Sword Art Online Progressive 4

Posting chapter 11, 12 and afterword.
Please point out any typos or errors.
Broken ellipsis and inconsistent quote marks symbols are trivial and I'll fix them later, feel free to ignore broken commas and dots too, though pointing out any punctuation that seems extra rare is helpful.
Still posting 1 chapter a day, oops.
Also, if anyone has HQ illustrations from Yen Press please share them.
And yes, I'll share the full volume later.

Chapter 1: (colored illustrations inside)
Chapter 2:
Chapter 3:
Chapter 4:
Chapter 5 Part 1:
Chapter 5 Part 2:
Chapter 6:
Chapter 7:
Chapter 8:
Chapter 9:
Chapter 10:

11
“WELL, I WOUND UP WITH THE THING… SO WHAT DO I do now?”

Holding it in my hand, I looked up at the mirrored silver pole, which stood planted in the stone floor.

I was the only person remaining in the boss chamber of the fifth floor. I'd sent the rest of the team up the spiral stairs, reassuring them I'd follow in minutes.

The stone-built chamber was utterly silent now, without a trace of the ferocious battle with the golem just minutes earlier. With the tension gone, I was now heavy with fatigue. I hobbled over to the wall, using the flagpole as a cane, and sat down with a spoken “There we go.”

The solitude was for me to think about a few things.

First, Hafner had taken a vote, and the unanimous opinion was that I should be forced— Er, allowed to keep the guild flag. I tapped the side of the heavy pole with my left thumb to bring up the property window.

At the top was the item name, Flag of Valor.

It was categorized as a long spear, but according to the info from the beta, the attack power was extremely low. It was the magical effects that were truly extraordinary. That was the same as before, too—so long as it was planted in the ground during battle, any guild members within fifty feet of the flag would receive

its benefits. This chamber was about a hundred feet across, so if the flag bearer stood right in the middle, the whole interior would be covered by the effect.

To register the flag to a guild, all it took was for a player with guild leader status to hit the register button at the bottom of the property window. The pure white banner would automatically change to the colors of the guild, and the flag could not be reregistered with a different guild. In other words, if Kibaou registered the flag and the ALS later merged with the DKB into a new guild, the flag would be useless to them. That could be circumvented by disbanding the DKB and having all its members join the ALS, but that would never happen.

In that sense, Okotan's idea to use the flag as a tool to merge the two guilds wasn't technically wrong, just realistically very unlikely. Hafner and Okotan had reached a sort of mutual understanding, but that was a miracle brought about by the success of our tremendous mission to defeat the worst boss yet with a tiny group. Once we started on the sixth floor, they would return to their guilds and resume status as rivals.

But surely today's events would not go to waste. They had been implanted deep into the memories of those involved and would someday bear flowers, I told myself.

I opened my window and placed the guild flag onto it. With a little bling, the massive flagpole vanished into the inventory window.

All I could do for now was stash it, but it took an act of will to put away an item with such incredible stats. It was imperative that I find an ideal use for it.

The clock on my window said it was past eight thirty. The ALS could come charging up the stairs at any moment.

The second thing on my mind was how to handle them.

I had the option to race up the spiral staircase and take the teleport gate on the sixth floor back down to Karluin. But if I did that, Kibaou's group would not know what happened.

They might go crazy looking for a way to summon the boss. That wasn't something I wanted on my conscience.

I supposed I had a responsibility to explain that I had jumped the gun on their plan to jump the gun. So I leaned back against the wall and shut my eyes, waiting for the ALS to arrive.

After a while, I heard the sound of footsteps.

It seemed rather early for them, but then I grew suspicious. There was only one set of steps, and it was coming from above, not from below.

When I opened my eyelids, I saw a fencer in a light purple cape descending the spiral staircase from the sixth floor.

“Asuna...” I willed the strength into my legs to stand. “What is it? Didn’t you go to the city up there?”

She shrugged her caped shoulders as she stepped off the staircase and approached.

"I heard an interesting story as we were climbing the stairs, so I thought I’d tell you about it.”

“Oh...? Wh-what kind of story?”

Asuna stopped next to me and turned around so she could lean back against the wall.

"It's about the source of Okotan's character name. What do you suppose it is?”

“Huh...? W-well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious. He didn’t seem like the kind of person who would be quick to anger, as the "oko" would imply... Hmm. Does he like o-kotatsu, those low tables with the heater underneath?”

