An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Floor 20 - Boss - The One-Eyed Beast

Unity.

It was a funny old word, Jet thought to himself. The state of being in agreement and working together, or the state of being joined together to form a single unit, the Oxford English Dictionary had defined it as (and looking like a chest of drawers, as the Uxbridge English Dictionary had defined it as), and the more he thought about it, the more he realised that was truly what they stood for.

The Concord, united against the death game that was SAO, an unlikely group of friends (and Sanya) bought together by circumstance... yet he could barely remember a time before he met them. It had only been six months so far in Aincrad, yet it really did feel like they'd been there so much longer...

Idly, he wondered if the NerveGear could do permanent damage to his long term memory, but soon changed to a more introspective topic.

He'd spent more than a few nights agonising over whether he was the hero or the fool, whether he was Michael, the kid who'd run scared at a future he didn't understand, or Jet, the knight who had stared down death on numerous occasions... and yet it hadn't occurred that perhaps he was both. It was almost a bitter pill to swallow, that he'd spent so long trying to rationalise that he was simply growing up, yet he was glad for it - the last thing he needed was to develop a split personality!

The introspection had given him an idea however, and whilst Koharu was in the bath, he found himself sat down with a pencil and paper, sketching. It felt a little weird, if he was honest - he'd only narrowly avoided death, fought a dungeon boss, outed his own darkest secret, and settled a dilemma of his own thoughts... all in the past twenty fours hours, and yet he still wasn't tired...

Adrenaline was a hell of a thing, he'd decided.

To the soundtrack of humming; both his own and from the bathroom, Koharu's, the shape of three people began to take shape on the paper in front of him.

The first, a sullen teenager with his head held to the ground, as if looking at a non existent phone, whilst the second stood tall, blade in hand as he readied it for battle. The third was just a silhouette standing a head above the pair of figures, coat flowing against the imagined wind as he reached for his sheathed blade.

Underneath, he left a scribbled message:
"Be I Michael, be I Jet, be I The Knight of the Wind... I am all of me."

"Ooh, what are you drawing?" At any other time, the knowledge that the only thing that separated him and his girlfriend's glistening skin was a towel would've driven his hormones into overdrive. Today though, it was almost as if the day had put that anxiety so far down the list that it was no longer there...

"A reminder to myself, that no matter how much I change, whether I change my name or how I look, I'll always be me. I kinda lost sight of that; too caught up in my own neuroses."

She placed a kiss on his cheek. "You can just ask me, and I'll tell you. You're the best partner and boyfriend I could've asked for, even if you are a bit stubborn, and a bit dorky sometimes!"

"Umm, Ko? While you're here, can I ask you a favour?" The almost embarrassed look on his face for what he was about to ask probably didn't help him seem any more trustworthy...

Thankfully, she took it in stride. "Someone's a bit bold, aren't they? I'm stood here in a towel, and you're asking for a favour..." She teased, pulling at the towel.

"Yeah, that one's on me." He whispered to himself, realising the mistake. "I kind of mean an actual favour." She went bright red, as she caught onto the misunderstood phrase. "Between us, you have by far and away the most developed fashion sense, and well... I may not be some comic book hero, but, umm... I kind of want a new look."