Asuna-san!
I'll introduce you.
This is my guild, the Sleeping Knights!
I'm Jun! Nice to meet you, Asuna-san!
I-I'm, uh...
My name is Talken.
N-Nice to meet— Ow.
Stop being so nervous all the time, Tal.
Whenever you talk to a girl, this happens.
I'm Nori.
Glad to meet you, Asuna-san.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Siune.
Thanks for coming.
My name's Tecchi.
Nice to meet you.
And I'm Yuuki, the guild leader!
Asuna-san, listen...
We want to defeat this floor's boss monster.
With just these members!
The Sleeping Knights
A boss fight is normally done with forty-nine people: seven parties of seven, right?
No matter how good you are, I don't know if it's possible with only seven people...
Actually, it is.
In fact, we challenged the bosses on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth floors.
Th-The six of you?
Yeah.
We thought we were doing pretty well,
but as we tried to optimize our attack,
one of the big guilds beat them before us.
Why do something so crazy?
We met in a certain game's net community,
and we all became fast friends.
But unfortunately, we'll probably only be able to adventure together until spring.
Everyone will be busy with their own lives.
So, before that happens, we all decided
to make a memory we'd never be able to forget.
And it's a boss fight?
Yeah.
If you defeat a boss,
your name appears on the Swordsman's Memorial
on the first floor, in the Black Iron Palace in the Town of Beginnings, right?
I know it's silly,
but we really want to have our names on that memorial.
But there's one problem...
If only a single party defeats a boss, everyone's name appears on it.
But if there are multiple parties,
only the party leaders' names appear.
In other words, to get all the Sleeping Knights' names on the memorial,
we have to defeat the boss with a single party.
And so, we all agreed.
A party is a maximum of seven people.
So we thought we'd find someone as strong as our strongest member, Yuuki...
Or even stronger! And ask them to join our party...
That's why you were fighting those duels?
Well?
Will you help us?
We may not be able to do much to thank you, but...
No, no.
Fighting a boss takes a ton of money, so you should save your cash.
If I can get something from the boss, that'll be enough.
Then you'll do it?
This isn't the old Aincrad.
But I'm still thinking about odds of victory and safety margins.
A safe fight.
A certain victory.
There's more fun to a game than that.
I'm sure Yuuki and the others know that.
Much more than I do.
I'll give it a try.
We can forget about the odds—
Thank you, Asuna-san!
Y-You can call me "Asuna."
You can call me "Yuuki"!
Come to think of it, Yuuki-san— I mean, Yuuki...
During your duels, you were looking for someone strong, right?
Yep, that's right.
But I think there must have been many strong people before me...
Especially that Spriggan with black clothes and the one-handed long sword.
Do you remember him?
Oh...
Yeah, I remember. He was really strong.
Then why didn't you ask him for help?
I don't think he'd work.
Why?
He figured out my secret.
Okay, can we meet here, tomorrow at 1:00?
Okay!
Roger!
Let's do our best!
Yeah!
I'll tell you when I get back.
Wh-What are you doing, Mom?
When you were late for dinner last month, do you remember what I said?
If you were late for dinner again, using it,
I would cut the power.
I'm sorry! I lost track of time...
But you didn't have to yank the cord!
You can shake me or shout in my ear,
and I'll see a message—
The last time I tried that, it took you five minutes to wake up.
Well...
I have to move around and say goodbye...
What do you mean, "say goodbye"?
What takes place in that weird game
is more important to you than your real commitments?
I'm sorry.
I'll be careful next time.
This had better not happen again.
If you break a rule again due to this,
I'll take your machine away.
I just don't understand...
You lost two years of your life to it.
I'd think you wouldn't want
to even see it anymore.
This isn't like the NerveGear.
It's time for dinner.
Change and come down.
I don't want any today.
Do what you like.
Mom Shinozaki Rika Kirigaya Kazuto Mom
Will that work, Asuna?
Asuna?
Um...
Yuuki, Jun, and Tecchi will be the forwards.
Talken and Nori are mid-range.
And Siune is the backup, right?
Which means I should stay back, too, right?
Sorry, I know you're really good with a sword...
It's no problem. I can't tank.
In exchange, I'm going to watch Jun and Tecchi get beaten silly.
Leave it to us.
Okay, let's go take a peek at the boss room.
Did they really need me?
I can't believe you're getting through the labyrinth so easily.
You're all really strong.
