53 Chapter 53 - An Odd Trio

On the 4th floor, on the map south of Rovia, << Bear Forest >>, an interesting scene was taking place. A party of six players was fighting against a gigantic bear with a flaming horn, while three other people watched. Even more interesting, two of the 'audience' members were twins.

The twins both had long purple hair - dyed, obviously - and petite builds. Their most distinctive feature was without a doubt their eyes. They were just an ordinary shade of brown, but they were so clear it seemed to peer into your soul when you looked at them. No matter who it was, when they first met the twins, their gaze would be drawn to their eyes.

Even the equipment of the twins was identical, both using one-handed swords, similar to Kirito. However, it was easy to tell them apart due to their disposition. The one who was clearly the younger twin could barely stand still, punching the air and cheering for the players fighting the monstrous bear. Meanwhile, her sister was much more mature, calmly observing everything without saying a word.

The third player had also dyed her hair, maybe to be included in the group. However, she had chosen a deep blue color instead of the purplish-black the twins went with. Her hair was cut short, but unlike Sinon's untamed locks - and don't mention that within earshot of the archer - her hair was neatly combed. Despite being just as small as the other two girls, she carried a huge broadsword on her back.

"Wah, did you see that, sis?! Look at that guy with the black sword! Woah, and that one with the spear! What skill was that?! That girl with the rapier, her hair is so pretty! And why is that other girl singing? Oh, wait! That one with the light-blue hair has a bow! Don't tell me they are..."

"Calm down, Yuuki. And yes, I do believe they are the songstress' party. Hence the girl playing the flute."

"Haaaaa! Sis, sis, we need to talk to them! You know they are like my..."

"Your idols, yes. We know. Now stop bothering Ran and watch, Yuuki. This is a rare chance to see how the frontliners fight from up close. Can't you see how focused your big sister is?"

"Ouch! I told you to stop knocking my head, Merida! I'm gonna grow stupid if you keep doing that!"

"You already are dumb as a board, Yuuki. Now shut up and watch."

The younger twin, Yuuki, pouted and rubbed her head where the blue-haired girl, Merida, had hit her. However, she didn't dare disobey her older sister when Ran told her to stop talking. She just stuck her tongue out at Merida, who smirked, and turned back to watch the battle.

By now, Drifter, Kirito, Asuna, Yuna, Sinon, and Nautilus were close to finishing off the << Magnatherium >>. If it wasn't for the presence of the trio, they would've killed it already, but because they were there, the party was forced to keep an eye on them, to prevent a possible kill-steal, even if it didn't look like they planned on sabotaging them. Still, better safe than sorry, as they had painfully learned.

That also meant Drifter heard everything the trio said. They weren't exactly being discrete, especially Yuuki, who was fangirling pretty hard over them. Fans. That was one thing Drifter never imagined he would one day have.

Impaling the << Magnatherium >> through its neck with a << Sting >>, Drifter glanced at the trio of girls. He briefly captured the gaze of the older twin, Ran, and saw a kindred soul. The moment passed almost immediately, however, as he focused back on the giant murderous bear trying to rip his head off.

Sidestepping a huge paw, Drifter flexed his wrists, spinning his spear. Using the momentum he built, he hurled the weapon at the furry chest of the << Magnatherium >>, which was by now marred with wounds. Then, pulling back his spear, he slashed sideways, leaving another deep cut. With one last sorrowful roar, the elite mob crumbled.

Kirito quickly went through the battle log, to see if the rewards were worth the trouble. Thankfully, there was something called << Fire-Bear Fat >>, which should be the rare item they were looking for.

After all that was done, the party leader turned to talk to the newcomers, only to almost stumble right into one of them. Yuuki was almost glued to Kirito while excitedly asking questions.

"Hi! My name is Yuuki, I'm a huge fan of yours! And your party! You looked so cool when you fought that bear just now! And the 3rd floor boss, how did it feel to... Hey, sis! What are you doing?! Okay, okay, I'll stop, release me! Sorry."

Overwhelmed, Kirito didn't manage to get a single word in, and had to be rescued by Ran, who grabbed her younger sister by the collar and dragged her to a respectable distance from Kirito. Ran apologized to him.

"Sorry about that. She has always been a little hyperactive."

"Ah, no worries. It's just... Having someone look up to us so much still kinda freaks me out."

