Walking around in the city, as it became more and more populated, Umichi suddenly heard some words. > I will make your life a living hell, got it? Turning around, Umichi could see Paka walking off. Reaching out to him, he could not grasp him and Paka left to the market area. **Gulp** *What the hell did I do to tick him off? What is he going to do to me? Shit!* Scared and contemplating, Umichi walked over to the inn the party was staying at. As he opened the door slightly, he could hear Suki talking. *Oh. Wait, that's no surprise. Well, she will make my day brighter* Umichi thought as he was about to go in, as he heard her ask "Why do you trust me?" He could not make out all of the words. *Sorry for doing this* he apologised in his head, flicking down the menu and switching his **<<Blade Throwing>>** skill for **<<Straining>>** (Or **<<Listening>>**) and listened in on her conversation with Ayame. Hearing the two girls talk, he sat down, just outside the inn, with the door ajar. From what he could tell, there were few others up in the inn itself. Players who walked by looked at him strangely, but figured he was waiting for someone inside to come out. The conversation soon came to a stop, or at least Umichi assumed, as Yui and Timi came down. *Middle ground? Well rounded? It's not like that Ayame. She's been the most emotional. My trust is in her smile.* he thought to himself. *In her care for everyone so visibly.* Getting up, Umichi breathed in deeply, and then exhaled. Repeating a couple of times. Opening the door as if he hadn't heard anything, Umichi walked in and closed the door, "Oh, Morning everyone" he greeted them. Walking up to them, he sat down. "Before anything else, I would like to say something." Turning to Suki, he continued after a deep breath, "Suki, you aren't well rounded or anything. If anything your quite an emotional person who over-thinks things. Just like you are right now. Worrying too much. But you know, none of that matters. I love you. I trust you, because I love you, you care about everyone, you think dearly of us. Although you want things to go on ideally, you know it's not likely to happen, and you worry. Even though others may see it as a flaw, I love that part of you, I love every part of you." His outside appearance was composed. However in his head was panic. *Wasn't there any other way to do this? Why did I just repeat how much I love her? Jeez! What am I doing! Well, I mean, it should help her, but I mean, how many times did I tell her I love her? And if that didn't help her, then I just embarrassed myself like this for no reason. I hope she feels better.* Turning to the others, he continued "Well, in the Labyrinth, there's a few chests scattered about. Some rigged with traps, but some with some nice items. For today, we could go and find them while leveling up." Umichi smoothly continued to conversation, like nothing had happened. With that, he waited for some responses. --- Having gotten separated from the Onii-san she was with, YukiHana was once again left alone. As she wondered around, she was able to pick off a few enemies, before she found herself in some big trouble. Almost leveling up, she found herself stumble across another large pack of Little Nepents. She felt like crying. Remembering something about teleportation crystals, she quickly tried to get one out of her inventory. And just before the Little Nepents reached her, she quickly called out the word "Teleport". She did not realize, however, she had a random town teleportation crystal. And ended up in Tolbana. In this unfamiliar place, she wanted to cry again. But she knew that would get her nowhere. Calming down, she went to an inn and rested for the night. As the next day dawned, YukiHana went down the stairs, slowly, before stumbling down the stairs. Hitting the floor with a loud thud, people around looked at her. Getting up, she brushed herself off. While doing so, she saw a curious sign, reading *Pyotyr's Gubbins* Wondering over to the sign on the table, she turned to look at the Onee-san. "Onee-san! What is Gubbins? Is that your family name?" YukiHana curiously asked.

