Sword Art Online - Volume 9 - Chapter Pr2.2

Part 3
The virtual world, which is indistinguishable from the reality.
There was a lot of fiction from the last century which dealt with this theme. Shino could also recall at least five titles of novels or movies with this theme right away.
In an era where the implementation of FullDive technology was used in consumer devices such as the Nerve Gear and AmuSphere, we finally came to a point to doubt: «is this reality really the reality?» —— and as we could read something like that from articles or blogs all over the place, Shino had also felt anxious before her very first FullDive.
However, when the lid had actually opened, could it be relief or disappointment that such worry was unnecessary? The world which was created by AmuSphere was without a doubt, a miracle given birth by cutting edge technology. The virtual world which was perceived by the five senses was brilliantly beautiful —— but that was why it was noticeably different from the real world. The scenes she saw, the sounds she heard, the things she touched, everything was too pure, or in other words, was too simple. The air had no dust, the garments didn’t wrinkle, and the tables couldn’t be broken. The 3D objects which were created from digital codes were restricted by the manpower needed to design them, and the CPU’s power to display them. Of course she couldn’t know how this would change in the future, but at least with the current technology of 2026, creating a virtual world which was indistinguishable from reality was impossible——……
And that, was what Shino had thought. Until today, before she had heard Kirigaya Kazuto’s story.

“……That means, Kirito. You… perhaps even now…… are still inside the STL… that machine? The «Recollections» of Asuna and me you injected into it.”
As to avoid the sudden shivering, before Kazuto could reply, Shino grinned as she spoke. Naturally, “But that’s ridiculous anyway,” she laughed it off as she thought so, but her companion frowned as he fixed his gaze on her.
“Wai……S-Stop it. I’m the real one.”
As she hurriedly waved her hands, Kazuto remained in doubt as he spoke,
“If you’re the real Sinon…… then you must remember what you promised me yesterday.”
“P-Promised?”
“To thank me for calling me out today, you will treat me to as many of the most expensive dessert here, the «Dicey Cheesecake» as I want.”
“E……Ehh!? I never promised such a thing! Ah, b-but I’m not an imposter, I’m the real one, right, Asuna?”
Looking beside her, Asuna who tightly grasped her hands whispered,
“Sinonon…… did you already forget? You promised to treat me to an all I can eat «Berry & Cherry Tart»……”
“Ehhhh!?”
Am I actually in the virtual world and operating this memory from there……? As she thought this, both Kazuto’s and Asuna’s cheeks trembled, and soon after that they let out slight laughter. At that point, she finally realized that her plan to tease Kazuto had backfired.
“N……Now you’ve done it, Asuna! Next time, in ALO, prepare to eat a hundred homing arrows!”
“Ahaha, sorry sorry, forgive me Sinonon!”
Asuna smiled as she tightly embraced Shino. While feeling the stiffness in her chest melted away by Asuna’s action, innocent and overflowing with friendship, she turned her pouting face away. But her mouth immediately opened and let out a laugher alongside the other two.
As if to follow through the eased up atmosphere, Kazuto said in a slow tone,
“Be it the Fluctlight or the Mnemonic Visual, just hearing the term alone would make you feel that it’s questionable technology…… But, the virtual world created by STL is in fact, far better than the one from AmuSphere which we are familiar with. Ultimately, it might be what we call a «Real Dream»……”
“D-Dream……?”
Shino blinked after hearing those surprising words, the Spriggan swordsman, who had an aura that caused the people surrounding him to become drowsy in ALO, nodded with a serious face.
“Yes. Creating the world by gathering the objects maintained in the memories together, that action…… isn’t it almost like how dreams work? Actually, the brain waves of a human Diving in STL is fairly close to the pattern which occurs during sleep.”
“Then, it means you’re doing the part-time job within the dream? Earning just by sleeping through the period of three days?”
“T-That’s what I told you in the beginning, didn’t I? Sleeping throughout, without eating nor drinking. But of course, I got nutrition and water through an intravenous drip.”
Now that he mentioned it, he really did say that right after he came into the shop. But I certainly didn’t expect him to actually work by watching a long dream while lying on a gel bed. As Shino glanced upward, she muttered along with a sigh,
“Three days of continuous dreaming, huh…… If I could dream that long, there are many things I could do. Like not waking up just before eating a cake.”
“That’s too bad, as you won’t remember what you ate during the dream anyway. Well, talking about having an all-you-can-eat cake every day……”
After talking jokingly until this point, Kazuto cut off his words in the middle. The small eyebrows Shino saw under his slightly long forelock frowned.
“……What’s the matter, Kirito-kun?”
He didn’t immediately answer Asuna’s question, while his hand made a motion as if it was putting something into his mouth.
“…………Cake…… no, not it…… It’s harder…… salty…… but, delicious, what is……”
“Y-You remembered? Is it something you ate in the virtual world?”
