SAO Chapter 16.5 Volume 1
Asuna plopped down naked on the sofa and glared defiantly at me.
“…Kirito, hurry up and take your clothes off,” she said in an authoritative tone.
“What…w-we’re continuing?”
“It would be stupid if we stopped here!!”
I hurriedly complied. Opening the window indicated by Asuna, I toggled off the option buried deep within the menu.
Because of the hurried start, there was no romantic mood to speak of. Sitting on the bed which was slightly too small for the two of us, we slowly did as much as the system would allow.
The dim blue moonlight filtered through the window, casting complex shadows on the bed.
Since Salemburg has no marketplace, the townspeople disappear at night. The only thing that I could hear was the faint whispering of the lake, and my alarm-like heartbeat which seems to echo around the room.
By this time, Asuna and I had removed all of our clothing. We had been kneeling on the bed in front of one another for about 2 and a half minutes. I couldn’t read Asuna’s expression as she balled up her fists on her knees and looked down. I thought that I should probably be the one to take the first action in this situation, but not being able to predict the outcomes of any of my choices, I sat in petrified silence. I considered what would happen if I were to yell out, “Sorry!” and re-equipped minimal clothing at mach speed before escaping out of the room. Would she say, “I guess it can’t be helped~” and forgive me when we meet again tomorrow? ―There’s no way she would.
Remembering back to the distant past, I was only 14 the first time that I ever logged into SAO. The winter of 8th grade. I don’t want to really recall how I was at that time, but I sacrificed all of the sexual energy that starts to awaken in all boys around that age in order to immerse myself into games. As a result, I had never been in a situation where I would be alone with a girl in her room. Obviously, I had also never been naked with a girl before.
To tell the truth, I would have liked for Asuna, who I thought was probably a few years older than me (and thus had expertise in this area) to take the lead. However, it seemed that everyone in SAO, including her, viewed me as being older than I really was. Since I had never denied any of it, there’s no way that I could say to her in this situation, “Sorry, but I’m actually…”
I strengthened my resolve. Even if I didn’t have the knowledge or the experience, I had never loved or had felt such intense feelings for someone like I have for Asuna.
Ever since SAO started, there were numerous times when I was in a situation where I told myself, “You can’t run away from here no matter what,” but here I had to muster up greater willpower than that as I extended my right hand and moved my body forward.
My fingertip softly touched the gentle curve that was Asuna’s shoulder. Her body quivered sharply. I slowly traced a path from the line of her collarbone to the nape of her neck.
“N…mm…”
Asuna let out a soft moan as her eyes closed. The blood rushed to her cheeks and her eyebrows furrowed.
