worse.

“I’m not stickin’ around just to get killed!”

Asuna slowly rose to her feet.

“I’m not dying here, not over this bullshit!

“All right,” the fencer replied, preparing to pass by her own event horizon.

“Y-yeah, don’t get me involved in this shit!”

As Asuna grabbed her cape, her partner called out from below. “Um… miss fencer?”

But Asuna didn’t answer. She didn’t even give herself the time to second guess what she intended to do. In one sweeping motion, Asuna ripped her cloak off and shouted at the top of her lungs, louder than anything else in the boss room.

All eyes up here!!

In an instant, Asuna felt the eyes of every player in the room gravitate towards her. But she didn’t stop. She adjusted her volume down now that she had everyone’s attention, but nevertheless continued, past the point of no return.

“I will now relay the final order… of Diavel the knight!” she shouted, knowing full well her words might drag her name through the mud. “He said, ‘Defeat the boss!’”

To accentuate her words, she pointed back at the boss team B was working so hard to keep at bay. Then… “And one more thing. Our next leader…!”

She raised her rapier and held it flat over the shoulder of her kneeling partner.

“Wha…?” The dual-wielder looked up at her, visage reflecting a subtle unease that betrayed her words.

Too late to back out now. But her partner could handle the pressure… right? “… Is her!

The swordswoman’s eyes dimmed just a bit, in that moment. Asuna already felt kinda bad, potentially forcing her partner into a position she wasn’t ready for… but she did it to try and save the raid from defeat. Even though it was looking like she failed. The whole room continued to stand in silence. No one knew how to react. But then…

“I heard it too!” a familiar baritone voice shouted out words of unexpected affirmation. Asuna turned to face Agil, looking back at the rest of the raid. “Plus, she recognizes the boss’s skills! If you trust Diavel, follow this girl’s orders!”

The other members of the raid, now snapped out of their stupor, gradually came around.

“Well, if he says so…”

“I guess…”

“Fine, let’s hang in there!”

And just like that, everyone whipped back into action. As everyone began collaborating to get the raid back on track toward victory, Asuna helped her partner back to her feet.

“All right,” the fencer said. “Give the orders, leader knight.”

The dual-wielder chuckled dryly. “You make a very good partner, princess.”


“Team B!” I shouted, my left sword pointing at the boss. “Area attack coming!!”

“Got it!” Agil shouted as his men moved to intercept and block it.

I continued with my commands without a moment to waste. “Team D, pull back! Draw Sentinels away from B!”

“Right!”

“Team A, time your recovery to its patterns!” I shouted another command, feeling the crushing weight of knowing that people’s lives depended on my ability to lead them nearly overwhelm me with every moment. “We’re almost there! Let’s show that GM bastard what we’re made of!”

“In your face, GM!” Everyone in the raid joined in on this chant.

I sighed. Leading people when lives were at stake exhausted me. Gave me a whole new sense of respect for how effortless Diavel made it appear, in spite of the burden he carried as an original tester. But the way things had just played out would allow me a moment’s reprieve to check on the rear line.

I scanned the area behind me, only to find… no one there. I scanned the entire boss room just in time to see that Kibaou’s team had moved dangerously close to the boss, from the worst possible angle. If one of his men moved too far backwards, the boss would be fully surrounded, and it’d go for…

“Kibaou! Get team E back!” I cried in desperation. But even as I said this, I realized…

It was already too late.

.One of his men dodged a strike from a Sentinel by hopping backwards, before either me or Kibaou had time to do anything about it. That was all it took for the boss to sense it was surrounded.It roared in exceptionally ferocious fashion, crouching down to the ground and shaking the entire area with its jump once again, its body and Nodachi revolving during the jump as its skill built up power.

No you don’t!

But I wouldn’t let it launch a second «Tsumujiguruma» while I ran the show. Forgetting the condition of my HP bar, I ran at the boss as fast as I possibly could, positioning my mainhand sword on my left shoulder and kicked off the ground as hard as I could. An acceleration that shouldn’t have been possible with my AGI assaulted my spine, and my body flew into the air as if shot by a gun, empowered by the dash-type Sword Skill «Sonic Leap». Its range wasn’t ideal, but it could be aimed into the air to make up for it.

My left sword suddenly shone with a yellowish green light. In its path was Illfang, at the apex of its jump with katana glowing a deep crimson.

“Not on my watch—!”

With a shout, I stretched my left arm to its limit and swung my sword. The point of my precious «Anneal Blade» drew a spectacular green crescent through the air as it raced to interrupt the boss’s Sword Skill.

‘Schunk!’

A sharp, heavy slashing sound rang out. The intense red light effects showing I’d hit it a critical weak spot, the diamond-shaped pattern on its stomach, flashed before my eyes. In the next moment, the Kobold king’s huge body flew sideways through the sky, crashing into the ground before the tornado of its special attack could even form.

It released a short cry as it tried to stand up, but its arms and legs quivered beneath its own weight. My attack had landed it with a bad status that affected humanoid mobs when they fell down from a great height, the «Tumble» state. It wouldn’t be getting up for another few seconds.

As I landed, I turned to face Illfang and gestured at it with my left sword. “Everyone, all out attack! Put it in the grave!”

Agil’s teammates cried out, as if releasing the anger they’d accumulated by being its punching bag until now. Surrounding the fallen king along with, they all activated their vertical Sword Skills at the same time, trying to keep it down as long as possible by slashing down at it. Axes, maces and hammers of all different colors rained down on its huge body without pause. A cacophony of bright lights and loud sound effects rang out in unison, and Illfang’s HP continued steadily decreasing, bit by bit.

This was a big gamble. If we depleted the last of its HP before it got up, we won. If it recovered from the Tumble status first, it would just use Tsumujiguruma again, and it would cut down Agil’s entire team, the backbone of this raid. And with my Sonic Leap on cooldown, I wouldn’t be able to stop it from midair a second time.

Agil’s group finished recovering from the post-motion delay of their techniques and began the pre-motions for their next skills. But at the same time, Illfang stopped struggling, and its body started to rise.

We won’t make it!

A split second glance around me revealed that Asuna had shown up next to me again while the boss distracted me. I shouted to her in desperation, immediately realizing that this would be the raid’s deciding moment.

“Asuna!” I shouted, rushing to the boss without a moment’s delay. “Let’s go!”

“Understood!”

Her upbeat affirmation caught me off guard as she caught up to my sprint. I semi-consciously raised one cheek up with a half-smile. The weapons of Agil’s party thrummed simultaneously once more, swallowing Illfang’s giant body in a swirl of light effects. But before the lights even faded, the boss roared as it forced its way up into a stand. Its final HP gauge had under three percent left, those last few pixels shining a brilliant red.

“If we can just be faster than the boss…” I growled without even thinking as I started my skill pre-motion. “For one instant!”

Agil and his teammates were stuck in their post-motion delay, unable to move, and for all that trouble Illfang had neither been stunned nor knocked back. It smoothly entered its jump motion, unhindered by the tanks’ meager offering of offensive pressure.

Asuna struck first, piercing through the boss’s heart with a guaranteed critical hit Linear. Not a split second later, my left sword repeated the gesture with the dash-type «Rage Spike», piercing through the center of its stomach for a second certain crit. The force of my dash-type skill being launched from point blank into a crit spot sending Illfang flying backwards, in spite of the skill’s low firepower.

“One more time!” I shouted without wasting a second. “We can win!”

We dashed toward the boss again, and it recovered just in time to send a diagonal skill our way. Recognizing the skill before it launched, I deflected an upward, right-handed «Slant». Asuna seized the moment with a Linear that went clean through the boss’s left flank and sent her right past it.

And an instant later, without stopping to wait for my post-motion delay, my left sword shone with a bright blue light as it slashed from the Kobold king’s left shoulder to its stomach.

Its fourth and final HP gauge… had only a single red dot left.

It felt like the demi-human smirked in that instant, as it swung its katana around to attack Asuna, not even paying attention to the sword still lodged in its stomach. In turn, I smirked as well as I went with the flow, turning with the boss and rapidly readjusting my wrist.

What are you looking at? Don’t be making bedroom eyes… I thought as my blade continued moving. At our princess!

I swung my sword back up as hard as I could. My mainhand blade, nicked here and there after such a fierce battle, drew a V-shaped trajectory with the earlier slash as it forced its way through Illfang’s right shoulder. The first one-handed sword multi-hit skill, «Vertical Arc».

As my sword sprung back to my side, the Kobold king’s gigantic frame suddenly lost its strength and staggered backwards. Its wolflike face looked up at the ceiling as it gave a thin and high howl. Its body began cracking apart, each new crevice resounding with a snap and crackle.

Both its hands went slack, its Nodachi falling to the floor. Then, finally, the body of Aincrad’s first floor boss, «Illfang the Kobold Lord», shattered into millions of fragments and scattered in all directions in an explosion of vibrant color.

As I nearly collapsed under the weight of my own victory, the purple system message [You got the Last Attack!] silently flashed before my eyes.


I dunno if anyone noticed, but this story’s Illfang is stronger than the canon one. Can take a bunch more hits and hits a bit harder. Might be indicative of something, don’t you think? :3

Anyway, I’m gonna get started on chapter sixteen. Catch you next time!

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God dammit you picked the hardest difficulty at the start of the game, goooooosh that's like totally a showoff thing to do...

Nah but I kinda caught on by how Asuna was struggling with earlier mobs that the Game had more of a difficulty curve to it then the actual SAO stuff took more time to kill etc, Illfang sorta just blatantly spelled it out the the Bosses are gonna be vastly more difficult and aren't gonna be the easy Tank and Spanks (Albeit the Infamous Floor 25 fight of nearly the entire raid party dying will be interesting to see play out with this in mind, but that's really far off and implies some sort of timeskip won't go over it.)

