Sword Art Online - Volume 16 - Chapter 19.3

Chapter 19.3
— Faster.
— Faster, quickly get me to the ground, to where Kirito-kun is.
Yuuki Asuna had logged into the Underworld with Super Account 01, ? The Goddess of Creation Stacia ? . Protected by the fall-cushioning mechanic only available on the first log in, she repeated her lover ’ s name in her mind.
Almost an hour had passed since an unknown armed group had stormed the independent marine biology research mega-float, the ? Ocean Turtle ? .
“I’ll go,” Asuna had declared to Kikuoka Seijirou and company, and FullDived using Soul Translator No. 5. Higa Takeru located her insertion coordinates, which should have been right above where Kirito was now. When she landed, her lover would definitely be waiting there for her.
Accompanying her nearly insane yearning, a stabbing pain racked Asuna’s head. She grimaced on reflex, resisting the discomfort.
She had been warned about the side effects that would occur with usage of the ? unlimited landscape alteration ? ability, the administrative authority given to the Stacia account. The area ’ s Mnemonic Data was absurdly large; as the data instantly transferred repeatedly between Asuna’s STL and the Main Visualizer, which stored the data of the entire Underworld, her Fluctlight would overload.
As RATH’s chief engineer, Higa had strictly told her not to recklessly change the landscape too much — to stop whenever she felt a headache.
Below her were a thousand men from the Human Empire, and two enormous crowds from the Dark Territory that were approaching them from both the north and south. As soon as she realized that, despite the advice, she had immediately chanted the commands.
She put the cluster from the north to a halt by opening a long, wide valley in front of them. But for the thirty men drawing near the location where Kirito might be, she had no choice but to erase the ground they were standing on.
They are all human beings with real souls. They are the true bottom-up AIs that Kirito has strived for two years in this world to protect.
Perhaps this sharp pain is their intense fear and grudge flooding into the STL.
Even so, Asuna closed her eyes tightly, then opened them wide and freed herself of her hesitation.
Her priorities had been determined for years.
For Kirito — Kirigaya Kazuto, she would commit any sin. She would accept all deserved punishment.
At long last, the descent came to an end in tens of seconds that each felt like an eternity; the tips of her pearly boots touched the black earth.
She was in a wooded area filled with twisted bushes. Without a moon, there were only ominously shimmering red stars, faintly shining down from the night sky.
Asuna shook the remaining headache away and straightened her back. Right next to her feet, a dark, deep hole opened in the ground, into which she had plunged an armored knight-like Dark Territory man. It would be rather dangerous to leave it there, but she had difficulty handling the landscape again in a such a short time.
She heard the neigh of a horse nearby; looking in that direction, she realized that a few large wagons were standing behind the bushes, seemingly hiding.
— Where…? Where are you, Kirito?
Just as Asuna was desperate to the point of nearly crying out his name, a trembling voice called to her.
“… Stacia… sama?”
She turned her head around, and saw two girls leaning against each other as they stood. They were both wearing gray jumper skirts, just like school uniforms.
Their faces were a little strange. They did not look Japanese, nor they did they look Western. Their skin were smooth and cream-colored; the girl on the right had hair in maple leaf red, and the girl on the left had hair in a dark coffee brown.
Two timeworn long swords hung from their belts.
The red-haired girl opened her mouth slightly, and a small voice slipped out once more.
“Are you… God?”
Perfect Japanese, yet her intonation was very subtly foreign. Thus, Asuna felt she had glimpsed the Underworld’s three-hundred year independent history.
— Kikuoka-san, Higa-san, look at what you’ve created.
— To Rath, this might only be a simulation, but this entire world and the people living here, are genuinely alive.
“… No… Sorry, I’m not a god,” Asuna answered as she gently shook her head.
The girl with dark brown hair wrung her hands. “But, but,” she whispered. “You’ve kindly saved my life with a miracle. You’ve saved all of us from those scary soldiers from the Dark Territory… You’ve saved the Guards, the Ascetics… and Kirito-senpai.”
When she heard that name, Asuna gasped, and a violent twinge shot through her heart.
She straightened her body that almost lost balance, and finally squeezed out a feeble voice, her lips trembling.
