Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online - Volume 5 - Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18 
Everyone’s Endings and Beginnings 
Llenn was back in the waiting room. 
“……” 
She scooped up the P90 at her feet and returned it to her inventory, along with its ammo magazines. 
The knife was gone. 
A floating screen gave her a flashy, celebratory message of congratulations and asked what she planned to do next. 
“……” 
Wearing a robe now, Llenn chose to return to the bar. 
After a blinding teleportation, Llenn opened her eyes on the stage inside the bar. 
“Congrats!” Someone large hugged her. 
“Mgrfh!” 
The embrace was so tight that she was afraid her HP would fall. When Llenn finally wriggled her head out, there were braids in her eyes. That told her who it was. 
“Thank you, Boss. The knife really helped me out.” 
“You’re welcome. C’mon, let’s have a drink!” 
Once released from Boss’s death grip, Llenn was greeted by cheers and applause for the champion as she walked through the bar. The enthusiasm of the crowd was so great that it seemed as though, if not for Boss there, they might have squashed her in their midst, hoisted her up on their shoulders, and accidentally thrown her up into the ceiling. 
Llenn saw the members of Team MMTM sitting at one table and seeing her off with smiles. Among them was the handsome team leader who had technically been her teammate for a short while. He continued to applaud until they went out of sight. 
At another table, a green-haired woman—the one who sniped Pitohui last time—and the handsome black-haired guy who was a girl, who’d given her all that ammo, were leaning forward in close conversation. They had both died in the switchyard this time. Whatever it was they were talking about, they looked serious. 
At yet another table, five men she didn’t recognize were holding their own private celebration. When they spotted her, they shouted out “OB!” for some reason, beaming happily. 
She bowed to them, for lack of a better option, and continued on, wondering who they were. 
At last, she was brought to a table with six female players seated around it. They were having the latest of what looked like a long series of toasts. 
“Oh-ho! The champion traitor is here at last! So let’s do one more toast! Whoooo!” 
The pretty girl who addressed the group had her long blond hair down, so Llenn briefly failed to recognize her. Once she got a better look at her face, it was unmistakably Fukaziroh’s. 
As she once claimed, she had the ability to get drunk on the fumes of a situation alone. She was slugging back virtual drinks in virtual reality—and getting virtually drunk. 
“Hey, you! You gotta drink more, dammit!” 
Llenn had never seen her look like such a wreck before. 
The other five were the remaining members of SHINC. Black-haired Tohma, blond Anna, dwarven Sophie, older Rosa, and silver-haired Tanya. 
Llenn made her way up to the table of Amazons, plus teensy grenadier, and took an empty seat. There were many men in the vicinity of the table, but no heroes brave enough to talk to them. It wasn’t hard for them to have a nice, quiet conversation. 
Once Llenn’s preferred iced tea was in her hand, Fukaziroh said, very briefly, “And now, if you’ll permit me to give a speech— Cheers!” 

Llenn sipped her tea through a straw, feeling the virtual liquid quench her dry throat after a ferocious battle. Once she had relaxed a bit, the first question out of her mouth was, of course, “Where are Pito and M?” 
Drink in hand, Fukaziroh replied, “C’mon, let’s give them privacy today, shall we?” 
Strangely, the look on her face was kinder and more serious than Llenn had ever seen from her. 
 
In a darkened apartment somewhere in Tokyo with the curtains drawn, a naked woman sobbed, “I lost…again…” 
She had just emerged from an isolation tank, her small body and long hair still damp, and sat with her face pressed into her knees on the hard floor, trembling. A naked man, thin but covered with hard muscle, silently approached and held her from behind. 
“You did well in there. It was an incredible fight,” he whispered in her ear. 
“I lost agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!” she screamed, putting all her emotion into one long outburst. Then she muttered to the man, “Huh? Were you always this warm…?” 
“Yes… I always have been, and I always will— Gnnf!” 
She slipped out of his loving embrace and slammed him in the stomach. “Saves my fist from getting cold, then!” She repeated the violent gesture a second and third time. 
“Guh! Agh! Oh, yes, that’s it…” 
We’ll give them some time. 
Once Elza Kanzaki had punched and beaten Goushi’s hardened body all she wanted and gotten it out of her system, she spread her arms in the center of the dark room, still naked, and, in a voice loud enough that her neighbor would bang on the wall if it weren’t a luxury apartment, shouted, “I’ll get her next time!” 
“You’re still going to try?” Goushi asked in disbelief. 
Elza happily replied, “Of course I am! I’ll play until I win! Isn’t that how games work?” 

Monday, July 26th, 2026. 
On a summer vacation afternoon, three weeks after SJ3, Karen was lollygagging around her apartment, talking to Saki on the phone. 
“Elza Kanzaki has a new song! She just started streaming it online! I can’t believe it—she announced it out of nowhere!” Saki’s excitement was apparent through the smartphone speaker. “You have to listen to it with me, Karen!” 
As they talked, the phone played the song saved to its memory. An acoustic guitar began to strum. Karen linked the smartphone to her audio system to listen to it there. The lyrics displayed on the screen of her phone as she listened, the singing voice filling every corner of her room. 
It was a bright, optimistic song. The guitar leaped about playfully in accompaniment to Elza Kanzaki’s voice. 
Women, be strong, she sang. Don’t give in to your worries. In fact, you might lose often, but don’t feel bad. Don’t blame it on being a woman, don’t blame it on bad luck, don’t blame it on society, but keep standing and fighting. 
It was an encouraging song, aggressive and potentially preachy, but it was Elza Kanzaki’s musical talent, clear voice, and gentle delivery that made it so easy on the ears. It ended with a beautiful arpeggio of the final chord. 
“What do you think? Isn’t it good? Isn’t it great? It’s 2026! And in this crazy, messed-up timeline, there’s a song to cheer on all us women who have to live here! I’m so pumped up!” Saki jabbered into the phone at machine-gun speed. 
“Yes, it’s really good. It’s a very Elza-like song but in a way that Elza’s never done before… Thanks for telling me about it; I’m gonna download it right now.” 
“Gosh, I had a feeling you would say that, Karen! I knew it.” 
“Gotta be strong,” Karen murmured, rolling back onto her bed. In her inner monologue, she said, “I want to be strong, too…” 
“Huh?” 
“Huh?” 
The End