Great chapter look forward to more.

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24 minutes ago, Kiriko said:

God dammit you picked the hardest difficulty at the start of the game, goooooosh that's like totally a showoff thing to do...

Nah but I kinda caught on by how Asuna was struggling with earlier mobs that the Game had more of a difficulty curve to it then the actual SAO stuff took more time to kill etc, Illfang sorta just blatantly spelled it out the the Bosses are gonna be vastly more difficult and aren't gonna be the easy Tank and Spanks (Albeit the Infamous Floor 25 fight of nearly the entire raid party dying will be interesting to see play out with this in mind, but that's really far off and implies some sort of timeskip won't go over it.)

Great chapter look forward to more.

Well, for a variety of reasons, I decided that having scenarios where Kiriko/a given Unique Skill user can oneshot a floor boss, or even just beat it 1v1, in any context, was not a wise writing strategy. 😛

Actually, Asuna struggling with earlier mobs was largely because she had no idea how to properly fight and hadn't adapted enough to VR yet. Though in that respect, she's lucky she didn't die before Kiriko saved her, twice. And actually, Asuna improves both of these drawbacks mid-fight tag-teaming Illfang with Kiriko, which is why she's now in the same speed tier as Kiriko by the end (Asuna should be faster than Kiriko assuming equal level due to weapon type and stat point investment differences, so she's not quite at her full potential yet, tho). As for Illfang making the difference even clearer, well... just wait until we get to floors 25, 50, 74, 75, and every floor from 90 and up, lol.

Speaking of the floor 25 boss fight. So floor 25 in this fic is its own arc which will be timeskipped to after the floor two arc concludes, rather than past. And I might end up yeeting out the canon boss of that floor in favor of a harbinger of what's to come in the final ten floors. Same with the floor 50 boss. And I might end up modifying the Skullreaper boss of floor 75 to make it mesh with the other two I mentioned replacing. The Skullreaper is cool and imposing enough to warrant keeping in some capacity, but 25 and 50 were offscreened/timeskipped past so I have no attachment to them,

Anyway, thanks for the feedback! Catch you next chapter man!

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Yo! Finally, we have reached the last chapter of the floor one arc! Still going strong, and I recently picked up a new skill that you’ll see when I get around to posting chapter sixteen.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting this. Catch you down below!


Sword Art Online: Of Death Games and Diapers

Chapter Eleven: Beater


As my sword sprung back to my side, the Kobold king’s gigantic frame suddenly lost its strength and staggered backwards. Its wolflike face looked up at the ceiling as it gave a thin and high howl. Its body began cracking apart, each new crevice resounding with a snap and crackle.

Both its hands went slack, its Nodachi falling to the floor. Then, finally, the body of Aincrad’s first floor boss, «Illfang the Kobold Lord», shattered into millions of fragments and scattered in all directions in an explosion of vibrant color.

As I nearly collapsed under the weight of my own victory, the purple system message [You got the Last Attack!] silently flashed before my eyes.


As the boss dispersed, the remaining Sentinels all vanished with it. The hue of the shining torches in the wall changed from a gloomy orange to bright yellow. The dimness of the boss room lifted in an instant, and a cool draft blew throughout the room, washing away the heat of our hard-fought battle. Well… almost all of it.

I need to change out of this diaper… it’s soaked, and making me sweat.

No one wanted to break the silence that descended upon the room. Teams G and E remained standing further back, and the center groups A, C, D, and F knelt while waiting for recovery. And Agil’s team B, our last line of defense, stood around with blank, weary stares. It almost seemed as if everyone was afraid the terrifying, demi-human king would revive.

Even I stood still, swords at the ready to tear into anything that showed up. Is it… over? Or is there going to be another surprise, another difference from the beta?

A small, white hand gently touched my left arm, and I instinctively lowered my swords. I looked over at the arm’s owner and found Asuna, my partner. As her long chestnut hair waved in the breeze, she smiled at me.

With the removal of her hooded cape revealing her face and upper body, now that I got a good look at her… she didn’t look bad. Not really my type, but she looked good, and her gear definitely accentuated that look well. Good enough that a legitimate question that came to mind unfiltered was whether I was looking at the real appearance of another player.

She locked eyes with me and spoke after a few moments of silence. “… Good work. You pulled through.”

Finally, I fully understood. It was over. Finally, the biggest barrier keeping eight thousand players confined to the first floor had vanished. And as if the system had waited for me to make that realization, a new message window popped up. Experience gained, credits distributed, and finally, the loot. And for me, the last category showed what I’d gained for the Last Attack Bonus.

The faces of everyone around me finally returned to normal as soon as they received their own messages. A chorus of cheers broke through the silence. Some roared with their fists in the air. Some hugged their partners. Some put on absurd victory dances. Amidst the storm of celebration, one man moved through the crowd to approach me – the two-handed axe user, Agil.

“That was some splendid leadership. And your skill with those swords is nothing to laugh at, either,” he said with a wide grin. “Congratulations, this victory is yours.”

I couldn’t help but notice he said the word “congratulations” in English, with perfect intonation. He extended his fist. Without even thinking, I bumped it with my own, from my left hand.

“It wasn’t just me… I mostly gave out orders,” I denied his praise, smiling up at him. After the raid fell apart, a good portion of the last of the boss’s HP was downed by Asuna and the other damage-dealers, and the ones who took most of its attacks were Agil and the other tanks. It was an honest team effort. “You and the other tanks carried this battle as much as I did after—”

“Why?!”

The room fell silent once more at the angered shout. I tore my gaze away from Asuna and Agil to look at the man who Diavel saved right after it used its AoE skill. But as soon as he spoke again, I understood.

“Our leader… the man who should be receiving all this praise,” he continued, glaring me down. “Was Diavel, not this girl! Why did it have to be her? She let Diavel die!”

He finished his grieved shouting with an aggressive point in my direction. Clad in light armor and wielding a scimitar, he was a member of group C, someone who’d been the deceased knight’s comrade from the beginning. As I looked past him to the rest of his group, their faces spoke volumes more about how they took his death than their angry friend’s voice ever could.

As soon as he said that, the other raid members began mumbling in a chain reaction. I heard “now that you mention it…” thrown around a few times., along with someone saying “It wasn’t even in the strategy guide…”

One of the people in Kibaou’s team spoke up soon afterwards. “Good point… she knew how to avoid all the boss’s attacks. Why didn’t she tell Diavel?”

“Exactly…” the man next to him replied immediately afterwards. “If Diavel had known, he would’ve survived. What’s it mean?”

Before I even had the chance to respond to either of them, one more guy spoke from behind those two. “The «Last Attack Bonus».”

As soon as I heard that voice, I saw a face appear from behind the two he’d just “answered.” They’d begun glaring at me as soon as he said it. And unlike their grim faces, his had a smirk on it. A dangerous, malevolent smirk.

“You didn’t want Diavel to beat you to scoring the last attack on the boss,” he continued, his body and face still hidden by the other two players. “So you hid the truth of the boss’s Sword Skills to ensure Diavel would die. Do I have that about right? Beta tester!”

Upon hearing that spiel, the scimitar user and the other members of team C didn’t seem surprised at all. Diavel wouldn’t have told them if he was willing to lie to and manipulate Kibaou to achieve his goals. As a beta tester himself who wanted to hide it, he wouldn’t bring it up on his own. When I reacted to all of Illfang’s katana skills seen by no one on this floor before, they must’ve figured me out then.

The scimitar user’s face darkened. “Is that true? You let Diavel die… because you wanted the LA bonus? For that petty reason, Diavel had to be killed?!”

My eyes fell to the floor. I couldn’t just tell them their comrade and leader was a tester himself in this situation. I’d be dismissed and maybe even attacked without a second thought, and they’d never trust anything I said ever again. And even on top of all that, I didn’t want the blame to be tossed at testers in general instead of just me. Because I knew the next person they’d target right after me.

Argo.

And if the game loses trust in its best source of information…

“Wait!”

As I looked back up, Asuna shouted out, moving between me and them. “We also had all the info from the beta thanks to the strategy guide! We knew as much as they did,” she refuted, seemingly unaware of the position she’d just put herself in. “But we fell into a trap by assuming the boss would be the same as before, and she used knowledge from past that point to react effectively.”

Stop, Asuna…

She looked around, as if searching for someone. “Wouldn’t that be the obvious assumption?”

Don’t go any further.

“No, that’s not true. She must’ve been working with the informant,” the man hidden by his comrades responded almost immediately, grin widening as this all too predictable series of events played out. “They’re both beta testers conspiring to fool all of us. Spreading misinformation and trying to look friendly while keeping all the good stuff to themselves. It’s a terrifying combination.”

Despite his claims to the contrary, he didn’t seem scared at all. More to the point, that smirk made it seem like he planned for all of this. Wait… was this guy even there during the raid? The way he appeared out of nowhere bugged me, and I didn’t recognize what I saw of his face. He stood behind Kibaou’s team, but there were seven people there, including Kibaou. I did a quick headcount, and…

No. He wasn’t. He’s number forty-five of a forty-four person raid, I concluded as my eyes narrowed. We left the door open, so he must’ve snuck in partway through the battle.

“She’s not like that at all!” Asuna shouted, throwing a glare in many directions. She must’ve been trying to find him. “Who said that?! Show yourself!”

That was a line she never should’ve crossed. Because the moment she did, it played out just as I expected.

“Sounds to me like you’re on the testers’ side.”

Asuna’s anger would be seen as proof that she was taking the side of the beta testers, not everyone else. A distinction which she would be forced to pay a price for.

This is bad. A poisonous situation…

“Maybe you’re on the take, too…”

… Which would threaten the lives of hundreds if it’s unleashed.