“Bzzzt!”

She crossed her index fingers in an X and grinned. “It’s the name of a river that flows into Lake Shikotsu in Hokkaido. He grew up near there and had a soft spot for the place.”

"Ohhh... Now that you mention it, Kotan sounds like an Ainu-ish name... But did you really come back here just to tell me that?"

“Of course not,” she said, contradicting her earlier statement, but didn’t elaborate.

It was a reminder to me that she was truly an enigma. But before I could come up with a reply, she suddenly asked, "You stayed behind to negotiate with the ALS squad, didn’t you?”

I tilted my head at an awkward angle, neither a nod nor a shake.

“Er, I wouldn’t... say that... necessarily...”

“I wouldn’t have anything to do up in town anyway. I’ll join you,” she declared.

“Uh…”

The ALS would be furious when they learned we had beaten them to the punch, of course, but it wouldn't turn dangerous... I thought. But that depended on how serious they were about getting the guild flag. Did they just want to ensure the DKB didn't get their hands on it—or were they determined to seize it at any cost?

Even if it was the latter, I couldn't believe they would turn their weapons on a fellow player outside of town. They were game clearers, not bandits. On top of that, I knew that Asuna would not listen to any orders to leave.

“...Thanks. Just don’t provoke them, please..."I pleaded. Asuna murmured that she understood.

For the next five minutes, we waited along the wall, chatting about mindless subjects.

Eventually, the sound of many clanking footsteps approached from the descending staircase. Two, no, three—it had to be the ALS scout party.

The lightly armed fighters raced into the room in a triangle formation, looking around sharply. From my spot on the wall, I called out, “Hi, guys.”

The men all looked in my direction, and their eyes and mouths went huge. The captain type lowered his sword and gasped. “B-Blackie?! What are you doing here?! Where’s the floor boss...?”

“Sorry. Already beat him.”

"..."

After a full five seconds of silence, the captain sighed and shook his head. One of the two in the rear mumbled, ''Y'know, I just had a feeling..."

* * *

One minute later, the full, twenty-four-man ALS core group and the duo from the true pioneer group faced one another across the descending staircase.

Some or the men dressed in matching moss-green and dark metal gear whispered among one another in the back, but the spiky-haired guild leader Kibaou stood boldly in the center, his arms crossed, eyes and mouth shut tight, maintaining his silence.

Figuring it was a good opportunity to refresh my memory on the names and faces of the main ALS members, I turned to Asuna and whispered, "Do you know any of their names aside from Kibaou?”

“Umm... the one to the right of Kibaou with the trident is Hokkai Ikura. The one with the scimitar on the left is Melonmask. And to the left of him with the short spear is... Schinkenspeck, I think…?”

"...Well,I'm glad they're not all named after food," I muttered, suddenly struck by a pang of hunger.

Asuna promptly added, “Schinkenspeck is a type of Austrian smoked ham. It’s well spiced and quite delicious."

"...When we get back, we have to eat dinner..."

Before Asuna could reply to that suggestion, Kibaou's eyes flashed open, and arms still crossed, he shouted, “At any rate! It seems clear y'all beat the boss, so I will tell you congratulations! But if you don’t explain a few things right here an’ now, we won’t be able to go traipsin’ back to town!”

“Uh... yeah, I get it. I’ll explain whatever I can,” I said. Kibaou thrust out his hand, index finger upright.

"First! You ain't gonna tell me it was just you who beat the boss all on yer own. Where’d you get the muscle?!”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, I replied. Kibaou's eyebrow arched, but he withheld comment and straightened another finger.

“Second! It ain't a coincidence that ya beat the boss just before we showed up! How’d ya know we were gonna tackle the boss tonight?!”

"Sorry, can’t tell you that, either.”

His eyebrow twitched again. Half the members with him looked ready to explode with anger, while the other half shook their heads in disbelief or resignation. I heard one of them yell to take the questions seriously, but Kibaou silenced him with his hand and held up a third finger.

''Those were just the warm-up. But this one you can't back out of answerin'... The floor boss musta dropped an item called a

guild flag. What happened to it?!”

"..."

Now it was my turn to fall silent.

Not because Kibaou had caught me in a trap, but because I knew it was necessary for me to be honest about it. There was a danger to doing that, however slight. In the worst-case scenario, the twenty-four players could draw their swords to PK me. If that happened, I needed Asuna to escape up the spiral stairs.