“…………Nope, I can’t remember. But I have a hunch that it didn’t taste like anything in reality…………”
Kazuto continued frowning for several seconds longer, before finally giving up as he let out a sigh. Shino, who was silent up until this point, asked a question she was no longer able to hold in her mind,
“Hey Kirito, is something like that possible? To eat something in STL which doesn’t exist in reality? As the virtual world created by STL is a collection of parts based on the memories of a Diver, then isn’t it natural that the person can’t see what he has never seen, and can’t eat what he has never eaten?”
“Ah…… that’s true. It’s just as Sinonon said…… In that case, the virtual world from STL should have a very limited degree of freedom, shouldn’t it? It can’t create a world which is completely different from reality, like Aincrad or Alfheim.”
Kazuto nodded slowly at what Asuna pointed out, before smiling as if to shake off his earlier irritation.
“You two are pretty sharp, that is a good point. When I heard about the Mnemonic Visual, at first I didn’t realize that limitation. I’ll remember to ask the staff at RATH before going into the next long Diving experiment, but as it involves the core of STL technology, I don’t think they will agree to answer…… But, there is one thing…… in the explanation about the virtual world which comprises of memories, the staff never mentioned that those memories are from the Diver.”
“Eh….. then how did they……”
As Shino couldn’t grasp the meaning right away, Asuna, who was next to her, inhaled slightly.
“Could it be…… other people’s memories? No…… could it possibly be that the memories did not belong to anyone but were created from zero……?”
Upon hearing the words which were almost like a whisper, Shino finally realized it.
What if the optic memory information…… the Mnemonic Visual of humans have a common structure? And the analysis of that structure is already complete……? It could be possible in theory to create a real «Dream» which is full of things one has never seen, food one has never tasted, scenes one has never imagined.
Then, the words which supported her thoughts coincidentally spilled out of Kazuto’s mouth,
“……I had been doing this part-time job with RATH for two months now…… During the first test Dive, there was no memory restriction yet, so I still remember the VR world back then. One of them was just a wide room with plenty of cats, which probably numbered in the hundreds.”
“……Plenty……”
Shino’s mouth slacked as she imagined the cat heaven, before quickly brushing it off. As he looked straight ahead, Kazuto said with an expression as if he was searching his memories.
“……What I could recall about that room, was that it was full of breeds of cats I didn’t know. And it wasn’t just that…… there were some which grew wings and were flying, some which curled themselves up and bounced around. Something like that can’t possibly be from my memories.”
“……And at the same time, it can’t be from another person’s memories either, right? Since a cat with wings doesn’t exist in reality anyway.”
Was what Asuna said, before she continued,
“Those flying cats which the staff there made Kirito-kun see…… must be something the STL system created from zero, right?”
“The latter part is great. If that’s possible, then it’s not just an individual object, but it could be possible to ultimately create an entire world.”
Kazuto’s words made all three remain silent for a short moment.
Producing a virtual world without human involvement——
This idea caused Shino chest to throb. As Shino recalled that she had recently become increasingly uncomfortable with the «Egocentric designed» VRMMO worlds such as GGO and ALO.
The existing VR game worlds were completely assembled by the designers of the companies developing those games. Even though the buildings or trees or rivers existed in a nonchalant manner, they were actually objects placed on the terrain based on someone’s preference.
During game play, whenever she thought about this, something always rose within Shino’s chest. After all, she too, was merely an existence running around the developer’s palm, the so-called God, and this thought remained in her mind whether she liked it or not.
As Shino didn’t originally start playing Gun Gale Online for fun, now that she had overcome the curse from her past, she started to think about the meaning of her experience within virtual space in reality. She didn’t seem to sympathize with someone from her squadron who carried a model gun in real life while wearing a cloth decorated with matching insignia. She believed that the fortitude and self control attached to the in-game Sinon would slowly strengthen Asada Shino in the real world as well, but at the same time, she wondered if it was worth continuing spending that amount of time and money on Diving into the virtual world.
Shino thought that there must be a reason that her intensely shy self had met and became good friends with Asuna for several months now. This girl, who always gave off a gentle smile, must surely have had the same self values as Shino. Playing VRMMO games not to escape, but to obtain the experience and bonds from the virtual world to nourish her reality’s self, Asuna was surely that kind of person. Of course, that also applied to Kazuto.
Because of that, Shino didn’t want to think that the VR world was just a fake, that everything inside was just imaginary. She didn’t want to think about the fact that the VR world couldn’t exist without the developer.
Last month, on the night she had spent over at Asuna’s house, in the room after the lights had been turned off, she had expressed the weakness she had hid. Then, Asuna who was lying on the bed beside her had thought for a moment, before speaking,
?Sinonon, isn’t that the same as the real world? Even now, the surroundings granted to us, be it houses, or towns, or the status of being a student in society, everything is someone’s design, isn’t it……? Perhaps, being strong, is about advancing along this, don’t you think??