In the current release of SAO, the price would be a target on her back from players who hated the beta testers like Kibaou, especially now that they thought Diavel died because of me. With the way this shitshow had progressed, we were one wrong turn away from them starting a witch hunt of all the testers and anyone who allied themselves with them.

“Yeah, why would you side with them if you weren’t?”

I had to do something. There had to be an answer to this problem. Something I could do to keep Asuna, Argo, and the surviving beta testers from being killed. Something to absolve them of blame and keep them from being targeted in the future. My eyes fell to the floor again as I wracked my brain, and as they did, I noticed the system message being displayed in the lower part of my vision. Acquired experience, Col, and items…

That’s it!

I figured it out the moment I noticed the name of the LA Bonus. This solution would stain my own name black as midnight, but in return, Asuna’s, Argo’s, and those of all the other testers would remain as bright as possible. I’d probably end up killed, but that didn’t matter. I’d do it to keep them safe.

Taking a step forward, I forced myself to cackle in an almost maniacal fashion. I waited until I felt the eyes of everyone else on me before starting to speak. “You’re kidding, right? She’s a total newb, you know. The only skill she knows is «Linear»! Did you even pay attention when we carried your asses at the end?”

Asuna turned back to me, looking hurt and confused. After everything we’d been through these past few days, it must’ve been a bit of a shock. But I kept going. If I wanted to sever the blame from her, I’d have to sever my ties with her, too.

“You can’t do this, miss fencer,” I told her with a smirk, sheathing both of my swords in one fluid motion. “Stick up for me like that, and people might think we’re partners.”

I looked her dead in the eye and gave her a cold, heartless sneer. “This is the problem with you ignorant little goody two-shoes types. It never even occurs to you… that someone might be using you.”

I turned away from her before I got the chance to see her react, then walked over to the scimitar user who started this whole shitshow. He glared back at me, but I didn’t even bother addressing him directly. One hand on my left hilt and he immediately averted his eyes.

“And shame on the rest of you. Beta tester? Informant?” I continued my rant while walking through the crowd, eyeing every angry face with an expression that said more than my words ever could. “Don’t treat me like those amateurs.”

As soon as I noticed a gap in the crowd around me, I drew my left sword and swung it with flourish before letting it rest on my shoulders. The people all around me flinched back, as if expecting me to attack them. Predictable, this clown show.

“Out of a thousand beta testers, how many do you think had functioning brains? They were all newbs who didn’t know how to level. Even you laughables are better than them.” I watched as more and more faces became angry with every word. “Not me. I’m the real deal. I got to floors no one else reached. I know things no one else knows. And as for information, I make the «Rat» look like a slouch.”

The person who pointed me out as a beta tester was the first to react. “What the hell? She’s a cheater…”

From all around us, multiple voices sprung up, one after another. I used my free hand to open my menu as the voices continued spewing out profanities at me, my sword hung limply at my side.

“Cheating bitch.” Rather predictably, this was the first thing I heard. Not very creative, this guy.

But at least he said something that fit his age. This next guy said something that made him look like a five year old. “You’re worse than a beta tester!”

“What could be worse than a cheater from the beta test?” This one was a fair question, though. Someone explore that question long enough to find an answer.

Finally, after a few seconds, someone came up with something just as I finished scrolling through my inventory. It made me sound like an abusive husband, but at least it made clear the role I’d chosen to take. “Beater…”

Hoisting my sword back over my shoulder just in time for the LA bonus I’d gotten, the long, black «Coat of Midnight», to flash onto my avatar, I laughed with a snide grin and looked around to meet the eyes of everyone here.

“A «Beater»! I like the sound of that! I’ll be claiming that title for myself…” I replied with a malevolent laugh. “Along with this Last Attack Bonus! I’m a Beater. Don’t you ever insult my abilities by calling me a former tester.”

This is fine.

With that, I started walking to the door up to floor two, the hateful eyes on my back assuring me of a job well done. After the stunt I just pulled, the four or five hundred remaining beta testers would be divided into two categories. The majority of “amateurs” I’d just mocked, and the remaining few “information-controlling Beaters” like me. As things stood, the hatred of the masses would be directed at the second group.

Now, other beta testers won’t face nearly as much heat as I do.

“I’ll go ahead and activate the gate to the second floor. Go back to town and stay put,” I said as I neared the steps up. I looked back at the scimitar-user again with a cold stare. “I saw plenty of folks like you in the beta. You go through the trouble to beat the boss… then get yourselves waxed by the first trash mobs you run across up there.”

The moment I turned my back to him, the scimitar user shouted out at me. “How dare you… apologize, damn you! Apologize to Diavel! Beater——!”


The scenic view of the second floor from the exit connecting it to the first looked just as I remembered it.

Unlike the complex, varying terrain of the first floor, the floor two was lined from end to end with plateaus. The flat mountaintops were covered in lush, green grass, populated mostly by gigantic oxlike monsters.

The second floor’s main town, «Urbus», was a city entirely excavated from one of the plateaus below. From this cliff the floor started on, if I descended down the stairs to my left, I’d only have about a kilometer’s distance to travel in order to reach the «Teleport Gate» in the central square of Urbus. The moment I touched it, it would activate, and link to the gate in the «Starting City» on the first floor.

But even if I died along the way, or just sat here and didn’t even try to activate it, the Teleport Gate would automatically activate two hours after the boss croaked. But then, the news the first raid party intended to challenge the boss today must’ve already reached the Starting City, so a lot of players were probably at the Teleport Gate there now, waiting for the moment the link would be established.

Knowing that, I probably should’ve hurried to activate it as soon as possible, but… for just a bit more, I wanted to enjoy the view. I took a few steps forward and sat down on the edge of the terrace from which the stairs led downwards. Extending from beyond the rocky plateaus, from the expanse of Aincrad’s periphery, a small sliver of blue sky could be seen.

As I gazed out into the distance, I felt a familiar twinge. Looked like I had to pee again. I’d already given my diaper a decent soaking, though. It wouldn’t leak, would it…? Well, only one way to find out…

Sssssshhhhhh…

After a few minutes taking in the view and sitting in a warm diaper which thankfully didn’t leak, I heard the quiet fall of footsteps climbing up the spiral staircase behind me. Without turning around, I heard the footsteps stop after their owner came out of the main door. With a faint sigh, they walked closer, then sat down beside me.

“I warned you about the level curve between floors…” I muttered with a sigh of my own.

She replied in a lighthearted tone. “You did, but I’m not afraid of dying. Not as long as we fight as a team.”

I glanced out of the corner of my eye to find Asuna sitting next to me, cringing for a moment or two. Did she… poop herself during the battle?

She smiled back at me when our eyes met, but otherwise said nothing for a minute or two, letting the moment continue in amicable silence. Then…

“Agil and Kibaou have messages for you,” she spoke up. “Agil says we should tackle the next boss together too. And Kibaou says… ‘Ya saved my ass this time, but I still can’t get along with ya. I’m gonna do things my own way to beat this game, y’hear?”

It took a concerted effort to keep myself from laughing as she tried to reproduce Kibaou’s Kansai dialect, but once she finished, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I gave a hearty laugh before getting a glare from the messenger.

“S-sorry,” I said between chuckles. “It’s just… you know you didn’t need to mimic his dialect in order to explain what he said, right?”

Her cheeks went red as she averted her eyes. “You didn’t have to laugh that hard…”

The silence continued for another minute or so before I decided to break it myself this time. “So… I should probably say this while I have the chance, but… I’m sor—”

“I’m sorry!”

Asuna spoke up and took the words right out of my mouth. I looked back over at her, only to find her bowing to me, as if she did me a great disservice. Though for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what.

“I stepped out of line back there…” she explained, a look of genuine guilt on her face. “And put extra burden on you.”

I waved my hands up to deny it without a second thought. “I dug that hole for myself. It’s not your fault. If anything, your speech helped get the boss fight back on track. We’d have failed without you,” I said with a somewhat forced smile.

I may not have liked being in the spotlight, but that wasn’t her fault, nor was it even her problem. As far as I was concerned, she did what needed to be done in order to salvage the raid. And that’s nothing to apologize about.

“I think you probably have the power… to unite the masses. That’s much more important than sword talent,” I continued, looking back out into the blue sky beyond the boundaries of this floating steel castle. “And it’s something I’ll never achieve myself. A very valuable strength.”

I said it before and I’d say it again, but if this shooting star didn’t burn up in the atmosphere, she’d dazzle the masses with her guiding light and become a beacon of hope. And hope was just what everyone in this death game needed.

“… So take it from me. If someone you trust invites you to a guild, don’t turn them down,” I said, knowing my time guiding this shooting star would end if she ever followed this advice. “There’s an absolute limit to what you can accomplish playing solo.”

She hesitated for a moment before replying. “For now… I’m not thinking about anything like that. I have a different goal. Not for the future, but something right in front of me.”

I looked over to find her smiling, eyes staring at the blue sky I’d just been looking at. “Oh? What is it?” I asked, wracking my brain for anything she might’ve been aiming for.

“It’s a secret. But I’ll give you a hint,” she said, looking back over to me with a warm smile. “You taught it to me. I’m grateful for that.”

Something I taught her…?

“Are you perhaps talking about… retraining your bathroom stats?” I couldn’t help but ask with a mischievous grin. Not a second later, I found myself face to face with a «Wind Fleuret» aimed at my throat, and I suppressed a chuckle. “Sorry, just kidding.”

 As Asuna sheathed her rapier with a sigh before changing the subject. “That reminds me. There’s something really important that you haven’t said. Or did you not notice?”

Not wanting to rock the boat any more than I already had, I simply replied, “What would that be?”

“Your name. You called out my name during the boss battle. And in the middle of the night a few days ago,” she said while pointing at me. “Maybe you bought it from Argo, but it’s not very fair to know mine when I don’t have yours.”