Simulating how that reaction would play out inside my head, I nodded.

“Yeah… it dropped.”

The ALS members murmured, stunned. I held up the index and middle fingers of my right hand and swiped them straight down.

My menu appeared with a bell chime, and I used it to materialize the item I'd just placed inside it.

The murmuring increased when they saw the ten-foot-long silver flagpole appear in a shower of light. I gripped the pole around the middle, closed the window, and loudly stomped the butt of the Flag of Valor onto the stone floor of the boss chamber.

"This is the guild flag. As I'm guessing you already know, planting it on the ground like this provides four buffs to all guild members within fifty feet of the flag. It's an extremely helpful item against bosses, but once registered to a guild, it can never be changed.”

My explanation was rather abbreviated, but even then, the ALS

Thanks again!

members were stunned into muttering for a third time. Some of them looked up at the pure white banner, clearly envisioning it dyed with the color and logo of the ALS.

But Kibaou had the presence of mind to hold steady. He snorted and got to the business at hand.

"Well, well, well. You got yer prize, just like a true beater. So, since you refuse to join any guild... whatcha gonna do with that thing?”

This was the centerpiece of the conversation.

I sucked in a deep breath, tensed my stomach, raised the guild flag—and slammed the butt against the ground with a crack.

"I am not opposed to leaving this flag in your care, Kibaou. However, I have two conditions.”

“Let’s hear ’em.”

"While there are two, I need only one to be satisfied. The first is if a future boss drops the same item. In that case, I will offer this flag freely to the guild that does not receive it, so that the ALS has one and the DKB has one.”

I heard cries of "When will that happen?" and "That's just wasting time until then!" from the back. But Kibaou only nodded, prompting me to continue with a glance. I took another deep breath and delivered my second condition.

“Or if the ALS and DKB join forces to form a new guild. In that case, I will give you this flag instantly and without further requirements.”

Over three seconds of heavy silence passed.

It was torn to shreds by a cavalcade of bellowing voices.

“We... we can’t do that!!”

“Merge with those elitist pricks?! You're joking!!”

"Go and suggest the same thing to them! They'll tell you you're crazy!!”

Two dozen angry men inched forward. At my side, Asuna grew noticeably stiffen I continued to stand tall against the shouts, mentally measuring the distance to the staircase.

Just then, a high-pitched shriek cut through the rabble.

"I... I know the truth!! They're not planning to give us the flag from the start!! They're demanding the impossible from us so they can keep it and start their own guild!!"

That ugly, eardrum-piercing voice was familiar to me.

It was the voice that revealed I was a former beta tester in the first boss chamber.

The voice that suggested the Legend Braves' scam had caused a fatality in the second boss chamber.

The voice that claimed Asuna and I were trying to monopolize the Elf War campaign quest in the third boss chamber.

Breaking through the crowd was the dagger user, whose name was Joe, I recalled. He wore a leather mask with holes for his eyes and mouth, which made him look ridiculous but also hid his facial features.

Joe pointed a finger at me, bent like a claw, and shouted, “We don’t gotta listen to their nonsense, Kiba! There’s only two of ’em! There are plenty of ways we can take that flag back!!”

Wait.

I'd heard that screeching voice somewhere else, too. Not in a big group like this... but in town, or the wilderness, or a dungeon...

Just as my mind was about to seize on some kernel of understanding, a deep, threatening voice growled, "You mean by force, Joe?”

“Exactly!! We got four full parties here, and there’s only two of 'em. It would be easy to..."

“You idiot!!” Kibaou thundered, grabbing Joe by the shirt. He lifted the smaller avatar and practically head-butted the leather mask. "Yeah, the info on the guild flag you brought us was accurate, but no matter how important it is, if we draw swords on another player, that makes us nothin' but a buncha thugs and criminals! Sit yer ass down and think about why the ALS exists again!''

He thrust Joe away and turned back toward us, lowering his head despite the grimace on his features.

“Sorry about forcin’ you to hear that nonsense. As far as those conditions go… can I assume you’d tell the DKB the same things?”

“Uh… yes, of course.”

“Then I’ll let you hold the flag for now. Wouldn’t hold out hope for that merger, though.”

