Sword Art Online - Volume 18 - Chapter Ep5

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Epilogue Part 5
“Daddy—!!”

With both arms, I caught the tiny figure that came shooting towards me as soon as I logged into ALO.

I raised her high and hugged her to my chest; she began emitting a muffled cat-like wuu and rubbed her cheek against me.

I’d been visiting Yui, daughter of Asuna and me and a top-down type «strong AI», every day since they began allowing me to wear an AmuSphere last week. But it felt as though the intensity of her tantrums was steadily increasing.

I had no intention of reprimanding her, though. No matter how I looked at it, Yui had chased after me following my disappearance, predicted that the guys who attacked the Ocean Turtle would use VRMMO players from their own country, and come up with a counter-strategy. It was no less than a heroic contribution.

Seemingly satisfied after a few moments’ cuteness, she vanished as her white dress melted away and reappeared in her palmtop pixie form. Vibrating her transparent wings, she flew up and sat lightly upon her designated spot on my left shoulder.

I surveyed my home again — the log cabin on the 22nd floor of New Aincrad in ALO.

Despite coming here every night, I felt no reduction whatsoever in the wistfulness that came gushing up within me.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it somewhat resembled that little hut I’d lived in with Alice for half a year on the outskirts of Rulid Village. I had been unconscious at the time so my memory wasn’t very clear, but I believed my heartfelt impression of those steady days remained strong.

Back then, Alice’s sister Selka brought us food every day, and now she had put herself in Deep Freeze in the hope of seeing her sister again. It seemed that I had informed Alice of this myself before my memories were deleted.

Alice didn’t mention it after that, but she never stopped anticipating the day she would be able to return to Underworld. I also wanted to help her realize that wish as soon as I could, but as it was, we still couldn’t connect with the uplink sealed within the Ocean Turtle in the Izu islands. All we could do was wait silently for Kikuoka’s plan to work.

I heaved a short sigh and changed gears in my brain, then looked behind me with Yui on my shoulder.

I met eyes with a smiling Asuna, who seemed to perceive all of my feelings. Then, with her aquamarine hair, she and I walked hand-in-hand out of our front door.

Alfheim’s nighttime was gradually wearing thin. We spread our wings and lifted gently from the ground, taking in the first rays of dawn as they shone from the outer surroundings.

An enormous number of players had already gathered in the square in front of the huge dome at the roots of the World Tree.

Within them I recognized a familiar sight, and we began a quick descent.

“What kept you, Kirito?!”

Klein extended a fist as soon as I landed, and I gently bumped my own against his.

The katana-wielder’s face was split into a grin that spelt nothing but trouble underneath his annoying bandanna. He said in a mocking voice: “You can’t teleport here, so you have to leave early, O Great Hero.”

“That was ultra-fast flying, not teleporting.”

“Same deal!”

He slapped my back, hard.

Standing beside Klein with arms crossed, Agil extended his own giant fist towards me. I bumped it and greeted him; his bearded face split into a smirk and he went for the attack.

“You can’t possibly have gotten weaker here after getting used to a super account like that, can you? Let’s go a few rounds after the meeting.”

“Oof…”

I couldn’t help but suppress a shiver. If I fought now in ALO, I might forget that I can’t use Incarnate attacks or Element generation and try to deflect his sword by shouting at it.

“…I…I’m planning on displaying the tricks I practiced in Underworld. Just you wait.“ I bluffed, then turned away and saw Leafa, her long ponytail gleaming in the morning sun, and Sinon, a giant bow slung over her shoulder, both smiling. I high-fived each of them in greeting too.

Of course, we’d met several times already after I had woken up.

I heard from Leafa — Suguha how she had saved the Orc Chief Rirupirin and fought alongside him. I told her that she’d worked hard and ruffled her hair, only to see her face screw up and burst into tears, which was really very difficult to reconcile with the demonic battle-figure sort of intense impression that the «Green Swordswoman» had left on the soldiers of the Dark Realm. I, however, completely understood why she had displayed that sort of strength. Suguha was different from me; I might have given up halfway, but she was a true swordswoman who continued the path of kendo with singular resolve.

The entire Orcish race had declared at the peace talks venue that they would eternally await the second coming of the Green Swordswoman who had acknowledged them as human. That willpower had carried down for 200 years without any change.

Sinon gave a calm rundown of her solo battle with Gabriel Miller and clarified that he was the same person as the «Subtilizer» who had defeated her in the fourth Bullet of Bullets. She described being paralyzed by Gabriel’s Incarnate attack and almost having her consciousness sucked away, but her lucky charm had saved her.

She absolutely refused to tell me exactly what sort of charm it was, but I likewise told her about my own showdown with Gabriel and what sort of end that man had met in the real world.

Gabriel and our other enemy PoH, the leader of Laughing Coffin, had both disappeared from STL Room 1 after the attackers fled in their submarine, but we were able to learn the truth to a certain extent from the STL logs.

First, after his fight with me, much of Gabriel Miller’s Fluctlight vanished after an enormous amount of information was forced into it. Then, his heart stopped, and we were able to confirm his death.