Wait, she didn’t notice this entire time? Really? I knew she was a newb, but to have never been in a party before this entire time was just…!

Before I could respond, her index finger lowered, and she crossed her arms, averting her eyes demurely. “Or maybe… I was just meant to be used, and wasn’t worth telling the truth.”

Oh come on, that kicked puppy look isn’t fair!

I tried my best to look like I wasn’t bothered before responding. “This is your first time in a party, I take it?” When she nodded, I used my right hand to point to the left of her face, where the gauge should be. “See my HP bar below yours over here? It should be written beneath it.”

She turned her face to get a better look, and I reflexively placed my fingers against her cheek. “Don’t turn your face, the readouts will move with it. Just shift your eyes.”

“Like this…?” She did as instructed, then I saw her eyes light up in recognition as she saw a string of characters that I couldn’t see. “Oh, so it was there the entire time. Ki… ri… ko. Kiriko?”

I nodded. “Yup, that’s it.”

After a few seconds, her whole body began trembling. It was at this point in the conversation that I finally realized that my palm was still held against her cheek. I removed my hand as fast as I could and averted my eyes, trying to ignore the fact I could still feel the warmth of her cheek on my palm.

Not a moment later, I heard a giggle. Well, laughing at me was better than trying to stab me like when we met in the labyrinth, I guess…

Once the laughter died down, she started speaking in a more relaxed tone. “Well, I said my piece and heard what I wanted to hear. I’ll be going back now.”

She got up and made moves for the door back down to the first floor. In response, I stood up myself and waved back at her with my left hand without turning around.

“So long, Asuna. I’m moving on,” I said as I began to descend the steps toward Urbus.

I felt her eyes on me for a second before she confidently replied. “Yeah. I’ll catch up to you soon.”

The moment the door connecting two floors opened up, however, I heard a startled, angry cry. And as the words registered, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Agil?! How long were you standing there?!” Oh god, to be a fly on the wall watching everything we just said… I wasn’t sure who I felt worse for, him or Asuna.

“Um, I didn’t want to… but the Rat says she needed to know!” the tank replied with a voice that sounded like he had a rapier aimed at his head. “She forced me to listen!”

“How much did you hear?!” Oh, right… I did talk about Asuna’s bathroom stats, didn’t I? And Agil would get paid for selling her out. This shit just wrote itself!

Agil’s reply sounded further away this time. Did he just try to run away from a speed-first fencer? That took guts, I’d give him that. “Aw, c’mon, have a heart!”

“Wha—?!” Asuna’s cry also sounded further away, which probably meant she gave chase. “Agil, get back here! Agil, how much are you going to sell it for?! I’ll pay double, just don’t tell her!”

At around this time, the door back to the boss room shut, and cut off the source my entertainment. Laughing just a bit as I continued descending the steps, I absently noted with a quick scan that the stone steps on this winding staircase numbered forty-eight on the dot. In other words, eight by six, the number of people in a full raid.

Which meant this staircase was designed to be used by an entire raid party at the same time and leave enough room for each player. With that in mind, it seemed reasonable to assume the devs never thought that the first time they’d be walked across in the official release would only be by a single player.

Descending these steps seemed like a prediction of my future. That no matter where or how far I went, I’d be by myself, always progressing alone. Not exactly a fairytale ending for me, but I didn’t particularly mind it, either.

But as I reached the landing at the very bottom, I found a small icon consisting of a sealed envelope at the lower right corner of my vision. A friend message. I only had two registered friends in the retail release – my first friend Klein, and the informant, Argo the Rat.

And judging by how much I’d been in contact with Klein since launch day, I knew even before opening which one it’d be. When I opened it up, my deduction was confirmed; it was a message from Argo.

“Sounds like I really put you through the wringer, Kii-boy.”

In response to these words, I had to stop myself from wondering aloud how the hell she found out so fast. Did Agil sell out Asuna after all? But if he did, how did he not get stabbed while typing that message out? But almost immediately after I thought that, some scrolling gave me something even crazier than that.

“I’ll make it up to by giving you one piece of information on anything at all, for free.”

This time, I couldn’t stop myself from shouting out my initial reaction. “Oh, hell yes!”

Without a second thought, I immediately opened up my holo-keyboard and typed up a reply on something I’d been wondering for the longest time.

“Why the whiskers?”

I hit the send button with a bright smile, then finally set foot on the soil of the second floor of Aincrad, beginning to walk to the walk in the direction of Urbus.


As the end of this chapter might’ve clued you in on, the beginning of floor two will be a special about why Argo wears whiskers. It has two parts, but I’m not sure if I want to post both of them at once or post one at a time. Think I might let my readers decide on that one.

On another note, I had to go back and revise the unpublished chapters from this one up to chapter sixteen to add a few lines here and there. I could’ve revised them even more heavily than I did, but I didn’t feel like doing that because the reason only became super problematic in chapter fifteen, which has already been heavily revised to fix it. But the issue is no longer present by chapter sixteen, so it’ll be fine from here on out.

Anyway, lemme know if you want a double release for the Argo special and I’ll catch you next time!

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There's a reason for the Whisker's but... Still remains a staying trait of Argo's even after that bit of fun. However are next obstacle is... very punchable. Not 100% sure if that's going to remain the reason (Even if technically Argo has them after that) or you are shooting us with something brand new.

Overall good chapter, to those that may be a tad confused on the whole 'Beater' part the best way to sum it up is in Progressive had Kiri not said anything etc and just justified himself (In this case herself) as a good player all of the fallout for Diavel's death and hell even the proceeding actions would end up on Argo's feet, she was even prepared for that to happen.

Kiri ultimately deducted that it could've been the death of the Clearing Team before Floor 2 and the negative effects on Argo if it escalated enough and decided to do the whole Beater thing even if it is uncharacteristic of their character to be such a person in the first place, they're a fair amount of people who don't even buy into it either see Agil.

This is a whole plot line that kinda got washed away in SAO's anime and thus makes zero sense when it happens.

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4 hours ago, Kiriko said:

There's a reason for the Whisker's but... Still remains a staying trait of Argo's even after that bit of fun. However are next obstacle is... very punchable. Not 100% sure if that's going to remain the reason (Even if technically Argo has them after that) or you are shooting us with something brand new.

Overall good chapter, to those that may be a tad confused on the whole 'Beater' part the best way to sum it up is in Progressive had Kiri not said anything etc and just justified himself (In this case herself) as a good player all of the fallout for Diavel's death and hell even the proceeding actions would end up on Argo's feet, she was even prepared for that to happen.

Kiri ultimately deducted that it could've been the death of the Clearing Team before Floor 2 and the negative effects on Argo if it escalated enough and decided to do the whole Beater thing even if it is uncharacteristic of their character to be such a person in the first place, they're a fair amount of people who don't even buy into it either see Agil.

This is a whole plot line that kinda got washed away in SAO's anime and thus makes zero sense when it happens.

The Argo special in this fic uses the same reason, but it does have one notable difference from canon at the end, by the way. I'm not spoiling it just yet, though.

Good job explaining the reasoning, I noticed after the fact that I didn't really explain it in detail in this chapter because it would've messed with the flow. That said...

Frankly, I'm somewhat conflicted about the fact I still used the Beater shit from Progressive volume one. On the one hand, it's a natural consequence of letting Diavel die, but on the other hand, the name Beater by no means sounds like an insult. It's actually a cool nickname in a setting like SAO, because it makes it sound like people with the nickname are beating the game. And on top of all that, when Kiriko pretends to like the nickname, the dumbasses in the assault team keep calling her by it anyway. Like, why? What possible reason could they have for supposedly giving Kiriko what she wants?

But in the end, I decided it made more sense to keep it in for a variety of reasons. It was just better not to rock the boat so much that later important, less terrible plot points don't become completely obsolete.

That aside, yeah, the anime didn't have the time to explain any of this stuff lol. The first season of the anime cut so much crap out that I'm kinda surprised it still even functions at all, even if just barely. Since I'm using a combination of Progressive's light novels and manga as a basis for the floor one and floor two arcs though, I'm not bound by that limitation, which makes the plot points work far better imo.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback! Catch you next chapter!

Edited by WriterForce6XV (see edit history)
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1 hour ago, Night Rain said:

It's nice to see that we've reached the end of both the first arc and the first floor. I look forward to see what's in store for everyone in both the second floor and the new arc that's about to begin.

Am quite excited for getting this far myself. My reserve is already well into the second floor, but my posted chapters only just now got there. And of course, after I finish with the second floor, I get to start doing my own thing for a bit on floor 25. Considering how difficult that floor is supposed to be, expect quite a lot of Suffering. 😛

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So I’ll be releasing the two parts of the Argo special separately. The DA poll I made about it had that option winning, and it also took me too long to finish chapter seventeen, so I can’t even imagine how much longer it’d take if I also waited until I’d finished eighteen.

Also, my idea to have an unposted reserve of chapters came in handy quite a bit. There was a decline in fetish content in the reserve as compared to chapters early on, and it really bugged me once a friend pointed it out. But Darksyn of Omorashi Org came in clutch and helped me come up with some more stuff to integrate here and there, resulting in quite a bit of improvement. Thanks for your help, Darksyn, you’re a legend!

Anyway, I won’t keep you on this note any longer. See you at the bottom!


Sword Art Online: Of Death Games and Diapers

Chapter Twelve: Intermission - The Reason for the Whiskers, Part I


«Urbus», the main settlement of Aincrad’s second floor, was a city carved into the flat top of a three hundred yard wide mountain, with only the outer perimeter left standing.

