Chapter 143 - Resolution

When Drifter made his way back to the inn, it was to find more people than he was expecting waiting for him.

Argo, Kirito, Yuna, and Nautilus were a given, since he had already let them know he was going to talk to Akari.

Agil, Sinon, Asuna, Kizmel, and Griselda weren't unexpected either. He had never meant to keep it a secret from his friends, only to understand the whole situation before informing them with all the facts in hand.

But clearly others had caught on to his out-of-sorts behavior during the day, because Liz, Ran, and Vallerk were also there, as was Keita. Drifter had no doubt that Wolv, Shigio, Yuuki, Silica, and really everyone else, were also aware of the impromptu meeting, but had simply chosen or been advised to skip it for now, and would surely be filled in with the details later.

"What did she say, Drifter?"

Griselda asked while leaning forward on her chair. Her eyes stared unblinking at him, and the spearmaster was sure she had already partially guessed what his talk with Akari was about.

"Fuumaningum is at war with Laughing Coffin."

Never one to mince his words, Drifter summed up the entire conversation with the ninja in a single sentence.

The reactions to his statement were varied. Some recoiled, some widened their eyes. Others stood completely still or frowned. Argo, Yuna, Nautilus, and Kirito, with whom Drifter had already shared his thoughts before setting out to meet Akari, had no reaction at all.

"You can't leave it at that, Drifter. Explain properly."

Asuna had been one of the people to frown, and Drifter felt a pang of guilt. Although he knew it was not his fault nor something he could control, it still hurt to see someone so young, and who he cared so dearly for, showing only this little reaction to such dreadful news. It never occurred to Drifter that he too had grown numb to SAO's brutality.

But the fencer told him to expand, and so he did, retelling almost word-for-word how his meeting with Akari went. By the end of it, most of the players in the room were reclining back in their chairs, eyes closed. But it was never easy to push bad news away, and the ones Drifter brought weren't the kind you could just cast aside.

"Two Fuumaningum players, two from Laughing Coffin. Is this how it's going to be? Are we to trade lives with those murdering bastards? An eye for an eye, a body for a body?"

Several people shivered when Agil's low growl filled the room. Kizmel answered in a carefully dispassionate tone.

"This can not be allowed. Nor can the warriors of Aincrad afford it. Those red players have to be taken care off immediately. Prison or death. There's no third path for them."

Some heads nodded in agreement, Drifter's included. But Yuna stood up and walked over to her husband, grabbing his hand tightly.

"I think you are right, Kizmel. Laughing Coffin made their choice when they decided to go around killing people. But I'm also worried... We can't just abandon the frontlines to hunt them. We still have a duty to the Assault Team, and... Won't we be just like them if we do that?"

The songstress avoided Drifter's gaze in the silence that followed her question. She was trembling. Afraid of how he would react to her words. After all... Leaving everyone behind to go hunt down a red player, wasn't that what he had done?

Gingerly, the spearmaster reached for Yuna's chin and lifted her head, forcing her to look into his eyes. For someone who enjoyed calling him 'dummy', she was the one acting like one now. As if he could ever hold anything she said against her.

"I made a mistake going after Morte without telling any of you, songbird. I did it because I was afraid. Of how you would react, of becoming just like him. But most of all, I was afraid of you getting hurt."

He dipped his head and kissed her, ignoring everyone else. But his words were meant for all their ears.

"But Laughing Coffin won't stop. If we leave them be, more people will die, more people will get hurt. And one day, it will be you. Us. The people in this room, the rest of the Assault Team. It will never be enough for them."

The spearmaster looked around. Kirito, Nautilus, Argo, many of them had been uncharacteristically silent. But that was because they had no more doubts, and their gazes never faltered when met with his.

"At the same time, Yuna is right. We can never hesitate to put them down hard when we fight the red players. Kill them even, if necessary. But it's a fine line to thread, the one between doing what is needed to protect and free the players of SAO, and just killing for the sake of it.

"That's why I told Akari to pull back for now. Laughing Coffin and that mysterious boss of their's now know that we are aware of them, thanks to Red-Eyed XaXa and the encounter on the Hill of the Cross."

Griselda shuddered minutely. What she went through at that location was likely a trauma she could never get past in her life.

"And because of their clashes with Fuumaningum, they also know there are people who aren't afraid to kill them if it comes to that."

Kirito spoke up for the first time, his eyes hard. Drifter nodded.

"Yes."

"And did Akari agree? To stop, at least for now? She seemed pretty hell bent on revenge from what you said."

Surprisingly, it was Keita who spoke at this time. He was there as the representative of the former Black Cats, and Drifter had honestly expected him to stay an observer throughout the entire night.

Keita and his friends weren't frontliners, they were clearers. Despite all being part of the same guild, that was a divide that would always exist between them and the other Reavers.

But that was okay. They had suffered some pretty brutal reality checks after joining Reaver's Requiem, and their dreams of becoming frontliners had been dashed, but with good results. It was a dangerous job, the most dangerous in SAO, and Keita, Sachi, Tetsuo, Ducker, and Sasamaru realized that it wasn't what they wanted. They were happy to stay as clearers. It helped that the Reavers never treated them any differently, and were all like one big family.

"She did, after some convincing. Fuumaningum is back on surveillance only. Although I have no doubt they will still strike if the opportunity presents itself. But Akari has cooled down enough that I'm confident she won't fall into a trap anymore."

That was the real conclusion from meeting with Akari, and Drifter was left with the feeling of averting a crisis. The red players, Laughing Coffin especially, had already proved to be ruthless to the extreme. Drifter had no doubts they would sooner or later try to spring a trap on Fuumaningum, even if they had to be the bait themselves. They were crazy like that.