By Kibaou's standards, it seemed like a rather easy resignation, but I suspected that it was just a sign that he, too, thought of the flag like an unstable bomb.

While not all of them looked entirely satisfied, the other members had no choice but to fall silent at their leader's order. Joe glared at us briefly before returning to his position.

Kibaou crossed his arms again, puffed out his chest, and barked, “We’re goin' back now! Nice work, y’all!” He started for the stairs leading down. I was in the process of putting the guild flag back into my inventory and looked up with a start at the spiky head.

“Actually, they should have activated the sixth-floor gate already, so if you want to return to Karluin, it might be faster that way."

“I see.”

Kibaou spun around on his heel and headed for the spiral stairs instead. When he passed by me, I thought I saw his lips quietly form the word thanks, but that was probably my mind playing tricks on me.

It took a while for twenty-four sets of feet to disappear up the stairs. When silence arrived at last, I felt the tension within me finally snap, and I let out a long breath.

“Ahhh… Well, out of all the possible outcomes I considered, that was definitely one of the better ones. I still have to tell the DKB about this, but for now—nice work, Asuna. Let’s take a little rest and then..."

“Go back,” I was going to finish, but the words caught in my throat.

The fencer had been standing there and listening during the entire conversation with Kibaou, her presence regal and confident.

But now two tears trailed silently down her pale cheeks. They formed drops under her slender chin—glittering as they collected the light from the vast chamber—then fell, one and then the other.

“A…Asuna…?” I whispered, completely dumbfounded by why she would be crying.

There'd been some tension in the showdown with the ALS, but Kibaou had kept a cool head, so I'd never felt in danger for my life. The boss battle before that had been a much more terrifying ordeal. And Asuna had never raised a peep of concern during the long fight, so why cry now?

Eventually my mind ran out of steam and went blank. She looked straight at me, not bothering to hide her tears. Despite the situation, I couldn't stop myself from thinking that those wet hazel-brown eyes were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in the world.

Her pale lips parted, vibrating the virtual air.

"Why...why..."

She clenched her eyes shut, dripping large orbs of fluid, then raised her voice.

"Why do you have to be talked to like that...? After how hard you worked... After you risked your life to fight for the sake of the group, for the sake of everyone trapped in here... After you bowed to them and apologized... Why do you deserve this?"

It took some time for those words, spoken in a voice like a tiny silver thread pulled to its absolute tautest, to form meaning in my head.

Asuna was crying for my sake.

But that understanding did not tell me how I should have reacted. Her wet cheeks scrunched up.

"This is wrong. They make their guilds, pull all their friends in, do whatever they want, bicker with each other... and you ran yourself ragged for their sake, only to get accused like that... It's wrong. It's absolutely wrong," she protested, shaking her head. Asuna looked up at the ceiling and pursed her lips, helpless to stop the streaming tears.

Finally I succeeded in sucking in a breath. I took a step toward my partner and managed to put my thoughts into words.

“...That’s what I chose to happen. I chose not to join a group. I’m not fighting because I want people to recognize me... or praise me. As long as I can protect myself and those around me, the rest doesn’t matter to me.”

I had kept that ugly bit of ego hidden from Asuna all this time. I didn’t have a shred of dedication to others or self-sacrifice. The reason I avoided joining either of the two big guilds, and formed my own boss party, and nearly killed myself fighting, and apologized to the group afterward was for no other reason than my own survival.

“So… I don’t have the right to be recognized or praised. You don't need to cry for..."

An impact against my right shoulder cut me off. Asuna was clenching her fist.

“I’m the one who decides who I should cry for!” she shouted, her face a mess. She used her other hand to rub at her eyes and attempted a smile. The hand still pressed against my shoulder opened up and grabbed the surface of my coat instead.

"In that case... I'll be the one to praise you, Kirito. I'll do whatever I can for you... whatever you say."

Later—much, much, much later—Asuna would confide to me, "A part of me was worried about the possibility that you would say something really crazy," with a gentle, beaming smile.

But at this moment, I wasn't capable of saying anything crazy. The best I could do was offer her a very awkward smile.

"...Just you saying that is enough for me. I don’t want you to do anything for me...”

"Then, sit down!” she ordered abruptly, pushing hard. I gave in to her force and lowered myself to one knee.

[insert illustration]

Suddenly, her hand left my shoulder. It circled behind my head and pulled me against the light steel plate covering her chest.