“I… I just came here to meet him, Kirito… Please tell me… Where is he? Let me meet him… Take me to Kirito, please.”
Fighting back her tears, Asuna begged. The dumbstruck girls’ eyes widened, finally exchanged looks, and nodded.
“… Yes. Please follow us.”
The surrounding swordsmen clad in uniform armor formed an open circle, staring at her from a distance; Asuna walked through its center as the girls showed her the way.

She was taken to the back of a wagon. A thick, canvas-like curtain was hanging from the roof, and she could not see inside.
“Kirito-senpai is insi…”
Without waiting for the red-haired girl to finish, Asuna pushed the curtains aside with both hands and jumped onto the deck. She stumbled as she advanced.
Hanging from the roof of the cabin, a small lantern threw dim light onto stacks of wooden boxes and barrels. She slipped through the tiny space between them, getting deeper and deeper into the wagon.
Suddenly, she was hit by a nostalgic smell, as warm as the sun, as refreshing as a slight breeze over grasslands and forests.
Silvery light reflected into Asuna’s eyes, which adjusted to the darkness.
It was coming from a wheelchair made of a metal frame and pieces of wood.
In the chair, there was a figure in black, sitting spiritlessly, its body sagging like a shadow.
“…………Gh.”
Overwhelmed by a storm of emotion, Asuna was struck dumb. Even though she had envisioned a multitude of scenarios, the words for their reunion became stuck in her throat.
Now lying in the STL No.4 on the Ocean Turtle in the real world, the one she loved most was there, in the form of his soul.
Hurt, damaged, but certainly alive.
Back when Kirito met me again in the hospital in Tokorozawa, when I didn’t wake up even though I was released from the death game SAO, Kirito must have suffered the same pain, and was as determined as I am now.
— It’s my turn. I’ll definitely save you, no matter the cost.
Softly exhaling her stuck breath, Asuna whispered:
“…… Kirito-kun.”
The right arm was missing from his emaciated body. Hugging the black and white swords, his left arm jerked when Asuna’s voice resonated.
His face stared downwards, and his eyes were empty; both trembled in tiny spasms.
“Uh……”
A broken, hoarse voice slid from his parched lips.
“Uh… Aaaa… Aahh……”
Taka, taka. The wheelchair was shaking. His left arm stiffened, and tendons puffed up on his neck.
Two tracks of tears slid down his bowed face and dropped onto the scabbards in his arms.
“Kirito-kun… Enough, that’s enough!!” Asuna shouted.
She kneeled, and gently but tightly, hugged her lover. From her own eyes, she also felt warm liquid gushing out without end.
?
Seeing each other once more, curing Kirito’s soul, his consciousness would return—
It would be a lie if she said she had not hoped so.
However, Asuna understood that the damage dealt to Kirito’s Fluctlight was deep. Kirito’s Fluctlight core, or self-image, had been destroyed. As long as they did not reconstruct it somehow, no matter how much input he was exposed to, he could not articulate a proper output.
Higa’s voice resounded in her mind.
— It seems that he has some accomplices… I mean comrades. They’re artificial Fluctlights, of course. And most of his comrades died when they fought the Church, so in the end he severely blamed himself when he succeeded in contacting us. In other words, he attacked his own Fluctlight.
Desolation, regret and despair had cut a bottomless hole into Kirito’s heart.
— Even if that hole were infinite emptiness, I will fill it up. If I can’t manage that by myself, I’ll enlist the help of those who connected their hearts with you. There just isn’t any loss that can’t be replaced with love.
Asuna felt her determination replenish: she would not let Kirito feel any sorrow again, not a shred of it.
— I will protect this world, which Kirito loved and lived in. I’ll protect it from the mysterious attackers… and even from RATH.
After hugging Kirito tightly for one last time, Asuna stood up straight.
She spun around; and as tears flowed down her cheeks, she smiled at the two observing girls.
“Thank you. You two have been protecting Kirito, haven’t you?”
The dark brown-haired girl nodded humbly, and replied with a question in a trembling voice:
“Excuse me, may I… have your name, please? If you’re not Stacia-sama, then… who are you?”
“My name is Asuna. I’m a human like you. And just like Kirito, I come from the outside world… for the same purpose.”