**'Thanks for your patronage, enjoy your dungeoneering!'** Business was pretty good in Tolbana, with a steady stream of players looking for reagents in preparation for the Floor Dungeon; unfortunately Pyotr wasn't the only entrepreneur in the area and competition had driven her prices down by a third. She had still made a healthy profit, almost enough to invest in another job lot of trade goods or hire an escort to grind some decent leather. Tapping a fork against her now empty plate as she considered her choices, Pyotr was caught off guard by a small voice on the other end of the table. She paused for a long moment before replying, struck by how young the girl was. Scary thought that kids like that had gotten mixed up in this crazy stuff, but it made a kind of ironic sense too. What could a kid possibly want more than the world's first proper VRMMORPG on the day of release? _The poor girl must have been terrified..._ **'Yes, obviously. Pyotr Gubbins; has a certain ring to it, no?'** _Wait, no... Gubbins Pyotr._ It took a moment to mentally correct herself; with the use of usernames to identify people as opposed to real names, Sword Art Online had a way of making you forget which way around yours went. It probably didn't help that she hadn't used hers online for years... **'Joking, joking. Gubbins means... well, it means bits and bobs. Stuff you sell, like... this.'** A sly smirk crossing her features, Pyotr tossed an apple at the girl, one of the many things she had had out to sell. **'On the house. So... do you have any, uh... friends around here? Are they still asleep?'** A part of her prayed that the girl had companions, but another, more cynical part suggested that a lot of people might take advantage of a little kid in this situation. Besides, even if they were benign it took a special kind of moron to bring a child into a life or death situation; she belonged back in the Town of Beginnings or at least somewhere safer than the front lines.

Timi was content to just sit and losten for now, her thoughts drifting. She tried to focus, and when Umichi came in, and made his speeches, the young girl in her very nearly squeeled, but she managed to stay quite, observant. ---- Suki looked over as she heard the door open, saw Umichi come in and she couldn't help but smile, watching him walk towards them. She had calmed somewhat, but felt better with Umichi there. As he stated he wanted to speak, she figured he had over heard some of what had been said. Most people forgot about the listening skills, she knew, but they were handy. And then he said he loved her, and all thought, sound, seemed to disappear for her. Time seemed to stretch, and then go fast. She wished, for one fleeting moment, that time would freeze, so that she could think. Think without her heart thundering in her chest. Without emotion rolling over her, knocking her flat on her back. _I love every part of you_ Her heart just simply melted, and she forgot that they were in a world that while seriously realistic, wasn't the real world. For those few moments, it was like all those worries ceased to exist. And she didn't know what to say, or do. What did you, when someone said they loved you? Was there meant to be this...almost irrational ocean of emotion? It swamped her, and she couldn't get her footing. And then her mouth just seemed to have a mind of its own, as well as her body, ignoring her brain, and just doing what the heart wanted. She moved towards him, kissing him deeply, and then saying "you steady me and just seem to make everything right, simply by being. I-" and nerves got her now, so that she stumbled over the words, but they were full of emotion "I l-love you, Too"

Suddenly embraced with a deep kiss, Umichi had a slightly dumbfounded look on his face that was quite flushed. *She always finds new ways to surprise me and love her more.* Then, once Suki replied, he smiled. *I couldn't ask for more.* "Now that I think about it, I haven't had anything to eat yet. Is anyone else hungry?" Umichi asked the group, turning to face Fujiwara to ask him as well, "What about you Fujiwara? Breakfast?" It was still relatively early, so there was time for food before setting out. He popped out the guide book, and started to look around for some information. "Doesn't look like there's any mention of the treasure chests in the Labyrinth. Probably because they want to keep the locations to themselves. Also, since we have a party, do you all still want to go to the raid meeting? Or shall I as a representative?" Umichi continued to ask the group for their opinions. --- "Pyotyr Gubbins? What a strange name!" YukiHana called out excitedly to the Onee-san. Listening on, she heard Pyotyr Onee-san's explanation, catching the "apple" thrown to her. Hearing she could have it for free, she smiled, "Arigatou Onee-san!" Taking a bite, she munched happily at first, then her face contorted a little. "Um... Onee-san ... Why does the ringo (Apple) taste like nasubi (eggplant)?" YukiHana was confused, since she had not had much else to eat other than the bread, which tasted like bread. She did not know of the change in taste for the food here. Being asked about if she had any companionship, YukiHana looked down and shook her head. "I was supposed to play with Onii-san and Onee-san when they got the game. I was going to show them how to play like an Onee-san, but now ..." Being reminded of the real world, and her family, she started to cry. Her wails were loud and attracting attention. Whispers could be heard about Pyotyr making a little girl cry.