Her left hand slowly, gently, tenderly stroked my hair. She repeated the motion over and over and over.

The softness of her hand. The scent like spring sunshine. The warmth of her body touching mine.

As I soaked in these sensations, I eventually came to the realization that tears were brimming in my own eyes.

The exhaustion that had set in over the fifty-five-day battle that had taken me from the first floor through the fifth.

And the support, healing, and courage that the fencer's presence had brought me throughout that time.

These things kept me locked in place, submitting to Asuna's embrace for a long, long time. And throughout, the movement of her hand never, ever stopped.


-------------------------

That's chapter 11.
Man, I almost couldn't hold it there at the end, that hit pretty hard.

12
“TENNN,NIIINE,EEE1GHT,SEEEVEN...”

Karluin, main city of the fifth floor, rocked with the voices of over a thousand players chanting in unison.

“Siiix, fiiive,fooour, threeee...”

There was no screen showing the numbers or an MC leading the crowd through a mic, but the countdown continued in perfect harmony regardless.

"Twooo, ooone...”

A number of flames leaped up from the teleport gate at the center of town, toward the bottom of the floor above.

As the crowd chanted “Zero,” a huge circle of flowers bloomed in the dark sky.

The cheers of the players blended into the booming of the fireworks. Calls of “Happy New Year” and “Congratulations” echoed off the buildings, and several players celebrated the moment by firing colorful sword skills against walls here and there.

We were standing on the terrace of the ruined old castle on the east end of Karluin, which offered us a view of both the fireworks display and the celebration below. It was a hidden spot, so no one else would bother us. I was absorbed by the show of light and sound, but my partner nearby was not.

“Happy New Year, Kirito!” she bubbled, holding out a narrow glass with a smile.

“Happy New Year,” I replied, clinking it with my own glass. We drank the Champagne—if you could call it that; at the most it was bubbling golden wine—and shared a smile, then looked back into the sky over town.

"I didn't realize they had fireworks... Where do they sell them, I wonder?" I murmured, squinting as I watched the colorful bursts. Asuna was on the fireworks team of the party-planning committee, so she had the answer.

"Liten told us there was a fishy item shop in a little corner of the Town of Beginnings. They spotted the fireworks there first, and that was what gave them the idea for the countdown party."

"Oooh... I wonder if those fireworks cause damage if they hit a monster..." I suggested, which earned me the first look of exasperation of the year from Asuna.

“I'm sorry to inform you that they are only usable in town,”

“Oh, I didn’t realize..."

"More importantly, it's almost over. Go on, watch those fireworks properly before they finish."

At her suggestion, I looked over the town, where the highest number of flames yet were rising from the ground. Da-da-da-da-doom! They exploded at the same time the colorful flashes appeared, filling the night sky and sparkling like rain before they vanished. Another cheer rose from the town, and when it died down at last, I turned to Asuna.

“So it’s 2023…” I mumbled, trying to grapple with the concept that a new year had actually begun. "It's hard to believe we've been here for two months..."

“Yeah. When I was hiding in that inn room in the Town of Beginnings, each day was like an eternity, but once I started helping out, they started passing in a blink."

"Well, sure. When you start doing quests, raising skill levels, gathering ingredients, and so on, there aren't enough hours in the day to manage it all. Still..."

I paused, and Asuna looked at me expectantly. I turned to the

sky, which was dark again, gazed at the massive lid of steel and rock, and shook my head.

"...Just thinking, 2023's going to be a very long year. We've got twelve whole months, after all."

“Well, of course we do!”

She jabbed my shoulder, and I made an exaggerated display of falling over.

In all honesty, I was wondering how long we could maintain our current pace of advancement.

It took one week to beat the third floor. Six days for the fourth. And this floor took only four days to finish. But the reason that kind of power playing worked was because we were maintaining a margin safely above the recommended level for each area. Since the monsters were comparatively weak, we could cruise through quests and raise our skill levels and gather ingredients without stressing about it.

But that would not last forever. It would get harder and harder to maintain the safety margin, until the point that we were spending every waking hour of the day farming monsters. And because we would need to fight tougher monsters for better experience gain, that would involve a heavy mental toll as well. By the time we got to the tenth floor, the spot where we ended the beta, the difficulty of beating each floor would be much worse than it was now.