"Agreed. Damn broadcasts."

Their lovable archer muttered under her breath, but everyone heard it. After Kirito, Sinon was the one who hated the idea of having their battles live-streamed the most. She was always one to stay out of the spotlight and hide at the back during major events, but now she had become a public figure - and she didn't even know about her fame outside of Sword Art Online.

"Anyway, thanks."

While Kirito didn't specify why he was thanking them, the trio knew it was because they simply watched without butting in. While that was common courtesy, there were many who didn't abide by it.

"You looked like you had it. I'm Ran, by the way. This is my sister Yuuki, and the other one is Merida."

"Heya! I'm Yuuki, nice to meet you!"

"Hi."

"It's great to meet you too. You already know who we are, but... Kirito, Asuna, Yuna, Drifter, Nautilus, Sinon."

As he spoke, Kirito indicated each person. Like he said, the trio already knew who they were, but manners were manners.

It was about this moment that Ran lost control of Yuuki again, and the girl started jumping around and asking questions about everyone. Most of them were related to how it felt to fight floor bosses. From that, it could be seen she was another one of those combat junkies who wanted to become a frontliner. Considering they only had half a party's worth of manpower, but were still hunting on the 4th floor, they shouldn't be bad fighters. Clearers, at the very least.

Yuuki reminded Drifter of an excited puppy, and he couldn't help but smile at the comparison. While the girl was... A lot, he didn't dislike her, and he knew his party didn't either. In just a few minutes, Yuuki had managed to befriend all of them. Ran and Merida, while more silent - or maybe calmer is the right word - weren't bad conversation partners either.

"Kirito, night's turned. We should go."

"Right. Yuuki, Ran, Merida, we are going back to Rovia. Want to come with us?"

After a few more minutes, Drifter nudged Kirito, alerting the boy to the fact that it was already considered nighttime by the Cardinal System. While mobs wouldn't necessarily become stronger during the dark hours, they had a much higher chance of going berserk, and none of them wanted to wrestle a mindlessly furious black bear in the dark.

"If you don't mind our company."

"Not at all. Drifter, think you can reach out to Argo..."

"'Bout the materials? Already did. She said she's searching for a tailor too, but not many have taken the << Tailoring >> skill, and even less leveled it up enough."

Kirito sighed. One of the saddest things for a SAO player was having materials sitting in your inventory that you couldn't use, or pieces of equipment you couldn't put on. Who knows how many players died thinking that if they had been able to make use of a certain item, they might've pulled through.

Drifter was looking at his menu, so he didn't notice Ran raising an eyebrow at Merida when they overheard his conversation with the young swordsman.

...

After they arrived at Rovia, the nine players didn't split up as one thought they would. Along the way Yuuki had managed to make Asuna open up, and now the two wouldn't stop talking, with Yuna interjecting from time to time. Even Ran was a little less cold now, and she, Nautilus, and Kirito were in a deep discussion about different ways to break an opponent's guard without losing the durability of their swords.

As for Drifter, he had been focused on talking with Agil and Shivata in a group chat about the difficulties they faced in finding the trigger to start this floor's chapter of the << Elf War >> campaign. He asked them to keep their eyes open and ears peeled for clues.

"Hey, Drifter."

"Uhm? What's up, Merida?"

Drifter looked up at the blue-haired girl. He wasn't sure what to make of her. She was the same age as Ran, Yuuki, Kirito, Asuna, and Sinon, and sometimes she would act that age, but more often than not, she simply looked at everyone impassively, as if she was watching children. She was far too mature for her age, or at least that was what Drifter thought. But then again, he had only known her for an hour or so, so he didn't have any grounds on which to base those speculations.

"Sorry for intruding, but I overheard you and Kirito. It sounded like you needed a tailor quite urgently?"

Drifter scratched his head.

"Well, I wouldn't say urgently... But we certainly wouldn't turn up our noses at a decent tailor. For you to be asking this, do you happen to know one?"

"How about me?"

Drifter raised an eyebrow. Merida had a cheeky smile which told him she was waiting for him to ask this question.

"You took up << Tailoring >>?"

"Yes. My mastery is only 220 points right now, though."

"That's..."

Drifter trailed off. He didn't want to offend Merida by saying that her proficiency was too low, but that was the unfortunate truth. But the girl just smiled at his awkward silence. Raising two fingers, Merida took on a tone that reminded Drifter of himself when he went for job interviews.