After taking a brief pause, Asuna continued with a laughing voice,
?But, I just want to see it once, a VR world which isn’t designed by anyone. Perhaps if that became reality, it may be, in a sense, the «Real World», even more real than this real world……?

“Real… World……”
As Shino unconsciously murmured, Asuna, who was apparently thinking the same thing, nodded from the opposite side of the table.
“Kirito-kun…… then, that means…… by using STL, a reality which is subjectively more real than our real world could be created? A different world without a designer’s involvement?”
“Hmmm……”
Kazuto thought slightly, before slowly shaking his head.
“No…… in the current situation, it’s still difficult. The forests or grass in the natural terrain could be left to the system to generate, but I think building a large-scale town while maintaining its integrity without a designer is still impossible. About the other possibility…… such as preparing a few hundred test players and letting them build a town from zero in the wilderness field state, or in the other words, building a civilization, for that, I think it could be possible in the world without a god-like creator……”
“Uwa, that would be a very time consuming strategy?”
“The completion of the map would take several months, I think.”
Asuna and Shino laughed at Kazuto’s joke at the same time. However, the owner of the speech remained pondering with his brow wrinkled, and before long, he started speaking in a monologue manner,
“So it’s a simulation of building a civilization, huh. No…… it can be said it’s necessary. If the STL’s FLA function is used and allowing them to develop…… is there any restriction placed on the memories inside……?”
“STL’s FL…… what is that?”
Shino frowned at the succession of abbreviations, as Kazuto lifted his face and blinked.
“Ah…… it’s Soul Translator’s second magic. Just now, I talked about the dream-like virtual world created by STL, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever had an incredibly long dream, and felt very tired when you woke up? A bad dream in particular……”
“Ah?, yes I have.”
Shino nodded while frowning.
“Running away from something, and along the way I think ‘This must be a dream’ yet I am unable to wake up. When thinking that I have finally woken up after being chased for so long, it turns out that that was a dream too.”
“How much time do you think you spend in those dreams?”
“Eh?? Two…… or perhaps three hours.”
“Well, when monitoring the brain waves during the dream, which a person feels was very long, the actual time between seeing the dream and opening the eyes is only a few minutes.”
Kazuto, who cut off his words at that point, suddenly stretched his hands to cover both the mobile terminals lying on the table. He then cast his mischievous gaze toward Shino.
“We started talking about STL around half past four, right? Sinon, what time do you think it is right now?”
“Hmm……”
Caught by surprise, Shino hesitated to answer. The sky past the summer solstice was still bright, so she couldn’t tell the time by the light shining through the window. She was forced to rely on guessing an answer,
“……Around four fifty……?
Kazuto then uncovered the terminals, before directing the screen at Shino. As she peered at the screen, several digital figures indicated that it was already long past five.
“Whoa, I didn’t notice we had spent this much time talking.”
“The sense of time is a subjective matter. It’s not just during a dream but also in the real world. When in an emergency, adrenaline that rushes out makes time feel slower, on the other hand, the time passes faster when we are absorbed in a relaxing talk. RATH has been researching about how this happens in the human’s consciousness…… or Fluctlight, and has came up with a rough theory. Apparently, flowing at the core of the consciousness is the pulse that acts as a «Thought clock control signal». But it seems they are still unable to understand where it comes from.”
“Clock……?”
“It’s what you hear often when talking about computer’s something-gigahertz.”
“The number of calculations it can do in one second, right?”
Asuna said as she nodded, Kazuto then knocked the table surface with his right hand’s finger, making a ton ton sound.
“That is also the max number they put in the catalogue, it actually isn’t constant. It usually operates slowly in order to generate less heat, then when a heavy workload is requested——“
Ton ton ton, as he sped up the rhythm.
“As the operation clock is increased, so does the calculation speed. It is the same as the quantum computer in the form of Fluctlight. Placed in an emergency state, having to deal with large amounts of data, the thought clock would be accelerated to cope with it. Sinon surely has experienced it too, when concentrating during an intense battle, you felt like you could see the bullets, right?”
“Ah?, well…yeah, when I am in a very good condition. But there is no way I could imitate your «Predicting the bullet’s trajectory then avoiding it»”
Shino said as she pouted, Kazuto gave a bitter smile before shaking his head.
“That’s also impossible for me now. I need to retrain before the next BoB…… Anyway, that thought clock affects our sense of time. When the clock is accelerated, a human would feel that the flow of time is slower. The moments during sleep would be an obvious example of it. In order to deal with the large amount of memory data, the Fluctlight is sped up, and as a result, we see a dream which feels several hours long within several minutes.”
“Hmmmm……”
Shino folded her arms as she groaned. Her brain, or rather her mind, was a light based computer, something like that was beyond common sense, an act of «Thinking» could increase or decrease its speed, even it was said so, she couldn’t feel like it could possibly be done. However, Kazuto grinned as he continued,
“——In this case. If we could do a work or homework in our dream, don’t you think it’d be great? Even it is just a several minutes in the real world, but it would be several hours in the dream.”
