Integral Factor: Ordinal Scale

Monday, April 27th, Koharu

Bzpt-bzzz-bzzz! Bzpt-bzzz-bzzz!

Oh, whoever had the audacity to call Koharu Honda at this time of night better rue the day they were born. Groggy and angry, Koharu had half a mind to curse out the caller no matter who it was. She reached over to the nightstand and searched for her phone blindly with her hand, then brought it over to her half-lidded sight so she could see who the victim of her wrath would be.

At 02:58 AM, Kazuto Kirigaya was pronounced dead. Though she wanted to talk to him about the ghost she was sure they both encountered, she didn't want to do it now. He didn't even know about her story yet. She pressed the answer button and held the phone to her ear, yet Kazuto beat her to words.

"Ko, I'm really, really sorry for calling you this late, but it's Asuna... If it's no bother, can you log in to ALO for a moment?"

"Asuna?" The mention of her best friend and Kazuto's worried tone quelled Koharu's frustration for the moment. "Is she okay?"

"No, honestly. But it's better if you see for yourself. I think...you can handle this better than I can right now."

For Asuna, Koharu would do almost anything, including waking up in the middle of the night. "Sure. Give me one second." She hung up and got ahold of the Amusphere, quickly booting it up and logging into Alfheim Online. She was in the log cabin in less than a minute, surrounded by darkness except for the single lamp on the table between the couches. It illuminated the forms of the Undine girl and the Spriggan boy seated on one of the couches, so Koharu joined them on the other side of the table without an inquiry.

One glance at Asuna's face, devoid of emotion, told her everything. Kirito's face was troubled in itself. Something happened, and it started during tonight's boss raid.

Somewhat annoyed by the heavy silence (she hadn't fully woken up yet to express her normal personality), she said, "Asuna? What's wrong?"

Asuna took her sweet time answering, but what she said caught Koharu off guard. "Koharu...do you remember the day we met?"

"Huh?" She glanced at Kirito, confused by the line of questioning. She wasn't expecting to be asked about four years ago, nor did she understand why Asuna was asking about it now as if it was pertinent to her current situation. But Kirito slightly nodded for Koharu to go along with it, so she responded, "Yeah, of course."

"Tell me about it all."

"Well, it depends on which you consider our true first encounter. When we first met, Jaymes and I were investigating this dungeon, which was rumored to have a way to log out. Argo wanted to verify it, and we happened to be with her at the time. When we arrived, you were being attacked by a monster, so we got you out of there and slayed the beast. Granted, we should have investigated it and would've learned that Illfang had changed from the beta."

"But if you ask me, we truly met the day of the boss raid meeting in Tolbana since you were kinda out of it before. When Diavel suggested we form parties, Jaymes and I were looking to bolster our numbers a little, and you two were the only ones left. We joined up and left for Kirito's rented space on a farm. We were excited because he promised there was a bathtub, and truth be told, it felt wrong to go a month without bathing, virtual reality be damned."

"But I was more excited to meet another girl on the frontline. I met other girl players—Argo, Sachi, and Mito before we knew you two were connected—but you were the only other girl at the meeting. That made me feel like we had an instant bond, but honestly, I was partially afraid of you, given how sharp-tongued you were with the boys. Then we shared the bath, and you told me that I was beautiful, and we started talking about how we were brand new to VRMMOs and wished we were doing mock exams rather than being there...then you asked me to be my friend."