"I know it's not good enough for what you want, but I wouldn't make this proposition without reason. First off, I should make known that I abandoned << Tailoring >> to focus on developing my combat skills. We want to become frontliners, after all."

Drifter nodded. Many players, including himself and the rest of his party, were like that. Drifter had given up on << Cooking >>, Sinon on << Crafting >>, and Kirito on << Bartering >>. It couldn't be helped, since raising their mastery in those lifestyle skills took time and resources they couldn't waste as frontliners. Not to mention, every player had a limited number of skill slots. If they couldn't train a skill to the max, it was better to give up on it early. Of their party, only Asuna still insisted on learning << Cooking >> - not that any of them were complaining, since those sandwiches were out of this world.

"And the second thing?"

"Most of the players who focus on lifestyle skills are low-level and stay in the Town of Beginnings. On one hand, that leaves them with a lot of free time on their hands to raise their mastery. On the other, they don't have any high-quality mats to work with, and hit a roadblock because of that. Blacksmiths apart, of course."

Once again, Drifter raised his head in agreement with what Merida was saying. There were plenty of blacksmiths to go around, mainly because everyone, without exception, required their services.

But until now, all Merida had done was state facts. Drifter looked at her, waiting for a real reason why he should trust her as their tailor. Sure, she was a nice girl and all, but he was the vice-leader of his party, and couldn't make this kind of decision lightly. After all, it wasn't easy for them to gather all those crafting materials.

Merida swallowed nervously, and Drifter felt a pang of pity, but didn't relent. He was aware he was being painfully cold to a teenager five or six years younger than him, but people matured fast in SAO. You didn't make it far in this game without changing your mentality. You just needed to look at how Drifter behaved around his party. He had long stopped treating them like children, and put them on the same level as he. They had earned that when they challenged floor bosses by his side.

"What I want to say is, most players can't get their << Tailoring >> to a high proficiency because they either need to sacrifice their leveling speed, or because the mats they have access to aren't good enough. But if we come to a deal, it would be different. My 220 points in << Tailoring >> might not be much, but they aren't few either. If you can provide me with materials, and I focus solely on it for a week, I can get it to 400 points without a doubt."

"And give up on being a frontliner?"

"Not at all. Allow us to farm and complete quests with you. Being able to fight alongside actual frontliners will be a huge help to Ran and Yuuki. And I will be the personal tailor of your party. How about it?"

Though she tried to put on a confident expression, Drifter could see Merida was actually very nervous. He pondered for a few seconds.

"We don't need exclusivity, just let us get first pick. We aren't the only ones in need of a good tailor."

"You mean..."

Drifter smiled, and put out his hand for her to shake.

"Welcome to the frontlines, Merida."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

So, I feel some explanations are in order.

To start with, I want to say that Yuuki, Ran, and Merida are the last canon characters I will add to SAO - by that I mean, they are canon, but they weren't originally in SAO. It's the same thing I did with Sinon.

I will, however, have two more original characters appear. Both were already subtly - and not so subtly - mentioned, so have fun trying to figure out who they are!

That should be it for changes in canon regarding characters. Sinon, Yuuki, Ran, Merida (all canon but not originally in SAO), Drifter, ?, ? (original characters).

Now, more about the trio that appears in this chapter. I'll assume most of you already know Yuuki, so I won't talk about her. Ran, her twin sister (real name Aiko), was also afflicted with AIDS, and there isn't much about her in canon. As for Merida, there's even less, only that they met each other in some vrgame and founded the Sleeping Knight guild. Also, Merida was in the beta for SAO, but not the official game. She also died at some moment, and we also don't know exactly when.

To be clear, I'm making some changes to the timeline here. You don't need to worry about it, I'm mainly just having Yuuki, Ran, and Merida meet earlier than they would in canon (they will be real life friends who joined SAO together in my novel), which will snowball in a whole lotta things you will discover later on. Also, they are going to be about 2 years older than they were in canon (putting them at 14 instead of 12) just to fit better in the plot.

I hope I didn't make things even more confusing with this explanation, and if you have any doubts/ideas/suggestions/critics, feel free to comment! Powerstones are good, but what I really like is reading and answering your comments and reviews, so keep them coming! (the powerstones too, so the novel can reach more people!)