“S-Something like that is absurd.”
“Yes, I think so?, I haven’t seen such a convenient dream before.”
Even though Shino and Asuna both objected at the same time, the smile remained on Kazuto’s face as he continued explaining,
“The real dream is inconsistent, that is the by-product of the memory processing operation. The dream which is created by STL is much clearer…… I mean, the VR world resembles the dream in that logic. In that world, the thought clock in the consciousness is interfered and accelerated. At the same time, the standard time inside the virtual world is also accelerated in sync. As a result, the Dive time that a user feels in the virtual world is several times over the actual time in reality. That is the STL’s greatest killer feature, the «Fluctlight Acceleration», abbreviated as FLA.”
“……This is already……”
I don’t think we’re talking about reality anymore, as Shino let out a little sigh. It was already far from a «Slightly different» AmuSphere.
Social life had been completely changed with just the implementation of the FullDive technology. Shino heard that the reduced cost version was used in normal companies and it had become common to go into the virtual world for a conference or presentation, there were the broadcasting of real 3D drama and movies every day, where audiences could enter into the scene from any angle they like, and a traveling software that reproduced a high altitude view was very popular among the elderly, it was as Kazuto said earlier, an era that even military training was done in the virtual world.
With the increasing number of people who didn’t want to leave their houses, came the arrival of the «Strolling group» boom, which was walking aimlessly around town in the virtual world, the release of the «Virtual strolling software», which catered to that particular group had gained a big popularity, but it was a phenomenon which had its priorities backwards. And it was only recently that the major hamburger shop and the beef bowl chain started to open their virtual branches.
Where does the big tide from such a virtual world sweep to the real world —— even though it is the current social situation, with something that could accelerate the consciousness like the Soul Translator, what kind of the world would it be like? As Shino felt the chill on her back, Asuna, who frowned as she was thinking about the same thing, started muttering as she sighed,
“A long dream……hmm……”
She then raised her eyes toward Kazuto across the table and gave a faint smile.
“It’d be great if the Soul Translator was commercialized before the SAO incident…… I wondered if I should think like this. If the interface hardware wasn’t Nerve Gear but STL, then Aincrad would have had like a thousand floors, and clearing it would take about twenty years.”
“G……Give me a break.”
Watching Kazuto tremble as he shook his head made Asuna smile again, then she continued asking,
“Then, this weekend, Kirito-kun will be seeing a continuous long dream, right?”
“Yeah. It’d be a long continuous operation testing. I’ll be Diving three days straight without eating nor drinking. I think I’d get a bit thinner……”
“It’s not a bit at all? Really… this work is too much.”
Asuna made a cute angry face as she folded her arms in front of her chest.
“Tomorrow I’ll go make food at Kawagoe! I need to ask Suguha-chan to buy a lot of vegetables too.”
“T-That’s very nice of you.”
As Shino was smiling while watching the two, she suddenly thought of a question, and started speaking,
“Hey…… this means, your three day long Dive is done under that thought accelerated function, right? Do you know how much time you actually feel inside?”
“Hmm, as I explained earlier, the memory inside was restricted…… But, I heard that the maximum rate of the current FLA function is three times……”
“That means…… nine days?”
“Or maybe ten days.”
“Hmmm…… I wonder what you have been doing in a world like that. The memories can’t be taken out, but how about taking the real world memories into it? Are there any other testers?”
“No? about something like that, I don’t think so. As the background knowledge would affect the test results. Also, it could block the memories during the Dive, so restricting the existing memories shouldn’t be difficult…… Anyway, the building in Roppongi that I work at has only one STL experimental machine, so the one Diving was just me. And I know almost nothing about the «Inside», it’s not enough to become a Beater and mess with the test results. But the only thing I could tell is the code name of the virtual world used in the experiment.”
“Heh…what is it?”
“«Underworld»”
“Under…… the underground world? I wonder if it’s how that VR world was designed.”
“Its design is unknown whether from reality, fantasy, or SF settings. But, based on the name, I have a feeling that it’d be a gloomy underground……”
“Hmmm. So we can’t pinpoint it.”
As Shino and Kazuto shook their heads together, Asuna touched her delicate chin with her finger as she muttered in a low voice,
“Perhaps…… that came from Alice too.”
“Alice……?”
“It makes sense since RATH’s name is also taken from?Alice in Wonderland?. The first private edition of that book is?Alice’s Adventures Under Ground?.”
“Heh… this is the first time I heard that. If this is true, it’s somehow… like a fairy tale company.”
Shino gave a little smile as she continued,
“Speaking of which, about the Alice books, there are two books with stories about the long dreams. ……Perhaps during Kirito’s Dive, it could be possible that he had a tea party with the rabbit or played chess with the queen.”