But bringing that up now wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

The point was, we'd survived to see a new year. No doubt the news that the fifth floor had been beaten on the very day of the countdown party would be a huge morale boost. It gave the DKB a nasty surprise, but tomorrow—er, later today—I would join Shivata and Hafner in properly explaining the situation of the guild flag to them.

For now, I was going to enjoy the biggest festival ever held in Aincrad. That would help create energy to fuel our conquest of the next floor.

I started to pour a fresh glass of Champagne for myself, then realized the bottle was running low. I turned to Asuna, who was nibbling on some cheese, and said, "I'm going down to get a fresh bottle and some food. Wait for me here.”

"Thanks. Be careful."

I waved at her and went back into the castle.

The terrace was a special hidden spot, but the front courtyard of the castle was the main party area, where Agil was set up as a food vendor. He had an assortment of specialty foods from all five floors available, so I charged through the castle, thinking excitedly about which items would give Asuna the creeps.

I raced down the steps from the fourth floor of the castle to the third and headed through a secret door down a dusty passage. Past a long row of pillars, I made my way to the main stairway of the castle.

Just then, I felt a powerful chill at the nape of my neck. I instinctively leaped sideways, but a sharp object pressed against my back, through my coat.

Someone hiding in the shadows of the pillars had jabbed the point of a blade against my back.

This was not a prank from a familiar person. If this individual had been hiding for fun, even swept away by the celebratory mood as I was, I would have noticed. The mystery person had been concealed with the Hiding skill... one proficient enough that even my Search skill did not detect it.

I felt the persons face approach my frozen ear. It breathed softly and whispered,

“It’s showtime.”

It was a cold, deep voice, one I'd never heard before. It had more inflection than was necessary, yet there was not a hint of emotion in it.

“...Who are you?” I demanded in a rasping voice, measuring the timing it would take me to leap away. But the pressure of the point against my back increased only a bit.

[insert illustration]

“Whoopsie—stay still, now. Wouldn’t want you to move and get stabbed by my knife."

The only person I could imagine doing such a thing to me was Morte, the duel PKer whom I already had a history with. But this voice and the way it spoke was utterly different from his.

I contained my breathing and whispered back, "We're in town. You can’t threaten me with that thing here.”

I was absolutely certain of that fact.

But the mugger at my back ruled that defense out.

''Come on, Blackie, get it right. Only the front courtyard of the castle is in town. The interior is a dungeon, remember?"

“Wha...?”

I fell silent, frantically searching through my memory.

There were indeed a number of quests set around this ruined castle, and the secret doors here and there made it like a dungeon. But there weren't any monsters—plus, there was no outside field notice when I entered the castle.

But it was also true that Karluin was more vague than normal when it came to the boundary between the safe and unsafe areas. I couldn't deny the possibility that I was so carried away with the party atmosphere that I simply missed the message.

But even then...

“This isn’t the real world. That’s just one knife. Even an ultra-powerful boss drop wouldn't have enough power to wipe out my HP with one hit. And it would make you an orange player… You don’t think I’d just stand there and take it, do you?”

"Oooh, very brave of you. Sure, it won't do much HP damage... but what if I told you this blade has level-five paralyzing venom and level-five damaging poison applied to it?”

"...!!"

The fierce point of the weapon poked me twice again, teasing now.

It was impossible. Even monsters were using only level-2 poison at this stage, and the poisons a player could make with the Mixing skill were only level 1, due to the materials available. But

that was all I knew from the beta... and I'd been shown time and time again that my memory did not guarantee anything in Aincrad anymore.

If his threat was true, then I would collapse on the spot for at least ten minutes if I was pricked, plenty of time for my HP to run out.

I sucked a tiny breath into my stiffening chest and expelled it in words.

“...What do you want?”

The voice chuckled just behind my ear. It was a theatrical laugh; quite joyful by the sound of it, yet clearly containing no true emotion within it.

“Isn't that obvious, bro? I want to have fun.”

“Fun…?”

"That's right; I wanna have a good time. They built this incredible stage for us, you know? I want to throw a wrench into the works and really make it dramatic.”

After that statement, I finally understood who the man standing behind me was.

I didn't know his name or face, of course. But I knew him.
“You’re… Morte’s boss. The one who taught the Legend Braves about the upgrade scam, and the one trying to making the ALS and DKB fight... The Man in the Black Poncho," I accused, voice rasping. He whistled in admiration.