As for PoH, things were somewhat complicated. After the maximum acceleration phase began, he had maintained mental activity for 10 years inside. Following that, his Fluctlight activity slowly dropped, and at the 30 year mark or so, all conscious activity seemed to disappear.

It was a horrifying thought, but after I won against PoH, I transformed his avatar makeup into that of a normal tree to stop him from logging in again, and then I left him there. In other words, he had spent 10 years with only the sense of touch and all other inputs severed. Higa was sure that his Fluctlight would collapse and he would end up a vegetable even if his physical body were still alive.

Even if it was indirect, there was beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had taken his life. But even with the sin hanging over my head, I felt no regret. That, to me, would be desecrating the death of Highest Minister Administrator, whom I had also killed, and the many people of Underworld who were martyred for what they believed in.

After greeting Sinon and Leafa, I shook hands with Lisbeth and Silica, who stood beside them.

“I hear you were the one who convinced the Japanese players, Liz? I’d love to hear your speech.”

When I said that, Lisbeth chuckled shamefacedly.

“It wasn’t a speech, that’s exaggerating. At the time I was just trying my best to…”

“It was really amazing, a speech that got you all fired up!” Silica piped up. Lisbeth tugged on her triangular ears.

“Thank Silica too.”

I smiled and looked down at the petite beast-tamer, who grinned shyly up at me with fangs displayed.

“Hmm, well, a reward, please.”

She barely finished before wrapping me in a tight hug. Even the tiny sky-blue dragon Pina sitting on her shoulder uttered a ku! and flew to alight atop my head.

“Ah, hey! What’re you doing?!”

This time, Lisbeth succeeded in yanking Silica’s tail. Ugyo! A bizarre shriek immediately drew laughs from the surrounding crowd.

It was only when I looked around that I realized the apparently sudden appearance of several masses of people. Leader Sakuya and her subordinate Sylph players. Alicia Rue and the rest of the Cait Sith. The Salamanders, led by Eugene. I could also see the figures of Siune, Jun, and the other Sleeping Knights.

—I was back.

This moment was the strongest version of that feeling I’d experienced since waking up in RATH’s Roppongi branch.

But things weren’t happily ever after, just like that. Underworld’s future didn’t look bright, there was the issue of fixing the even worsened relations between us and the American, Chinese, and Korean VRMMO players, and other things too. There was a whole mess of unresolved problems.

Just then, Lisbeth was hanging from my right arm as though in defiance of Silica, so I whispered to her:

“…Can you retrieve the items you lost in Underworld?”

“Ah… Um…”

Her usually bright face darkened slightly.

The players from ALO, GGO, and many other The Seed worlds who converted their accounts into Underworld for the rescue effort fortunately did not lose their data upon death, so they were able to convert back into their original VRMMOs.

But unfortunately, there was no way to recover their weapons and equipment that got destroyed or stolen on the battlefield. Those were rare items that one did not come across easily, and Lisbeth and the others were currently appealing to each VRMMO carrier company to see if there was a way to retrieve their data.

“…Almost every company has the stance that any lost items are our own responsibility once we convert our accounts. But if our data is still in the Underworld server, there’s a chance of recovery, and we’re currently asking Higa-san from RATH to check for us. However, it looks like that might still have to wait until we connect to the uplink again…”

“I see… But I think Higa-san will be able to come up with something. Also… what’s the situation with the players from China and Korea…?”

“Pretty bad.”

Lisbeth’s expression darkened further.

“It was a terrible battle, so… —But, there are people who admit that we were at fault too for the relations getting so bad. We do block all connections to The Seed Nexus from overseas. So there has been talk of opening up ALO, to create an opportunity for restarting the conversation. They should be mentioning that later.”

“That does sound good. A wall would worsen relations, but opening up won’t…” I replied, and in my mind’s eye I saw the majestic image of the Mountain Range at the Edge that divided the people of Underworld and the Dark Realm for hundreds of years.

After watching Alfheim’s blurry horizon for a while, I looked towards the roots of the World Tree. The marble gates were fully open, and players were funneling into the dome within.

“Well, let’s go too.”

I urged my friends around me and was about to step forward, and—

All of a sudden, an icon indicating a voice call from outside ALO blinked in my vision.

“Oh, a call? Sorry, you guys go ahead.”

Asuna and the others nodded and set off. I took a few steps in the opposite direction and touched the icon.

“Hello?”

A voice that brought back memories traveled from the other end.

“…Kirito. It’s me… Alice.”

“Alice! Hey… long time no see. I heard you were coming to the Alfheim meeting today…”

“Well… I am terribly sorry. The meeting I am attending on this side does not seem to be ending yet… Please apologize to everyone else for me.”

“…I see.”

I nodded, and a faint crease appeared between my brows.

As the first artificial general intelligence in the world, Alice was living a busy life of attending various receptions and parties every day in order to leave an impression of herself upon the people of the real world. Dr. Koujiro apologized to her, and Alice understood it as something unavoidable, but being an exhibition piece was nothing to write home about for a proud knight.

“I understand. I’ll explain everything to everyone else. Don’t push yourself, Alice. If you don’t want to do it, just tell them directly.”

“…I am a knight. No matter what, I will attend to my duty.”

Even her resolute words and tone did not carry the same spirit as they did before. But I could do very little for her right now.