Asuna who heard that giggling in an amused manner. But the person in question, Kazuto, stared at a single spot on the table while making a difficult face.”
“……What’s wrong?”
“……No……”
Shino’s voice brought his gaze upward, while still frowned, he blinked repeatedly in irritation.
“Just now, when I heard Alice…… I felt like I could remember something…… Like, there are times, when you feel something funny or disturbing such as just now, but no matter how you think about it, you can’t recall what it was, it’s that kind of anxious feeling.”
“Ah, yeah. Like waking up from a scary dream but not remembering the contents of the dream.”
“Something…… Just now I felt that I had forgotten something bad……”
Asuna asked as she was worriedly looked at Kazuto, who was messing up his hair,
“That is, perhaps, the memories during the experiment……?”
“But… didn’t you say all memories of the virtual world were removed?”
As Shino said that after Asuna. Kazuto groaned with his eyes still closed, before lowering his shoulders.
“……Well, it’s ten days worth of memories anyway. It’s possible that there might be pieces which had escaped the blocking……”
“Oh yes, if we think about it that way, if the memories actually remained, it would mean you’re getting older than us, in the mind. That’s somehow…… scary.”
“For me, I’d be a little…… happy, it’s like the gap would become narrower.”
Asuna said so, as she was a year older, Kazuto responded as he gave a weak smile,
“Come to think of it, in the period between yesterday’s Dive and today’s class, I felt a strange discomfort. It was like it had been a very long time since seeing the town, or the TV shows. The classmates too…… ‘who’s that guy again?’ Something like that……”
“Don’t exaggerate, it’s just ten days.”
“I agree? It’s not something to worry about.”
Shino and Asuna frowned at Kazuto’s words.
“Kirito-kun, you should quit that unreasonable experiment. It really puts too much burden on your body.”
“Ah, if the long continuous operation testing had succeeded, it means the top part of the fundamental design problem is all clear. The next stage is to shape up the machine for implementation, but I wonder how many years it would take to place that enormous size into a commercial basis…… I also can’t do this part-time job much longer, as the final test is starting next month.”
“Uu……”
At Kazuto’s words, Shino made a grim face once more.
“Hey, don’t remind me of something like that. You guys have it easy, there’re almost no paper tests anymore. Mine are still using the mark sheet system, give me a break……”
“Huhu, then how about doing a study camp together?”

As she said that, Asuna looked at the wall up behind Shino before saying ‘Wah’ in a low voice.
“It’s nearly six already, time surely flies while we are chatting.”
“Then let’s finish this. But I don’t think talking about the main topic would take only five minutes though.”
As Kazuto gave a bitter smile, Shino also smiled while replying,
“Well, it’s still a while before the fifth BoB, so let’s decide about the character build and detailed battle tactics after the conversion.”
“Yeah, that works too. But I don’t feel like using anything but a light saber though.”
“I told you it’s a photon sword.”
‘Is that so?’ Kazuto laughed as he grabbed the slip off the table, and started walking toward the counter to treat them with the pay he had received from the seventy-two hours part-time job. Shino and Asuna said ‘Thanks for the treat!’ together, before heading for the exit.
“Agil-san, I’ll come again later.”
“Thank you for the feast, the baked beans were really delicious.”
After the reply from the shopkeeper, who was busy with the nightly preparations, Shino extracted her umbrella from the whisky barrel and pushed the door open. Karakaran, as the doorbell continued ringing, the sound of the town’s ruckus and rain enveloped her ears.
Even though there was still time before the nightfall, due to the thick clouds, the sign of the dark night had already hung over the damp street nearby. Shino opened the umbrella, and began descending the small stairs —— she abruptly stopped her feet as she quickly moved her eyes through the surroundings.
“Sinonon, what’s the matter……?”
The wondering voice of Asuna came from behind. Shino came to her senses and hurriedly turned around from the street.
“N-No, it’s nothing.”
She gave a short laugh to hide her embarrassment. It can’t be, I felt the presence of a sniper on my nape, but it’s not possible. Maybe the habit of affirming the sniping points the moment I entered an open space had come out to the real world? by thinking so, she became slightly astonished.
As Asuna still tilted her head, the doorbell from behind rang once again, followed by the sound of footsteps descending the stairs.
When Kazuto, who exited the shop while putting his wallet into his bag, had come down and stood on the street, he let out a single word along with his sigh,
“ALICE…………”
“What, you’re still thinking about it?”
“No…… I recalled what I heard by chance from the staff’s conversation on Friday before Diving in STL…… A, L, I…… Arti…… Labile…… Intelligen…… hmm, what was it……”
Shino held her umbrella over Kazuto, who was grumbling the words she couldn’t get the point, Asuna sure has a lot to worry about, as she gave a bitter smile.
“Really, if something like that distracted you so much. Shouldn’t you just ask them the next time you go there?”
“Well…… that’s true.”
Kazuto shook his head two, three more times, before finally opening his umbrella.