"Ooh, I like that nickname... nice John Wayne Gacy vibe to it. So... shall we find somewhere else to go?”

“...Where do you intend to take me?”

"Underground, of course. Killers always go down in the basement, right?"

There was indeed an underground floor in this castle. It would all be over if I went there. No one would hear my screams. And the basement had monsters in it—that was unquestionably out of the safe haven. It would be suicidal to do as he said, but given that I couldn't rule out the level-5 poisons on his knife, I had no choice but to obey…

...No.

If he really had level-5 paralysis at his command, he didn't need to threaten and order me around. He could just poke me with it and carry me anywhere he wanted. It would be easy to drag my body into the basement.

The paralysis was a bluff.

And I guessed—no, I knew—we weren’t out of town.

Morte and this man were PKers using provocation. The one tool someone used to provoke others was language. He was trying to convince me that I was already in a dangerous area to make me move to a place that actually was.

“…Got it,” I said, and stepped forward.

The moment a tiny space opened between my back and the tip of the knife, I leaped back hard. The knife slammed into my back, of course, the sharp tip tearing through the leather coat and shirt, then—

—Filling the hallway with a purple flash. A shock hit my back. The Anti-Criminal Code kicked in, generating an automatic wall that pushed me and the knife apart.

"Shit!" the man swore. I held strong against the impact and pulled my sword free as I spun around.

"Raaaah!"

I unleashed the Slant sword skill. It wouldn't damage my opponent, of course, but my intention was to temporarily pause him with the knockback effect and hopefully alert Agil's group in the courtyard below with the flash and sound.

I caught sight of a black figure attempting to leap away.

It was quite tall. The thin body was shrouded in a black, hooded short coat that shone with a reflective finish—a poncho. I couldn’t see the face under the hood, but there were black curls at the base of his neck.

My system-accelerated blade bore down on his breast. If I could force him to fall over, I could keep him in a pseudo-stunned state by continually hitting him with sword skills.

But the man's airborne body retreated with impossible speed for a jump, and my sword hit only empty air.

“Not done yet—!”

I drew back my blade for the charging skill Rage Spike, hoping to time it for when he landed. The poncho man had to have a very high Acrobatics skill, but even he couldn't jump back faster than a charging skill.

The moment I lurched forward on my left foot and broke out of the post-skill delay, my sword began to glow brightly.

But once again, the man in the poncho betrayed my expectations.

Right before he landed, he tossed a small sphere onto the ground. It exploded on impact, throwing up a thick black smoke that filled the hallway.

A smoke screen?!

I had never seen that item in SAO, either now or in the beta, but I executed the sword skill anyway, in the direction I expected my adversary to be.

The special metallic sound unique to charging skills rang out, and the sharp tip of the Sword of Eventide ripped through the smoke. I felt it graze something, and there was a small flash of that purple system effect again.

That was all. When I landed, I slipped out of the smoke and quickly scanned my surroundings.

But the man in the black poncho was nowhere to be seen. I tried to make full use of my Search skill, concentrating hard on my vision and hearing, but I caught neither moving shadow nor footstep.

"...Until we meet again, Blackie."

I turned around in the direction I thought I heard the message come from, but the clearing smoke sitting in the dim hallway just mocked my solitude. I ground my teeth together, realizing I hadn't even caught sight of his face—but then I spotted something.

A midsized knife, lying on the ground on the side of the hall.

I walked over to pick it up. It was all black with a simple design, but even in my level-19 hands—I'd gained a level in the boss fight—it felt quite heavy.

I tossed the nonpoisoned weapon into my inventory, then realized I shouldn't be hanging around. The man might not have been acting alone. Morte, the other cloaked man in the catacombs, or even more companions could be lurking around any corner.

“...Asuna," I muttered, and turned around to sprint at full speed.

What if they used the same methods to lure Asuna out into the open?

In terms of power, she was in no way inferior to Morte, but she didn't know much about PvP combat yet. She asked for instruction when we first got to this floor but had backed down at the last moment. She wouldn’t be able to handle these tricksters and their unpredictable ways.

I raced back up the hallway, used a switch in the little dead-end room to open a secret door, then took the stairs up to the fourth floor, three steps at a time. All that was left was to spring down the hall and make a hard turn onto the terrace.

"Asuna!!" I bellowed. The fencer turned away from her view of the bustling town and looked back at me in surprise.