After I walked through the southern gate, a notification reading «Safe Haven» flashed up in front of me, and the sound of a slow-paced town BGM hit my ears. I found the wistful oboe chords of this town after a solid month of hearing the first floor’s strings-heavy town music to be a refreshing change of pace. The style of the clothes worn by the NPCs milling about differed as well, changing to a floaty, energetic one that highlighted the characteristic spring in their step. It took only a few seconds but the feeling was unmistakable; I’d reached a new floor.

About ten meters past the gate, a look around me didn’t find a single green player cursor. As it should be. I’d just defeated Illfang the Kobold Lord, boss of the first floor, not even an hour ago. And all the other raid members had turned back to the first floor rather than following me up to the second.

Which meant at this very moment, the only player on the floor would be me. Kiriko, former beta tester and «Beater».

It felt kinda luxurious to have the whole floor to myself, but it wouldn’t last very long. Two hours after the death of the floor boss, the teleport gate in the center of this city would autoactivate and link up with the gate on the floor below. As soon as it did, a flood of excited players would burst through the portal.

Though that does mean I can monopolize the floor for another hour and twenty minutes if I want.

With time like that on my hands, I could complete a few slaughter quests at least two or three times for EXP without having to deal with other players trying to steal my monster kills. It sounded tempting to a self-interested solo player, but I didn’t have the heart to hold out on the hundreds, maybe thousands of players below, waiting on the gate with bated breath.

I trotted through the main street of Urbus directly north, climbing a wide staircase to the open town center, which featured a large gate in the middle. Though it was less a gate, and more a standing stone arch with no door or fence connected to it. You’d have to stand right in front of it in order to realize that the space beneath gently rippled, like the surface of a pond when a dragonfly flew down and touched it.

Only after scanning the perimeter for a good escape route did I reach out to the shifting, transparent veil. My hand, gloved in fingerless black leather, brushed against the water-like surface.

The next moment, my vision lit up with an ethereal blue.

The light pulsed outwards in concentric circles until it completely filled the five meter wide arch. Once the entire space filled up, the activation completed, and this town opened up to the floor below. The exact same phenomenon must’ve happened at the same time on the first floor. The players would be preparing to dash through the portal, now that they realized they wouldn’t need to wait the full two hours.

But I didn’t wait to watch the show. I turned around and dashed for a churchlike building on the east end of the square, bursting through the door and jumping up the stairs inside. I found my way into a small room on the third floor and set my back against the wall next to a window so I could see down into the clearing.

The moment I looked out the window, the interior of the gate flashed, and the NPC musicians in the corner of the square began playing a bright and cheery “Opening Fanfare.” A moment later, countless players spilled out through the blue light in a chaotic jumble of colors.

Some stopped in the middle of the square and looked around. Some held parchment maps bought from information dealers and took off running. Some threw their hands in the air and shouted, “We made it to the second floor!”

A similar town opening had occurred many times in the SAO beta test, and every time, the raid members who’d beat the last floor’s boss lined up facing the new teleport gate, soaking in the applause and congratulatory remarks of those who teleported up to see the new floor.

But now, only I had stuck around to open the town, and I’d disappeared before anyone had the time to meet me. It seemed fitting after the way that boss battle went that this floor’s opening would have no grand, celebratory event. Perhaps those looking around the square were searching for me, but I wouldn’t be stepping forward to name myself, that much I could guarantee.

After we beat the boss less than an hour ago, I claimed myself to be no ordinary beta tester, but rather a Beater who’d ascended further than any of the nine hundred ninety-nine other testers. Someone who’d accumulated more information about the game than anyone else.

I didn’t do it to play the villain. I did it to keep the heat off of other testers, but the end result would be the same. Every high-level player in the game would know of my infamy in due time. Appearing in public wouldn’t provoke cheers, but rather ugly jeers and booing. Frankly, I didn’t care beyond whether I ended up dead, but that still meant I’d have to be careful about not getting seen in public.

Hence, the hiding out in the third floor of this chapel until the excitement in the town square subsided. But a few minutes in, just as I realized I needed to find a good time and place to change out of this soaked diaper…

That’s…

Something weird happened in the square just as my mind went back to the scene out the window. A short female player who traveled through the gate ran pell-mell straight for the west end of the square. She might’ve been rushing to find a weapon shop or a quest-giving NPC, but the real issues were the two men who showed up a second later. They stopped briefly and looked around for the retreating player, then raced after her.

In other words, the woman was being chased.

The safe area of town had an anti-crime code, so normally I’d pay no attention to something like that. But when the target was someone I knew, it was a different story. The brown curls, whisker marks and plain, brown leather armor were an unmistakable combination.

What did Argo get herself into this time…?

Of course, plenty of people hated her policy of selling almost any and all information, but if they were running around at that speed, something must’ve been up. I didn’t stop to think for long before putting a foot on the windowsill and hopping down onto the short roof below.

I dashed across the tiles and leapt onto the next roof over, putting my STR-AGI build to good use before anyone could spot me, and continued along the rooftops in the direction of the chase, a strat only possible at this level in a city with mostly uniform building heights like this. Though it took a concerted effort to keep up the pace while trying to keep my diaper from leaking or coming off at the same time.

Note to self, running in a soaked diaper is a pain in the ass.

As I ran, I waved a hand to call up my menu and clicked on the «Search» button in my Skills tab. When the submenu appeared, I selected «Tracking», entering Argo’s name into the field right before making another jump. A set of green footsteps appeared on the path below me.

Tracking. A skill mod for the Search skill once its proficiency rose at least to level fifty. Its basic purpose was increasing the efficiency of monster hunting, but you could also use it to track players on your friends list. I didn’t have many chances to grind this skill proficiency on floor one, so I could only see footsteps up to a minute old, give or take. I began racing even faster alongside the trail, trying to keep up before they vanished.

With the number of buildings starting to thin out, I hopped back to the ground next to the footsteps to follow more closely, but the hard landing hit the padding more than it did me, and I felt a bit of moisture press out before being reabsorbed, dangerously close to dripping out between my legs. I really wanted to change soon, but right now, finding Argo took priority.

If Argo, a pure AGI build player, couldn’t shake these two, then they were bad news. I didn’t recognize them from the boss raid, but they must’ve been on the level of the clearers anyway if their AGI could match pace with Argo’s. More to the point, the chase seemed to be heading straight down the westward route and through the town gate carved into the outer perimeter of the flat-top mountain in which Urbus was built.

The plains to the west of town were a dangerous zone populated with large cattle monsters. The situation was going downhill, fast. I bit my lip and jumped down to the ground before racing out into the virtual savanna.

The wasteland beyond the plains would even pose a threat to me. But thankfully, the footsteps in the grass grew brighter by the second, which meant Argo had slowed down and I was catching up. Eventually, I reached a small canyon between two rocky hills and heard a familiar voice.

“… told you a hundred times! I’m not sellin’ that info, no matter how much you offer!” That dialect and nasal inflection was a relief to hear, just this once. She sounded fiercer and angrier than I’d ever heard her before.

Not a second later, a furious man’s voice. “You do not intend to monopolize the information, but neither will you reveal it. One can only assume you seek to inflate the value!”

The hell is with that speech pattern? It’s prehistoric!

I slowed down and began to climb the rock face at the side of the canyon. Even the most forbidding terrain in SAO could be climbed with enough diligence and clever thinking. It likely wouldn’t happen for a while, but I’d always wanted to test the viability of scaling Aincrad’s outer wall to reach a higher floor in hopes of bypassing the labyrinths and bosses altogether. But for now, I had to climb to get into the enemy’s blindspot, for my own safety.

After around five meters, I reached a narrow flat space overlooking the canyon. I crawled forward on hands and knees as the shouting voices continued to ramp up in intensity from below.

“It has nothing to do with price!” Argo shouted in desperation from almost directly beneath me. “I’m saying I won’t sell something that only gets me hatred in return!”

“What quarrel would we have with you? As we said, we will pay the asking price and be grateful for your service!” the second man loudly responded. “Just sell us the information on this floor’s special quest that grants the Extra Skill!”

This floor has an Extra Skill? News to me…

My breath hitched for a moment. Extra Skills were hidden abilities which couldn’t be chosen without meeting special conditions. In the beta, only one got discovered: the «Meditation» skill. With it, assuming a pose of concentration increased HP recovery rate and decreased infliction time of negative status effects.

But of course, with its risky usage and uncool look, few bothered to use it. I had my suspicions that the «Katana» skill used by the Kobold lord and the samurai monsters of the tenth floor in the beta might be another Extra Skill, but how one unlocked it was beyond me. Maybe something relating to curved swords?

Of course, Argo and the two wannabe actors clearly weren’t talking about Meditation. The NPC that taught it resided in the sixth floor. This must’ve been about a hidden quest on floor two I didn’t even know about which unlocked an Extra Skill. The men’s voices grew louder as the argument continued.

“We’re not backing down— not today, you see!” the first man shouted.

The second man followed up immediately afterward. “That Extra Skill is necessary for us to complete our characters, you see!”

“You just don’t get it!” Argo wasn’t having any of it. “I’m not sellin’ it, end of story!”

I could feel the voltage of the tension in the air from all the way up here. I leapt to my feet on the rocky ledge and jumped down five meters to the ground below, gracefully landing right between Argo and her pursuers. I didn’t have the AGI to fall from that high without damage yet, so I tensed my knees to cushion the shock.

But apparently I didn’t land gracefully enough, because after the impact, I felt a minor splash of wetness in the crotch area from the impact. So much so that I felt a tiny drip or two of moisture escape the leak guards of my diaper and roll down my leg as I stood up. Hopefully no one would notice…

The first one shouted out in shock. “Who goes there?!”

“A spy from an enemy clan?!” his friend called out soon after.

One glance at their outfits from close up and I already remembered who they were. That full-body dark gray cloth armor, the light chainmail on top, the scimitars draped over their backs, the dark gray bandanna caps and the stupid freaking pirate masks to go with the armor? I’d only seen one group of people like them in my entire time playing SAO.