That's the boss room!
Yuuki, wait!
Ecc Karra Fim Fiscul.
Buryota Ryuga Galdol!
S-Stop! Stop!
We aren't here to fight!
Then put down your weapons!
If they look like they're about to draw their swords again,
cast Aqua Bind right away.
On it.
I've never done PvP in ALO...
It's exciting!
If you aren't PKers, why were you hiding?
We're waiting for someone.
We didn't want to be fighting mobs while waiting for our friends,
so we were hiding.
Fine.
We're here to fight the boss.
If you're waiting, you won't mind if we go ahead of you, right?
N-No, of course not.
We'll wait for our friends here. Good luck.
Bye.
Oth Shal Opis Glon Ropt.
Let's ignore them and get going.
We'll follow our original plan, and have a look inside.
Yeah.
Let's not merely peek. Let's try and beat it!
Well, that would be ideal...
But you don't need to use your expensive healing items.
We'll just get as far as we can with Siune's and my healing, okay?
Right, sensei!
Hey!
Even if you die, don't go back to town immediately.
Watch the boss's attack patterns carefully,
and if we all get wiped out, we return to the Lonbal save point.
Roger!
Let's go!
Right!
We totally lost!
What was that attack? It's not fair!
Its defense was really good, too...
Was that guard move he does random?
We worked really hard, too.
Asuna!
Everyone, get over here quickly!
There's no time to waste.
You remember the three guys in front of the boss room, don't you?
Yeah, sure.
Those were scouts for a guild that only fights bosses.
They're watching to see if other players,
outside their guild, fight the boss.
They probably saw you all enter
the boss rooms on the last floor and the one before it.
I didn't notice at all.
I'd guess their goal isn't to interfere with us. It's to gather information.
They use small guilds, like the Sleeping Knights,
to gather information on the boss's attack patterns and weaknesses.
B-But right after we entered the boss room, the door closed.
They couldn't watch the fight itself and learn anything.
That was my mistake.
Near the end of the fight, I saw a small, gray lizard on the floor by Jun.
That's the darkness spell "peeping."
You make a familiar follow another player,
and you can see what it sees.
Does that mean that, after we got wiped out on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth floors,
it wasn't a coincidence that the bosses were beaten so quickly?
I'm sure of it.
You guys worked so hard, you were able to reveal all the boss's tricks,
and that's why they were willing to take the chance of fighting.
Which means that we've fallen for the same trick again, this time?
Oh, man...
Damn it!
No...
Not necessarily!
What do you mean, Asuna?
In real time, it's 2:30 in the afternoon.
Even a large guild will have difficulty
getting a big group together with this notice.
I think it'd take an hour, minimum.
We'll use that time.
We'll finish our meeting in five minutes, and be back at the boss room in thirty.
Okay?
Yeah!
Okay! We're almost there!
Hey, wait!
No way!
Wh-What is this?
It's okay.
They only have twenty or so here.
We'll have time to try.
Really?
Excuse me.
We want to challenge the boss.
Can you let us through?
Sorry.
This place is off-limits right now.
What do you mean by "off-limits"?
Our guild is about to fight the boss.
We're getting ready.
Just wait there a while.
A while? How long?
Well... An hour or so?
We don't have time for that.
If you're going in now, that's one thing...
But if you can't, then let us go first!
There's nothing I can do about it.
It's an order from the top.
If you have a problem with it, go to guild HQ and talk to them.
They're in Ig City—
To get there, it would take an hour!
Hey, you...
In other words, you won't move, no matter what we say, right?
Well, basically, yeah.
All right.
Fine, then.
Let's fight.
Y-Yuuki, that's...
Asuna, there are things you can only share with someone by fighting.
For instance, how serious you are.
Yeah, that's about right!
Everyone...
I'm sure they agree with me.
These guys are willing to protect this place, down to the last man.
Isn't that right?
We're...
Now, draw your sword.
Th-That isn't fair...
That was a surprise attack!
There are things you can only share with someone by fighting.
Oh...
She's right.
Oh, no!
If I hadn't hesitated...
Sorry for getting you caught up in this because of my short fuse, Asuna.
But I don't regret it.
That's the brightest smile I've seen on you since we met!
Likewise.
I'm sorry I couldn't help.
We might not get this boss,
but let's defeat the next boss together!
You don't know when to give up.
Sorry.
This place
is off-limits.
Next Time Swordsman's Memorial