“Wh...what’s the matter, Kirito?”

"..."

In the moment, I had no answer. I just stood in the doorway to the terrace for a while before walking over to her.

"H-hey, what are you—”

I held out my arms, circled them around her slender body, and pulled her close.

Only when I felt the warmth and pressure of her avatar, her body, did I exhale with relief. In the morning, I would give her a proper dueling lesson this time. For now, I just held her close to me.

After a while, she moved her hands and patted my back, like I was a child.

Her gentle whisper sounded in my ear.

“Will you let go now? I’m going to hit you with a sword skill.”

“Ah... uhmm... this area might be outside of town...?”

“Of—course—it's—in—town!!"

Her left hook slammed into my gut, resulting in a heavy shock wave and a shower of purple sparks.

(End)

AFTERWORD
Thank you for reading the fourth volume of Sword Art Online Progressive, "Scherzo of Deep Night."

Since I started the SAOP series by calling the first-floor story “Aria of a Starless Night,” I have named the various subtitles after the names of musical pieces. The “Scherzo” of the fifth floor means “joke” or “jest,” and refers to a piece of music that is fast and playful. There is a very famous scherzo called “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” You might have heard it in the Disney animated film Fantasia, but I personally feel that this song is well suited to the PK gang Laughing Coffin... The “Deep Night” descriptor was an attempt to represent the general mood of the fifth floor, but looking at it now, it comes across as rather juvenile (laughs).

Anyways. In each volume of SAOP, I try to operate on a general theme. The theme of Volume 4 would be "the squirming of Laughing Coffin,” while the hidden theme would be “Kirito and Asuna’s relationship.” I intended to depict the plotting of Laughing Coffin (their name has not yet appeared in the story, of course), who will emerge from obscurity to lead a long, long fight against Kirito—while on the other hand, attempting to show the current relationship status of Asuna and Kirito, who have been temporary partners up through the fifth floor now. That was how the first half of this volume ended up being from Asuna's viewpoint. As a matter of fact, I have a difficult time writing Kirito from the eyes of other characters (he tends to end up looking cooler than necessary), but I feel like Asuna provides the most natural view of him. Of course, he does inevitably end up preening here and there.

In Kirito's half of the story, I really delved into the boss fight for the first time since the second floor. I tried depicting not just a bunch of attack patterns, but the boss chamber's tricks itself, and just coming up with the ideas really took it out of me (laughs).

The designers who come up with real bosses in MMOs and the programmers who implement them into the game are something else, I tell you... Instead, you got the fifth-floor boss from the mind of an amateur; I hope you enjoyed it anyway.

To my poor editor Mr. Miki and illustrator abec, who suffered through the most exquisitely terrible scheduling in Kawahara history, my deepest apologies! Mr. Miki's own book comes out in Japan on December 10, the same day as this volume, and abec's SAO art book will be released in January 2016! Please check them out if you get the chance!!
Reki Kawahara—November 2015


-----------------------------------


That's it, volume done.
Thanks to those who helped and I hope you enjoyed reading. I'll be releasing the full volumes in a few days on Nyaa so look out for that.

Thanks OP

It's nice to see that after all this time, the protag still looks like a girl on the covers.

Thank you OP, this volume was very enjoyable. Hope volume 5 will be released soon.

Thank you based user.

Why couldn't progressive be the main series instead? It's like what the murder mystery arc in aincrad would have been if that was the entire series? And now miki is making reki milk the main series into the ground... as if killing index wasn't enough

Miki wants SAO to go to Hollywood, can't do that with less than a billion copies sold.

Progressive is basically part o that have been timeskipped right? There they progress through floors one by one?

yeah
But that's what doesn't make sense, a volume of progressive outsells the main series. progressive made half the amount the regurlary series does on one new novel last year. Even the people who h8 SAO thinks it's at least decent.

I'm more wondering until when they are actually thinking of keeping it going.

Lots of skinship in this volume.
Liten best tank. I hope that couple get more screentime in the future.
>As a matter of fact, I have a difficult time writing Kirito from the eyes of other characters (he tends to end up looking cooler than necessary)
Well at least he admitted it.

Reki get's a lot of shit, but he's at least getting better instead of worse *cough kamachi cough*

Can I find tomes somewhere on internet? I was trying to search on usual places but everything is deleted

What