“See you Sinon, the next meeting we’ll talk about converting to GGO.”
“Understood. It’s fine to meet in ALO next time. Thanks for coming out today.”
“See you, Sinonon.”
“See you, Asuna.”
Kazuto and Asuna, who were going back with JR, waved their hands, Shino then started walking to the subway station in the opposite direction.
Once more, she secretly looked over her surroundings from under the umbrella, but the eerie feeling of the glance from earlier had also disappeared without a trace like the first time.


Interlude I
The human temperature is a strange thing.
Yuuki Asuna suddenly had such a thought.
The rain had already stopped, and under that dark blue sky, with a part of the clouds dyed in orange, the two of them walked slowly while holding hands. Beside her, Kirigaya Kazuto, who had a sullen expression ever since he had started thinking about something several minutes ago, dropped his gaze to the brick tile footpath without saying anything.
Asuna who lived in Setagaya and Kazuto who was going back to Kawagoe, usually separated at the Shinjuku station as they had to take different trains, however today, for some reason, Kazuto said “I’ll drop you near your house.” Even though he would have to take an hour longer to get back to his home from Shibuya, as Kazuto had an unusual look in his eyes, Asuna nodded obediently.
As they got off the train at the Miyanosaka station on the Setagaya line, which was the station nearest to Asuna’s house, they were still holding hands.
While doing this, Asuna vaguely recalled a scene. It wasn’t just sweet, but also horribly painful at the same time, so it was a memory which normally didn’t appear in her consciousness, however, it came back occasionally whenever she held Kazuto’s hands.
It wasn’t a memory of the real world, but of the town of iron towers «Grandum» on Aincrad’s 55th floor, which no longer existed.
At that time, Asuna had served as the sub-leader of the guild Knights of the Blood. Her escort was a great sword user named Kuradeel, who accompanied her all the time. Kuradeel, who had an abnormal burning obsession with Asuna, had used a paralysis poison on Kazuto/Kirito, which compelled Asuna to withdraw from the guild.
Kuradeel had killed two guild members in the process; Asuna, who got there just in time before Kirito’s life was lost, drew her rapier with fury and mercilessly, Kuradeel’s HP gauge was reduced to a level where it could have been depleted with just a final strike, but she had hesitated. Kuradeel took that chance to retaliate however Kirito had recovered from the paralysis by then, and he finished Kuradeel off with his bare hands.
The two then went back to the headquarters of the Knights of the Blood on the 55th floor. After informing them about her withdrawal from the guild, they held each other’s hands while walking aimlessly in Grandum.
While she remained calm on the surface at that time, inside Asuna’s chest, she had felt disappointed in herself because she didn’t kill Kuradeel. The guilt from having Kirito carry that heavy burden swirled around her. She felt that she wasn’t qualified to call herself a part of the clearing group, that she had no right to stand beside Kirito. But, as she was suffering from these feelings, she heard a voice. Just you, I want to send you back to the real world no matter what.
At that moment, a strong feeling welled up within Asuna. Next time I’ll protect this person with my own hands. No, not just the next time, but every time. No matter in which world.
Asuna could vividly remember that her hand, which had felt nothing but the coldness of the air even though they were still grasping Kirito’s, at that moment, became warm as if they were sitting by a fireplace. After the floating castle collapsed, going through the world of fairies, and returning to the real world, when she held his hand, she could still recall the warmth felt in her palm from that time.
Really, the human temperature is a strange thing. Even though she knew that heat was generated from energy consumption to maintain bodily functions, the exchange of warmth from the contact of their palms felt like it contained some information as well. Because, Asuna could understand what Kazuto, who had been walking in silence until now, had been hesitating to say.
‘A human’s soul is light quanta contained within the microscopic structures of their brain cells’ was what Kazuto had said. But, that light might exist not just in the brain cells, but also in every cell in the body. The quantum field, which was composed of those particles of fluctuating lights and produced the human form, had connected through their palms. Perhaps that was how the warmness could be felt.
Asuna closed her eyelids gently, before whispering in her mind,
——Look, it’s alright, Kirito-kun. I will always guard your back. That’s because we’re the world’s greatest forward and backup.
Kazuto then suddenly stopped, prompting Asuna to also halt her moving feet. Her eyes widened, Is it already seven? as the antique cast iron street lamp radiated an orange light overhead.
In this evening after the rain, no one was to be seen on the walkway aside from the two of them. Kazuto slowly turned his head, his dark pupils fixed on Asuna.
“Asuna……”
As if he finally shook off his hesitation, he took a step forward——
“……I still think about going.”
Asuna, who understood the reason for his concern, smiled as she asked,
“America?”
“Yeah. I spent a year researching, and I think the «Brain Implant Chip» research at Santa Clara University is the real successor of the FullDive technology. The Brain Machine Interface is probably heading toward that direction. I really want to see it, where the next world is born.”
Asuna looked straight into Kazuto’s pupils before giving a deep nod.