Gotta admit, for ninja cosplayers, their design choices are definitely interesting…

“Oh? I didn’t know we had some Fuma cucks who stuck around for the retail release,” I said, flashing them a fake smile and putting one hand atop the hilt of each of my swords. “I look a bit different, but I’m sure you recognize these weapons of mine. How’ve you been enjoying your time off?”

These two… what were their names again? I couldn’t tell through the bullshit they called clothing. Anyway, they were part of the «Fuma Ninja Force», a ninja guild feared for their incredible speed during the beta. As for why, well… like Argo, they all raised their AGI as high as possible, attributing all their stat points into it as well as always wearing gear to boost it as much as they could. The speed feats they pulled off were pretty insane. They always started a battle on the front line, then ran off when the battle got dangerous. And when the mobs followed them, they usually ended up targeting a different party instead, so pretty much everyone disliked these guys, myself included.

Though I didn’t dislike them for the same reason everyone else did. I hated these fucks because they were the ones who came up with my edgiest, most juvenile nickname in the beta and popularized it until all the filthy casuals used it as well.

Their eyes looked back and forth between my swords and my face for a bit, before their eyes flashed in enraged recognition from underneath those knockoff ninja hoods.

“The «Dual-Bladed Demon»!” the first one shouted out, drawing their scimitars without a second thought. “We, Kotarou and Isuke, will settle the score from the beta right here!”

In just an instant, my hands moved to grab the hilts of my swords and pulled them out, brandishing them with a twirl before holding them at the ready. “I mean, if you want to settle our bad blood, I’m down, but I think we all know how that’ll go. But before we get started, a question.”

They looked at me for a moment, as if trying to assess my intent. But when they couldn’t figure me out, the other one asked. “What is it, you cruel demoness?”

Oh god, the edginess is getting worse by the minute…

“It’s pretty simple.” My smirk in that moment would give them nightmares. “Are you sure you want to make all this noise and fight me like this… with no one guarding your backs?”

Trying to sound like a badass is so cringe-inducing when I’m wearing a leaky diaper…

When I snuck in the canyon, I scaled the walls to eavesdrop on the conversation, rather than standing around near the entrance. Besides my goal of getting between them and Argo, I had another reason to do it that way. We were out in the wilderness, not in town. And noisily standing in one place out here always led to one thing.

They probably sensed the eerie calm in my voice, because they didn’t even question me before turning around. Right before their eyes, someone had joined the group. Or rather…

Something.

A «Trembling Ox», a humanoid mob unique to the second floor, standing over two and a half meters at the shoulder alone. Its high offensive firepower and tankiness went without saying, but what really set them apart from all the rest was its extremely long targeting range, in both time and distance. I’d climbed the cliff and stayed so quiet specifically to avoid drawing their aggro any more than the cosplayers did.

“Bumooooo!” the ox howled.

And of course, exactly as I’d predicted, the two “ninjas” bitched out in unison. “Gaaaaaaaaah!”

With stunning speed, two grey-clad blurs of motion shot back toward town. But they didn’t know what they’d signed up for. The Trembling Ox was surprisingly fast for its size, especially for only the second floor. It kept pace with them with ease, and in under five seconds, the thunderous footsteps and terrified screams disappeared over the horizon. Kotarou and Isuke would be hard pressed to escape danger unless they had the stamina to reach Urbus before their running slowed down.

The conflict resolved without bloodshed for the moment, I sighed in relief and looked down at my body. Until around an hour ago, I’d been wearing a boring outfit. Just a black skirt with a white stripe near the hem, black cotton shirt, silver chestplate and a short, dark gray leather coat.

But with the unique «Coat of Midnight» I’d looted from the first floor boss, my outfit’s color aside from the chestplate had become a full black to match my hair. Seemed fitting for someone playing the villain, my reasoning for that choice aside. As I sheathed my swords, I realized that I kinda looked like…

Hopefully the cosplayers won’t mistake me for a clan rival or some shit…

Just as I finished thinking about that cringe-inducing possibility, something else caught me even more off guard. Two small arms reached out and squeezed around my midsection from behind. Feeling a soft warmth clinging to my back, I heard a faint whisper.

“Enough showin’ off, Kii-boy,” Argo replied, speaking for the first time since I showed up in front of her. Somehow, her voice sounded… different from that of the snide, obnoxious «Rat» I knew. “Keep that up, and you might force Big Sis to break the first rule of the information dealer.”

Big Sis…? And what the hell is the first rule of the information dealer?

Quite a strong yet curious word combo. So strong, in fact, that they nearly knocked my rational mind outta the park. But as a teenage IT gal whose character customization definitely wasn’t spec’d into communication skills in-game or IRL, to say I didn’t know how to react here would be a bit of an understatement.

But after a moment’s hesitation, I managed to force some words out. “… You owe me one, remember? I can’t have anything bad happening to you until you explain the reason for your whiskers.”

Not to mention the agreement we had about mapping out the Bathroom Needs System stats. But though I wasn’t exactly a genius at social interactions, even I knew that a precious moment like this would be ruined if I brought that up.

I’d meant for it to be a somewhat lighthearted joke to ease the tension. But of course, my delivery sucked, as always, so when Argo hugged me even tighter in response, only then did I realize the gravity of the situation.

She spoke again, voice barely above a whisper. “… Okay, I’ll tell you. Just wait so I can get the paint off…”

Oh my god.

She was about to take her whiskers off. Let me repeat that. Argo was about to remove her whiskers. Argo the Rat was about to remove her whiskers. Argo, the player universally known to the playerbase for always wearing whisker marks on her face, was about to remove them. I would soon be shown the plain face of someone who had never shown anyone in the game her plain face.

“…”

… Why?! What the hell kind of memo did I miss?! When did I trigger such a groundbreaking event flag?!

My social anxiety rose another couple dozen notches. Was this a symbolic gesture, something with a deeper meaning? Did she really feel okay showing me what she looked like without them on? And if she did… why?

This was about the most expensive piece of information she’d ever put up for sale! She charged a hundred thousand Col for this! I know she only agreed because she owed me for the raid aftermath, but fuck me. I never thought she’d even agree, much less that things would progress to her showing me what she looked like without them…

Argo pulled away right before my brain hit critical voltage and melted down. “Stay facing that way, I’ll tell you when I’m done.”

Oh thank go— wait a minute. She kept hugging me for several seconds after saying she’d ‘get the paint off.’ Did she wait so much longer just to screw with me? No, Argo liked teasing me, but she wouldn’t ruin a moment like that just for some laughs. There must’ve been a deeper meaning somewhere that I didn’t pick up on. But what did I miss…?

“You can look now.” As my brain came closer and closer to a meltdown, Argo informed me I ran out of time.

I turned around, only to see… she still had her whiskers on. And she wore a mischievous smirk to go with it. Son of a… I’d been had! She was teasing me after all! As annoying as that felt, I had to admit, a not insignificant part of me felt relieved. I quirked an eyebrow as my brain voltage and heartbeat began to return to normal, and she began to explain.

“All jokes aside,” she said, affirming what I’d just deduced. “If you wanna see me without my whiskers, you gotta complete a special quest. But don’t blame me for what happens, you hear?”

I nodded, looking at her through narrowed eyes. “And once again, I become the Rat’s favorite plaything…”

“You know it, now let’s get a move on,” she replied without missing a beat.


So yeah, Kiriko’s retarded beta nickname came from ninja roleplayers lol. Also, Kiriko might actually see whiskerless Argo, unlike Kirito chickening out in canon Progressive. Along with some other differences here and there.

On an unrelated note, due to some circumstances regarding people I know on FTT, I’ll probably be splitting fetish creative pursuit time between this fic and my RPG Maker game, Angels and Demons from here on out. Shouldn’t decrease productivity too much since there’s not a huge amount of overlap between the two types of work, but just thought I’d let y’all know ahead of time. Hopefully with luck, you’ll see me release a demo sometime later this year.

Anyway, that’s all I need to say. If you liked what you read, feel free to like/favorite, comment, critique, all that jazz. But until then, I’ll catch you all next time!

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7 minutes ago, Night Rain said:

I like fetish stuff as much as the next guy. But sometimes plot and other stuff in stories comes before that.

 

1 minute ago, Darksyn said:

Personally, I believe the best kink-related stories can intertwine both plot and fetish content without making either seem out of place. So far, this story has kept that balance pretty well.

To clarify, the issue was less with the decline in general and more that what little remained felt formulaic and shoehorned in rather than properly integrated. Regardless though, the issue has been addressed for now, so no worries. 😄

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  • 2 weeks later...

So it’s been a while since I posted the last chapter. March has been a hectic few weeks, to put it mildly. I got back into game design, repaired my relationship with a friend I thought I’d alienated forever, and started a new writing project which I plan to advance alongside this story to keep me from getting sick/burnt out of working on one thing constantly.

As you might’ve figured out by the above paragraph, I’m not releasing this chapter because I’ve finished chapter eighteen. I did however just finish chapter one of my new project. Keep an eye out, I’ll start releasing it after its reserve is built up to three chapters ahead. I don’t plan to make a habit of releasing one chapter of each story without having preserved the reserve chapter count like this, but I mostly just did it because it’s been too long since I released anything for this fic.

Anyway, not much else to say. Catch you guys below!


Sword Art Online: Of Death Games and Diapers

Chapter Thirteen: Intermission - The Reason for the Whiskers, Part II


“All jokes aside,” she said, affirming what I’d just deduced. “If you wanna see me without my whiskers, you gotta complete a special quest. But don’t blame me for what happens, you hear?”

