Sword Art Online - Volume 17 - Chapter 21.5

Chapter 21.5
Kirito.
Someone seemed to be calling my name —
I was brought back from my light slumber.
Lifting my eyelids, I saw innumerable miniscule particles floating through orange light.
My hazy vision gradually regained its focus.
Fluttering white cloth — Curtains.
A silver window frame. Old-fashioned glass.
A swaying tree branch. An airplane contrail slowly streaking across the sky, tinted red by the setting sun.
I took a deep breath of the dust-filled air, lifted my upper body, and saw a sailor uniform from behind, standing in front of the deep-green chalkboard. A brush swished around, scrubbing away the last words inscribed in white chalk.
“… Um, Kirigaya-kun.”
I heard someone calling my name again. I turned to look, and met eyes with another female student peering down at me with an expression that looked timid, yet somewhat cross at the same time.
“I’d like to move the table.”
By the looks of it, I’d fallen asleep during a class meeting again, all the way until it was time to clean up.
“Ah… Sorry.”
I muttered, then lifted my bookbag from its hook beside the table with my finger, and stood up.
My head felt leaden.
It felt like the fatigue I had after finishing a really long — an unfathomably long movie. I couldn’t remember any of the story, but the detritus from countless emotions seemed to linger in my mind. I shook my head hard.
I looked away from my female classmate who was giving me a funny look, and took a few steps towards the door at the back of the classroom, murmuring softly:
“What… Was it a dream…”
(To be continued)
 

Afterword
Thank you very much for reading  Sword Art Online 17: Alicization Awakening .
(Please note, there will be plenty of spoilers below!)
I deeply apologize for making everyone wait for so long after the last volume, ”Exploding”. The meaning of this volume’s subtitle, “Awakening”, means “awakening”, so does that mean Kirito-san, who’s been slumbering since Volume 15, is finally going to wake up?! Everyone might be thinking about that, but I’m terribly sorry, because for a number of reasons, I can only leave you to wait for the answer in the next volume, with a “Will he awaken…? Or continue slumbering…?” cliffhanger. To be honest, I really wanted to include the entire ”Chapter 21: Awakening”, but that would make this volume very thick and Volume 18 very thin, throwing off the balance, so I could only tearfully cut it off here. It doesn’t exactly make up for it, but everyone shouldn’t need to wait too long for the next volume. It’ll be the «next» volume after the «next», so please wait for a bit, everyone…!
Now, I’ll talk a bit about the content of this volume. As Gabriel, Vassago, and Critter have schemed, VRMMO players from the US, Korea, and China mass-invade Underworld and begin a fierce battle with the Human Empire Army and the Japanese players. When I wrote this portion of the plot in the web version ten years ago, it was because there had been an atmosphere of exclusion against foreign players present in the world of Japanese online games back then, so I hope that everyone can properly reconsider that part after reading it. But since my writing ability wasn’t up to scratch, I instead created something that resembled what happens when anger is incited against a common enemy, and this has always made me very ashamed.
While I was editing this into the Dengeki Bunko version, at one point I considered completely rewriting this section, but then I felt like that would only be fleeing from it… in the end I didn’t change the general plot. As to how Kirito will resolve the enmity created by the «Inciting PKer» Vassago/PoH, who is also beginning to take action from the shadows in Progressive, please wait for the next volume for that information as well, everyone.
Fifteen years have transpired since SAO was conceived in a corner of the Internet. I cannot help but marvel that it has managed to survive for this long. But now there will be a movie, video games, and many other projects that will keep expanding the SAO world, and I ask for everyone’s continued support from now on. Finally, to abec-san, who so majestically and beautifully portrayed Leafa, Sinon, and the others who charged into Underworld, and Miki-san, who is beginning an all-new challenge as my editor, thank you so much!
A certain day in March 2016
Kawahara Reki

Notes
[1] Kawahara made a typo and wrote “Seventh Day” instead. It has been corrected here.
[2] Referenced in Volume 4, when Kirito fights the guardian monsters to attempt to ascend the World Tree and save Asuna.
[3] Referred to in previous volumes as “Guards”. Retconned to make it sound better.
[4] Game Master.
[5] Player Character.
[6] Automatic gun. Sinon is used to playing first-person shooter games.
[7] BGM-71 TOW, a widely used US anti-tank missile. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGM-71_TOW
[8] Approximately 90 meters tall. (The book includes metric units because they are more familiar in Japan.)
[9] Approximately 29 meters wide.
[10] A sando (参道) is the road approaching a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. More info here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand?
[11] Kawahara means “racing suit”, which is tight-fitting full body wear for auto racers.
[12] Incarnation (心意, shin’i) is a foreign concept to Vector, so he repeats it aloud in Japanese here.
[13] 旋車, literally, “whirling wheel”
[14] There is wordplay here. The word “betray” (裏切る, uragiru) conjugates into 裏切り (uragiri) when it transforms into a noun, which is pronounced the same as “Unseen Slash” (裏斬)
[15] See Volume 12, Chapter 7, Part 1. Cardinal explains that reproduction in the Human Empire must be officially approved to successfully conceive children.
[16] Kawahara made a typo and wrote “Seventh Day” instead. It has been corrected here.
[17] Unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone. Aircraft without a human aboard that can be remotely controlled to attack targets. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle
[18] Fighters who fall in battle and are brought to Valhalla by Valkyries. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einherjar
[19] Korean. 비겁한 일본인, “Cowardly Japanese”.
[20] Korean. 우리 나라를 지키라, “Defend our country”.
[21] Chinese. Possibly 趕走他們, “Drive them away”, or 幹掉你們, “Kill you all”. Could also be incorrect Chinese.
[22] Sinon mentally translates this to Japanese
[23] Invaders: 침략 (chimlyag). Spoken in Korean by the Leader. Likely a callback to 1910, when the Empire of Japan annexed the Korean peninsula under the Joseon Kingdom.
[24] Japanese industrial and financial business conglomerate. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaibatsu
[25] “871” can be read as “ya na i” in Japanese.
[26] Translation from https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-17-alicization-awakening/, https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-17-chapter-21/ and https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-17-afterword/ on February 19, 2017