“There were not only fun memories, but a lot of sad and painful memories too. Its purpose, that castle’s destination, you want to know about those, right?”
“……I don’t think even several hundreds of years would be enough time to understand it.”
Kazuto made a little smile and became silent once again.
It’s certainly difficult to speak about separation. was what Asuna guessed. Without erasing her smile, she tried to voice the answer that had always been kept warm inside of her chest —— however before she could do so, Kazuto made the exact same expression he once did in Aincrad - the same one from when he proposed marriage to her - as he said while stuttering,
“That’s why…… I-I want you to go with me, Asuna. I really don’t want to live without you. I know I’m saying something unreasonable. I know that Asuna has a path Asuna wants to go. But, even so, I……”
At that point, he cut off his words as if he was confused. Asuna’s eyes widened, and she let out a light laugh.
“Eh……?”
“S……Sorry that I laughed. But…… could it be, that was what made Kirito-kun troubled until now?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Whaaat. If it’s about my answer, I had already decided upon it long ago.”
Her left hand grasped her right, which was still holding Kazuto’s hand. After nodding deeply again, she told him,
“Of course, I’ll go… we’ll go together. If it’s with you, I can go anywhere.”
Kazuto’s eyes opened wide as he blinked many times, and then a rare bright smile floated onto his face. At the same time, he placed his right hand on Asuna’s shoulder.
Asuna responded by tightly embracing Kazuto with both hands.
As their lips touched, the coldness immediately left their lips, replaced by a loving warmth; Asuna, once again, sensed the exchange of information through the infinite amount of radiance that comprised each other’s souls. Even in the future, no matter in which world, no matter how long we travel, our hearts won’t be separated, about that I’m certain.
No, our hearts were actually bound a long time ago. On the sky above the collapsing Aincrad, when it disappeared wrapped in that rainbow aurora —— or perhaps even far before that, the moment we met deep within the dark labyrinth, as fellow lonely solo players.

“Anyways.”
Several minutes later, as they were walking along the walkway holding hands, Asuna asked a question that suddenly popped into her head,
“So you think that the Soul Translator you’re experimenting with isn’t the successor of the FullDive technology? The Brain Chip interfaces with brain cells at the same level as the Nerve Gear, but STL is ahead of that, and interfaces at the quantum level, doesn’t it?”
“Hmmm……”
Kazuto was diligently poking the brick using the metallic ferrule of the umbrella in his other hand as he answered,
“……Its design concept is certainly more advanced than the Brain Chip. But, how to say it…… maybe it’s too advanced. In order to downsize that machine for practical use, it wouldn’t just take a few years, but it would require decades to do so. I have a feeling that the current STL isn’t a machine made for humans to FullDive into the virtual world with……”
“Ehh? Then what is it for?”
“Maybe it’s a machine for understanding the human consciousness…… the Fluctlight.”
“Hmm……”
So you mean the STL isn’t the goal, but the method? As Asuna was wondering what the understanding of the human soul could lead to, Kazuto continued speaking,
“Besides. I think STL is his…… the extension of Heathcliff’s idea. That man, for whatever reason he created Nerve Gear, he sacrificed thousands of people, fried his own brain, and on top of that, he even spread «The Seed» out into the world…… I don’t know if he even had a goal in the first place, but I feel that his presence is floating somewhere in STL. Even though I want to know what he was aiming for, I don’t want it to affect my own direction. I don’t want to feel like I’m dancing on his palm.”
The face of that person appeared in the back of Asuna’s brain in that instant, and she nodded.
“……I see…… ……Hey, the consciousness of Guild Leader, the thought emulation program still exists somewhere on a server, right? Like Kirito-kun mentioned before.”
“Yeah, but it was just once. The machine that the guy used for suicide was the original prototype of STL. In order to read the Fluctlight, it required a high-powered beam that was enough to fry the brain cells. Perhaps, he had to suffer a much more intense and long continuous pain than when only the brain stem is destroyed by the Nerve Gear…… For the purpose of making a copy of himself, I don’t think it’s unrelated to what RATH is doing with STL now. Maybe somewhere in my heart I’m still thinking…… that I want to see some kind of resolution, which is why I accepted Kikuoka’s offer……”
As he said that, Kazuto’s gaze turned toward the sky fading into a reddish orange. As she looked at his face for a while, Asuna put more strength into her hand that was holding his, before whispering,
“……Promise me, just one thing. Don’t do something dangerous.”
Kazuto, who turned to her, gave a smile as he nodded deeply.
“Of course, I promise. As I’m going to America with Asuna next summer anyways.”
“Before that, shouldn’t you worry about studying to get a good score on the Scholastic Assessment Test?”
“Uu……”
Kazuto was at a loss for words momentarily, before he lightly coughed and changed the topic,
“Anyway, I need to properly greet Asuna’s parents first. I have exchanged emails with Shouzou-shi from time to time, but your mother’s memory of me is quite bad……”
“No problem, no problem, recently she has become very understanding. Ah, yes…… why not just go now?”