I nodded, looking at her through narrowed eyes. “And I have once again become the Rat’s favorite plaything…”

“You know it, now let’s get a move on,” she replied without missing a beat.


“Switch!”

After knocking the toothed head of the massive blackish brown «Jagged Worm» back to stagger it, I quickly jumped away just in time for Argo to go in for the kill, segmenting the worm’s body into three pieces with a vertical slash from her trademark claws. It shattered into fragments in the next moment.

As I watched the enemy’s HP go from over half full to zero from a single baseline attack, I remembered that I still needed to give claws a try. They carried similar weight to Asuna’s rapier, but their signature ability, the fact damage calculation treated each individual blade as its own weapon, made them a weapon to be feared. In that single attack just now, Argo’s three-bladed claw hit it three times, with a total damage among all three hits that rivaled Asuna’s «Linear».

How she manages to handle their range problem is beyond me, though…

“It’s been ages since we last fought together,” I said with a smile as she turned to face me. “Good to know your office job hasn’t made you rusty in the field.”

She took the claw off her left hand and hooked it back on her waist before replying. “Someone’s gotta help you while you and A-chan are apart.”

Actually, now that I think of it…

“Wait a minute. You’re not rusty, and you’re not underleveled,” I said, looking at her through narrowed eyes. “Why did you need my help in the first place? You could’ve taken care of those cucks easily.”

The informant closed her eyes with a sigh. “Just because I can doesn’t mean I should. Those idiots aren’t worth going orange over. And do you have any idea how persistent they are? They followed me across the entire first floor!”

Oh yeah… before the boss battle, Argo was with the frontline players in «Tolbana». Considering how quickly she showed up from the teleporter, she must’ve gone all the way back to the «Town of Beginnings» between the boss meetings and the opening of the teleport gate. Which meant she must’ve travelled clear across the first floor in just a few hours…

Pretty stubborn for a bunch of ninja cosplayers who settled for pirate masks to complete their look.

“Fair enough,” I replied as the two of us went back to walking down the cave path. “So, how much further until we get there? We’ve been walking through this cave for a while.”

Argo closed the distance to walk right next to me before replying, “In another few minutes on this path, we’ll find an underground river. From there, we just gotta follow it until the exit and we’ll be there.”

We fell into our usual rhythm of walking together in silence from there. A comfortable silence, one that afforded each of us some time to think. I did have to wonder just what Extra Skill those ninja cosplayers were after. I didn’t really intend on changing my free info request to Argo, but I couldn’t help but wonder about it.

If they’re willing to go so far to get their hands on it, it might actually be useful in battle.

I’d like to know what it was, but considering she wouldn’t sell it to the cucks, I’d have to trade it for the whiskers info if I wanted to know. And frankly, the whiskers interested me more. Though there was also a third piece of information she didn’t want to sell which interested me around as much as the whiskers…

“Hey, Argo?” When she sent me a glance showing she heard me, I continued. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but I swear to god I’ll never tell anyone, and I’ll pay you if you want. But…”

She sent me a curious gaze. “What’s up?”

“Well, it’s just… the sudden interest in mapping out the bathroom stats was because you ended up needing diapers yourself, right?” I asked. She averted her eyes, face flush before silently nodding. “I was just wondering how that ended up happening.”

Argo hesitated for a moment before turning back to me with a playful smile even I could tell she forced. “What’s this? Kii-boy’s takin’ an interest in little old me? What brought this on?”

I probably should’ve expected that. Argo didn’t like talking about herself, even to people she actually trusted. With a sigh, I began working through the problem, trying to figure out how to convince her.

“I… I just want to help the people I care about, I guess,” I admitted, deciding that honesty would probably be my best bet. “I’m helping Asuna with this issue as well, and you and I go back way further, so…”

Argo’s playful attitude continued unfaltering, right until I brought up Asuna. She looked away for a moment, before replying without looking back. “That’s just how you are… huh?”

What’s that mean?

We walked in silence for another few seconds. I didn’t really know what to say to that. I gave it a shot, but it was still ultimately her choice whether she wanted to confide in me or not. She’d tell me if and when she was ready.

“No need to worry about me. The work you’re doin’ to map the stats out is more than enough,” she finally broke the silence, looking back at me with a playful grin. “I’ll figure out the rest on my own. Though if you really want to help even more…”

I nodded, sending a quizzical stare her way. “What do you need?”

Her playful grin widened just a smidge, and I caught a mischievous glint in her eyes. What did I just sign up for…?

“A change,” she replied with a smug look. She pulled out the waistband of her pants with one hand and pointed at her cartoon mob-printed diaper with the other. “I was pretty wet before the chase started, but your dropping in from above startled me into losin’ it again.”

Oh, that was it? I expected something way worse than that… as I formulated a response, I heard something. Faintly, in the distance, the sound of running water. Looked like we’d reach the underground river soon.

I smiled back at her, not the least bit embarrassed. “Sure thing. I hear the river though, so let’s get to it first.”

A minute’s walk later, we found ourselves in front of an underground waterway with an almost ethereal beauty. The water looked crystal clear, and the ground beneath it had circular patches which glowed in the dark, with a whitish blue hue. There were glowing crystals of the same color on the walls, just begging to be mined. I didn’t have the skill for it, but I had to wonder if they could be used for anything.

“All right, let’s see…” I said, going into my inventory and materializing a changing mat. I picked a relatively flat, level spot far enough away from the water to be totally dry and spread the mat out on the ground. “Come and lay down. Get another diaper out of your inventory while you’re at it.”

She walked over to the mat, sitting down with a frown before opening her menu. As soon as she materialized one of her diapers, she pulled her pants down to her ankles before spreading her legs and lying down with a sigh.

“I thought you’d be more embarrassed, but you’re no fun,” she said with a cute, childish pout which went a little too well with her soaked padding. “You look like you do this all the time.”

Ah, so that’s why she asked…

I materialized a jar of diaper rash cream and packet of wipes and set them down. “By the way, before you get that one off, might wanna try and let go now, to get more use out of the next one before needing a change again.”

She nodded before closing her eyes. A moment later, I could just barely hear a faint hissing sound over the sound of the river as her diaper yellowed just a bit more. Once it died down, I unfolded the new diaper, lifted her legs and put it underneath her soaked one, lining it up just right before letting her legs down.

“Brace yourself, next bit is cold.” I untaped her diaper, then opened the packet of wipes and set to work wiping her clean.

To her credit, she didn’t squirm away the entire time. Once I’d finished, I pulled the used diaper out from under her, put the used wipes in it and rolled it up, taping it shut. Then I opened the container of rash cream, getting it on my hands before slathering it onto her. She still didn’t squirm away, but I saw a hint of red on her cheeks.

She did this to embarrass me, and only she got embarrassed. Ironic.

Once finished with the rash cream, I used the last wipe to clean my hands, then put the used diaper and wipes in my inventory and discarded them without a second thought, returning the rash cream to my inventory for storage. Finishing up, I pulled the front of Argo’s diaper up, smoothed it out, got the leak guards working, then ripped open each side’s tape and stuck it to the padded shell.

Sensing that my job had finished, Argo sat back up, then pulled her pants back on over her diaper. As I rose to my feet, I stretched out my hand, and she took it, pulling herself into a stand as well. Finally done, I put the changing mat back in my inventory.

She gave me a playful smile. “Rash cream, huh? What’s the story there?”

I shrugged. “It dropped and mentioned it could buff your stats if applied correctly, wanted to test it out,” I said simply, smiling back. “Anyway, wanna get going?”

She shook her head and pointed at me. “How about I change you first, to return the favor? Go ahead and let go first, though.”

With a shrug, I closed my eyes and relaxed my bladder, my mind instinctively conjuring the visualization technique I’d been using to aid it since I learned how. Within a few seconds, the hissing noise of my own voluntary leakage sounded out, my crotch growing warm as my diaper began sagging slightly from all the times I’d wet it since we left town for the raid.

‘Psssssssssss…’

And of course, with my diaper being soaked to the point of leaking just a bit before I let go, I soon felt the padding hit its absolute limit. First only a few drips escaped, rolling down my legs. In another few seconds, it went from just a few drips to a full on stream leaking out through each leghole and into both of my boots. My cheeks grew progressively hotter with every few seconds until the stream died down, so I must’ve been blushing up a storm…

Good thing I have spare boots… because these need a wash.

Materializing my changing mat, the jar of rash cream and an unopened Starz diaper, I set them in place before lying down, pulling my skirt up to speed up the process and trying to ignore how humiliated I felt. “… By all means.”

After she finished changing me, we spent the rest of the walk through the cave in a comfortable silence. Thankfully, she had the tact to refrain from teasing me about what I just did in her service.


It occurred to me around the time that we left the cave that I’d never have found this place on my own unless I had a lot of time, curiosity and persistence on my hands.

Up a mountain, through a cave, along an underground river, and out into an area much higher on the mountain than the cave entrance we came in through. It might not have taken that long, but the path was so far out of the way that you wouldn’t think it even existed unless you already knew about it.

Based on our map location, we must’ve scaled the rocky mountain that loomed over the southern edge of the second floor. We’d exited the cave into a small clearing surrounded by cliffs on all sides, with nothing here but a freshwater spring, a single tree, and a small hut.

“So this is the place, huh?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Argo nodded. I strode up to the building, keeping on guard for traps. No danger, at least not yet. I opened the door and looked inside. I saw a few pieces of furniture, and one NPC. A large, elderly man, all muscle and bone with a head bald as a cueball and a magnificent beard which almost reached his waist. Above his head I found a golden exclamation mark, the sign of a quest.

I looked back over to Argo just in time to catch her nodding. “That’s the NPC that gives you the Extra Skill, «Martial Arts». This is all I can tell ya. Up to you whether you accept it or not.”