"We are missin' a lot of information. How many criminals there are on Laughin' Coffin, where they are hidin', and much more. Two pieces of intel are critical before we can make any move against them: who their boss is, and..."

Argo trailed off at the end, her face scrunched up as if she found her next words particularly distasteful. But she still said them.

"And if there are only red players in Laughin' Coffin, or orange and even green ones too. I've been lookin' into them for several floors already, and barely found out anythin' more than what XaXa boasted about on the 19th floor."

Drifter's eyes widened, and Yuna gasped against his chest. He hadn't thought of that before, and, from how pale they suddenly became, neither had anyone else but the info-broker. The implications were ginormous.

"You think they have spies?"

"I'm thinkin' a lotta things, Liz-chan. And it's dangerous to make conclusions without havin' the whole puzzle solved in front of me. But those murderer assholes have been really good at dodgin' all my swipes, almost like they knew they were comin'."

The info-broker interlaced her fingers and stretched, the top half of her face hidden under her hood.

"Sayin' more is likely to cause a panic. But I'm almost certain I have some moles within my moles. And Morte was a frontliner before he went rogue, was he not?"

There were ugly faces all around. The frontliners routinely put their lives in each other's hands. That someone you trusted with your everything might turn out to be a would-be murderer and stab you in the back was a disturbing thought, made worse by the very real example they already had in Morte.

Still, something had to be said about the bonds between the Reavers that the fact they were frontliners too, and, as such, Argo's doubt was also applicable to them, flew right over their heads. There were no subtle glances at each other or shifty eyes. The idea that one of them might be a traitor never even crossed their minds.

"I hate that you might be right, little rat. But we shouldn't act any differently. After all, even if - and gods forgive both us and them if that's the case - some in the Assault Team have a connection to Laughing Coffin, just remember that their cursors are still green. And one way or the other, they are comrades who fought with us through thick and thin, risking their lives everyday. It would be a great injustice if we started doubting them now."

Even if he said that, Drifter knew that the seeds had already been planted. It would take some time for the Reavers to stop looking at other players and wonder what their true faces were. Maybe it would never happen.

The spearmaster shook his head. Those were things to consider later. It was already one to midnight, and it was time to wrap up this meeting.

"Not a word of what we discussed today with those outside the guild, friends. Don't even talk about it unless you are in a private room."

He nodded, concurring with Kirito's orders. Secrecy was the most important takeaway tonight.

"It's useless to speculate without information. Let's end it here tonight. We will decide what to do when Argo and Akari find out more. Okay, little rat?"

"Ya can count on me, Dri-bou. I want those bastards gone as much as ya."

"Good. Any more questions?"

There were many, Drifter could see. But none that needed to be asked right now. A lot of heavy burdens had been dropped on their shoulders today, and everyone was as tired as if they had just fought a field-boss.

"Then that's it. Good night, everyone."

One by one, the players left for their rooms. Drifter, with Yuna still glued to his side, was the last to make his way up the stairs.

Until the moment he closed to door of their room behind them and guided her to the bed, Yuna still haven't said a word.

Propping his spear up against the wall next to his side of the bed, Drifter first unequipped his armor and shirt, before laying down on the soft mattress. He shook his head with a slight smile when he saw that Yuna was still standing, her back turned to him.

"My silly little wife. Are you still hung up on what you said? You know I meant every word I said too, right? I'm not the same as Morte. As long as I have you and our family, I'll never be. You are my anchor."

The songstress finally turned around to face him, her expression a mix of fear, joy, and confusion. Hesitantly, whe changed into her sleepwear before slipping under the covers.

There was still some distance between their bodies, but Drifter reached over and pulled her close to him.

Immediately, Yuna melted against his body, resting her head on his chest. They might have only known each other for a year, but the connection they shared was such that only a few words were needed for them to understand each other.

"I'm being dumb, aren't I?"

The spearmaster - no, the husband - chuckled, running his fingers through her hair.

"A bit, love. But it's understandable. We are not talking about hunting some mobs, but killing people. Monsters, yes, but still people."

"You- We are still going to have to kill them, though."

Drifter hummed softly, tracing Yuna's back with the tip of his fingers. This wasn't exactly pillow talk, but it was one they needed to have.

"Yes, we will. We have. We will have to see what Argo and Akari turn up, obviously. And if possible, I want to arrest them like we did with Louze. I really don't want to have Naut, Kirito, Asuna, and all the others turn into killers, even if Laughing Coffin deserves it. But..."

"But it won't happen that way."

He sighed, and kissed the top of her head.

"No, it won't. Morte threw himself into my spear. Louze was trying to bait us into killing him. Red-Eyed XaXa, their boss, all of them... They take as much pleasure in making others into murderers as they delight in the act of killing themselves."

His wife was quiet for a few minutes after he said that, and Drifter almost wondered if she had fallen asleep. But then Yuna shifted her body up and straddled him, one hand on each side of his head, her pretty brown eyes burning brightly.

Before Drifter could say anything, Yuna leaned down and kissed him forcefully and fiercely. As if she was trying to convey all her conflicting feelings towards him, Laughing Coffin, and SAO as a whole, through that one gesture.

However long they made out for, Drifter had no idea. When they separated, one of his hands was entangled in her hair, while the other was in the small of her back, pressing her closer to him. But Yuna's eyes were still blazing. Although the emotions that fueled the flame had changed somewhat.

"Whatever happens, we do it together, dummy. I just sing, and it won't be my spear piercing their bodies or ending their lives, but we will do it together. All of us. Nautilus, Kirito, Kizmel. All of us. As a guild. As a family. Whether we end up arresting or killing them, it will be all of us. Not one of us will carry this burden alone, got it?"

For an answer, Drifter rolled them over, and this time it was him who initiated the kiss.