Ayame rubbed the back of her head nervously and took her leave from the scene. Maybe her method of consolation was too off the mark as it was. Was she trying too hard to console Suki? Or had she taken the wrong approach? Maybe she wasn't the one who could have done it after all... Sighing, Ayame took a seat near Fujiwara, shrugging as she did so. "Hey, what do you think about those two?" Fujiwara decided not to pay attention to the two lovers straight out of an anime until they stopped making out. "Romance is nice and all, but seeing those two doing that so openly in the morning kind of gives me the chills." he said in English, breaking away from all the Japanese he had been speaking the past who-knew-how-long. "Well, it's not like my opinion matters to them, after all." Ayame frowned at his comment, mainly because he had spoken in English more than anything else. Speaking in a different language was more or less concealing information, and though hers was fluent enough to understand him it didn't mean everyone else could, too. "Is it really so hard for you to get over it all? There's no need to be speaking like that, regardless of how you say it." she responded in English. "You're drifting away from everyone else, and you know as well as I do that doing so will only cause you more suffering in the future..." The conversation was broken however, as Umichi spoke up about breakfast. Fujiwara smiled bitterly at Ayame's comment before turning to Umichi. "Yeah, breakfast would be fine right about now!" he responded, having returned to the usual Japanese they had been using. "I'll leave it to you to pick it out, though- I don't feel like choosing today."

Tsukiya turned in her seat and eyed the girl crying across the room, next to the vendor who had set up her shop there. She hesitated for a moment, then stood up and moved toward them, pulling her hood down so her face was visible. She placed a hand on the girl's head, trying to comfort her, and gave the vendor a glance that was both accusatory and questioning. then she knelt down to the girl's height and said in a voice almost too soft to be heard. "What's wrong?"

Suki settled back in her seat, a slight blush rising over her cheeks, as she remembered here they were and that they were in a public setting. She glanced down at her hands briefly, unable to keep the smile off her face. She was just...overwhelmingly happy. "breakfast sounds good" she agreed, and shifted slightly, looking over to Ayame. "Thank you for trying to make me feel better. I still worry greatly, but I know together, we can do what needs to be done" except for Paka. She didn't know what her cousin would do after they defeated the boss, where he would go, what he would do. And she would worry for him. But she could do nothing to change his mind. "I'm sorry for being a pain about it all" She glanced to the door, hoping that Paka would be back soon, that he hadn't done anything reckless, but supposed she couldn't worry about him forever in the game. She turned back to the group, and said "I think we should all go to the Raid Meeting. I think it's important that we do, and that we discuss it after wards. That way no one gets second hand information, and we can all form opinions. And it would be good to go as a team" She said, "I think that would be better" "So they can see that we are...a unit?" Timi said curiously, smiling when Suki nodded, "Awesome. Are there pancakes available?" She asked, clearly thinking of breakfast now. The young girl was hungry, almost starving as if she hadn't eaten in days, despite eating a lot the night before.

Yui When Umichi entered both he and Suki acted a little strange. They suddenly started talking about love and they even kissed each other in front of the group. Yui quietly sat on the bench whilst blushing and attempting to hide it by looking down. Whas it normal for people to kiss each other without relation ship or did they already have a relation ship. Yui was clearly missing something here. Yui got a glimps of the conversation going on with Ayame and Fujiwara, she only understanded a few words of the english they were speaking but it didnt help her enough to understand what they were talking about. She sighed a little to how her morning was coming along and stood up "I'm going out for a moment, i'm not that hungry. Pm me when we are doing something and i'll be there." She left the inn and walked deep into one of the forest nearby, a nice quiet place to train some of her skills.