Wait a minute, hold on. Extra Skill. This NPC’s quest reward was an Extra Skill, one which could actually be useful going by its name. And that Extra Skill also sounded pretty relevant to the ninja cosplayers’ interests…

“Argo, is this the Extra Skill the Fuma cucks were after?” I asked, the realization that I’d found something amazing slowly sinking in. When she nodded, I couldn’t help but wonder aloud.  “Martial Arts… never heard of it in the beta.”

“This one’s on the house,” she said while shrugging her shoulders. “It’s probably a skill which has attacks using just your hands and feet, no weapons. It’d be good for if you get disarmed, or your weapon runs out of durability and breaks.”

“That kind of viability puts «Meditation» to shame,” I couldn’t help but say. “I guess I can see why the cosplayers wanted to get it for themselves.”

“Why’s that?” she asked me with a quizzical stare.

Naturally, I fought back with my own ‘on the house’ explanation. “People think ninjas are about ninja katana and shuriken, but in gaming, not so much,” I began, shrugging my shoulders. “One good wrist chop to the neck, the head flies off; it’s the pinnacle of game ninja style. So the cucks wanted it to round out their ninja aesthetics.”

Her eyes narrowed in recognition. “Oh. They chased me all around the first floor for that…?”

“Though there’s one thing I don’t get,” I admitted, pointing at her with my left hand. “They didn’t know how to get here. How did they know the skill existed, and how did they know you knew about it?”

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then…

“This one’s double on the house. At the end of the beta, when you hit the tenth floor, an NPC on the seventh was found. He revealed some info about a ‘Martial Arts master’ down on the second,” she said, giving me a sheepish smile. “I found this place way before then, but the ninjas must’ve heard it from the NPC on floor seven. Once I started sellin’ strategy guides here, they came to me for details on it.”

She came so close. It almost makes sense… but it doesn’t.

“Why didn’t you just say you didn’t know?” I asked, trying my best to hide the smirk I felt growing on my face. “Could have saved yourself the harassment if you did. Lemme guess, was it pride?”

“Bingo.”

Yep, saw it coming.

“Well, I guess I gotta figure out why you would be willing to make enemies of knockoff ninjas over this on my own,” I told her, turning back towards the NPC before flashing her a peace sign. “As promised, I won’t hold it against you. Going in.”

I stepped into the shack and stood in front of the meditating NPC. He wore a tattered, robelike outfit. When I got close enough, his eyes opened and he stood up, leaning on his staff for support.

“Who who who! Do you wish to join my school, child?” he asked, giving me a smile which looked distinctly lecherous. Great, one of those types. Just what I needed: to complete this quest in constant fear of being groped. “If you clear my trials, I shall bequeath unto you Martial Arts, the core of this style.”

Fighting back a sigh, I nodded. “You got it.”

“The road of training is long and fraught with peril,” the old man said, as a confirmation window appeared in front of me. “Are you prepared for it?”

I hit “yes” without a second thought, nodding my head in case he needed a visual cue. In response, the exclamation mark over his head turned into a question mark, and the quest acceptance log scrolled before my eyes.

The old man escorted me out of and behind the shack to one of many massive boulders at the edge of his cliff-lined garden, easily two meters tall and one and a half wide. He walked over and patted the stone, then stroked his beard with his cane hand.

“Your training is simple: split this stone. Until you complete this trial…” he said, walking up to me. Without warning, faster than I could react, he grabbed both of my swords off my waist. “I will hold onto your weapons.”

Startled by the loss of my weapons, I had to keep myself from rushing after them. When I nodded, the old man continued. “You must attempt this trial bare-handed. Use your fists… your feet… even your head, if need be.”

He punctuated his sentence by using his free hand to poke his bald scalp. In response, I walked over to the rock and gave it a light tap. Once you got used to the game, you could tell the durability of a target based on how it felt to the touch. And this rock… oh god. Ultra hard, only one notch below an «Immortal Object».

Yup, I’m fucked.

As if on cue, right as I turned around to try and back out, the teacher continued, balancing his cane on his shoulders. “Until you split this boulder, you may not descend the mountain. And thus… you must bear the sign of your trial.”

I think I know where this is going…

Using his freed hands, he pulled two objects from inside his robe. In his left hand, a small jar, and in his right, a magnificent paintbrush. Yup, now I understood exactly how Argo got her whiskers, and worse still, it was about to happen to me. Before I could announce that I would quit this school of martial arts, the master’s hand shot out so fast I couldn’t even see it, plunging the tip of the brush into the pot and whipping it dexterously across my face.

When Argo found this guy in the beta, she must’ve accepted his quest without a second thought. Who wouldn’t? He ordered her to break the stone and drew these on her face— three thick whisker marks on each cheek.

I shrieked pitifully and fell back, unintentionally giving the perverted old man quite the starry padded show when my skirt fluttered in the breeze. My eyes met Argo’s as I rose to my knees. Her ratty face looked full of deep sadness, empathy… and the tension of holding back the biggest gut laugh she’d ever had.

As I got to my feet, I checked my face, and my suspicions were confirmed. The ink must’ve been ultra quick to dry or some shit, because despite how quickly I touched it, my fingers still looked pristine – not a single stain on them. The master nodded in satisfaction, then delivered the killing blow, predictable though it was.

“That sign will not vanish until you break this rock and complete your training,” he said, smiling a perverted smile which made his face a hundred times more punchable. “I have faith in your potential, my apprentice.”

Without another word, he retreated back to the hut and went back inside. After a good few seconds of silence and standing around, I looked over at Argo, whose face still looked conflicted between wanting to console me and wanting to laugh her ass off.

“So if I have this right, you took this quest in the beta and had to give up. So you got stuck with them till the very end of the test period,” I assessed, voice dry and emotionless, as I needed to cut my feelings off entirely to keep from going insane right then. “And since they were identifiable and helped you form your «Rat» persona, you recreated them for the retail release so you’d be identifiable.”

Argo applauded with a wide grin. “Right on the money. You’re a lucky one, though. You got both the reason for my whiskers and the details of an Extra Skill at once! One more thing, too. That rock… is hard as hell.”

“I figured.” I resisted the urge to fall to the ground again, then asked one more question. “By the way… what do the ones he painted on me just now look like?”

No way in hell would I quit this quest, but I didn’t have the courage to look at my reflection in the spring. Argo stared at me for another few seconds, then said…

“If I had to put it into one word…” she said, the beginnings of a shit-eating grin forming on her face. “Kiriemon.”

As if the dam finally broke, she fell to the ground, flailing her feet back and forth and howling with laughter, over and over again.


December 6th, 2022

A hooded figure approached from the cave, as I sat in front of the quest NPC’s hut, face finally free of those damn whiskers. She walked right up to me, then took the hood off, glancing over at me in bewilderment.

“You actually did it…” she marveled, as if the idea shocked even her.

I smirked. “Yup, now you know the deal. Off with ‘em.”

“Not wasting any time, huh?” she said with a sigh. “Okay, turn around.”

I did as I was told and turned around. For a solid two and a half days, I’d been waiting for this moment. It was the only thing I had to keep myself motivated. And now, the moment of truth had finally arrived.

Not a moment after I finished thinking that, Argo’s voice resounded out. “You can look now.”

I turned back around, finding myself greeted with an almost picturesque sight. Argo the Rat, the best info broker in the game, whose name was synonymous with whisker face paint… stood before me, without her whiskers on. I stared at her whiskerless face for what felt like an eternity, completely lost for words.

She’s… my type. How did I not notice that with the whiskers still on…?

She rubbed her hands together nervously, bringing me back to reality. “Could you stop silently starin’ at me? It’s got me feelin’ self-conscious… at least say somethin’, will ya?”

“R-right…” I stammered out, suddenly feeling even more embarrassed than she did. “You look… good. Real cute.”

“Cu…!”

‘Psssssssssssssssss…’

Right as she started to stammer something out, whiskerless face flushed beet red, a hissing noise cut her off, and she almost instantly quieted down, eyes falling to the floor. I couldn’t help but smile at how adorable she looked at that moment, her failing bladder aside. Not that my own diaper was in a better state…

I walked up to her and put an arm around her shoulder, turning her around towards the cave again. “So anyway, what did I miss these past few days?”

Before replying, she got the items from her pockets and reapplied the whiskered face paint, but nonetheless began walking back towards the cave with me.

“Where do I even begin…?” she wondered aloud.

As we walked back to town, I couldn’t help but think that I’d probably never forget today as long as I lived. The day I witnessed a Rat without her whiskers, seeing only the fair maiden beneath them.


Yup. Argo is Kiriko’s type. You heard it here first, folks!

Also, I think this is the first chapter where we see Kiriko being vulnerable in front of someone else. Largely happened because she didn’t have to act super mature since she doesn’t need to maintain her image around Argo. It actually kinda ended up being added in way after the chapter was originally finished while revising chapters in the reserve, though, so I’m glad I had Darksyn to help me out with that part of the process.

Anyway, I think I’m gonna get back to work on ch18 of this fic before starting on ch2 of my new project. Updates for this fic will likely be a bit slower compared to the wait before last chapter from here on out, but in exchange, I won’t get burnt out, which will hopefully keep both this story and my new project running for a long time to come.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for my new writing projects, and I’ll catch you next time!

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4 minutes ago, Night Rain said:

What is this new story you're working on?

Not gonna spoil everything about it, but it's a long-running SAO AU story which will have two overarching parts. But each part is a collection of several arcs, and each arc will likely have dozens of chapters by itself. The protagonist is a Kiriko drastically different from the one in this story, and it'll be dealing with some heavy, dark themes, especially later on.

That's all I'm gonna say for now. The first chapter got finished earlier today, and since my target reserve count is three, I'll start posting it when I get to chapter four. So expect chapter one to pop up sometime in the next few weeks!

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