“Ehh!? N-No…… maybe it’s better to go after the final exam, yeah.”
“Really…”
They had arrived in front of a small park near Asuna’s house as they talked. This was where Kazuto usually said farewell before sending her off. Asuna stopped as she felt reluctant before turning around. She looked at Kazuto’s face, and his gaze was also fixed on her.
The gap between them then lessened to fifteen centimeters. Suddenly, heavy footsteps could be heard from behind, and Asuna reflexively stepped back.
As she turned her head, a human figure appeared jogging from the T-shaped road. It was a short man dressed in black. His gaze stopped at Asuna and Kirito before saying “Excuse me,” with a high-pitched voice.
“Erm, do you know where the station is?”
The young man lowered his head as he asked, Asuna then pointed to the east with her left hand.
“Follow this road for a while, and turn right at the first traffic light…… then…”
Suddenly, Kazuto, who was behind, forcefully pulled back Asuna’s shoulder. Then he stepped forward while shielding Asuna behind his back.
“W-What’s……”
“You…… were following us from Dicey Café weren’t you? Who are you?”
With a sharp tone, Kazuto said something that Asuna didn’t even notice. She held her breath as she looked at the man’s face again.
He had an uneven tangle of long hair. The outline of his thin cheeks were densely covered by a stubbly beard. There were silver earrings on his ears, and on his neck was also a thick silver necklace. He was wearing a discolored black T-shirt with the same colored leather pants. A metal chain hanging on his waist made a jingling sound. His feet were wrapped in high laced boots which looked heavy in this season, and he gave off a shabby overall impression.
The narrowed eyes gleamed from the parting in his untidy forelock, as if he was smiling. The guy frowned and tilted his head as if he didn’t understand what Kazuto was talking about —— then suddenly, his small pupils shone with an unpleasant light.
“……So surprise attacks don’t work, huh.”
With the edge of his lips tightly bent, Asuna didn’t know if he was smiling or irritated.
“Just who are you?”
Kazuto repeated his question. The man shrugged, shook his head two, three times, before he deliberately heaved a big sigh.
“Hey, hey, that won’t do, Kirito-san. Did you already forget my face…… oh, over there I wore a mask, didn’t I? But… I never forget about you for even a single day.”
“You……”
Tension built up on Kazuto’s back. He pulled back his right hand as he lowered his waist slightly.
“——«Johnny Black»!”
With his low shout, Kazuto’s right hand flashed like lightning and grabbed the air over his shoulder. It was once where the «Black Swordsman»’s beloved sword, «Elucidator» was.
“Bu… Ku… Kuhahahahahaha! Nope, no sword!!”
The man who was called Johnny Black twisted the upper part of his body as he spewed out a high-pitched laugh. Kazuto lowered his right hand as his entire body remained tense.
Asuna knew that name. It was the name of an active murderer in the old Aincrad, a well-known name even among the red players. Belonging to the PK guild «Laughing Coffin» and forming a duo with «Red-eyed XaXa», who required more than ten players to capture.
…………XaXa. She heard that name just half a year ago. The mastermind behind that terrible «Death Gun Incident».
She heard right after the incident that XaXa himself, Shinkawa Shouichi was arrested along with his younger brother, but the remaining comrade was on the run. The third person, whom she thought was caught long ago, his name was probably Kanemoto…… in other words, the man standing in front of her was————
“You…… still keep running away?”
Kazuto said in a hoarse voice. Johnny Black, Kanemoto grinned as he protruded both his index fingers.
“Of cour——se. Did you think I’d give up after XaXa was caught? I am the last of the Laughing Coffin. I discovered that coffee shop five months ago, and I was on the lookout nearby for a month…… every day was filled with hatred—“
As he spoke, Kanemoto inclined his head to the left and right.
“But, Kirito-san, without the sword…… you’re merely a weak brat, aren’t you? Even though the face is the same, it’s hard to think you’re the same Swordsman-sama who beat me up so badly.”
“It’s the same for you…… What can you do without your proud poisoned weapons?”
“Hey, that’s so unprofessional to judge an armament by its appearance.”
Kanemoto moved his right hand behind his back with a snake-like speed, and pulled something off his shirt.
It was a strange object. From the cylinder made of smooth plastic, there was a toy-like grip protruding out. Asuna thought it was a water gun for a moment, but she held her breath as she saw Kazuto’s back became intensely stiff. Her confusion turned into fear once she heard Kazuto’s voice.
“That’s…… the «Death Gun»……!”
His right hand projected to the back, encouraging Asuna to withdraw. At the same time, he pointed the tip of the folded umbrella in his left hand at Kanemoto.
One step, two steps, as she unconsciously moved backward, Asuna eyes were still fixed on the plastic «Gun». That was not a mere water gun, but a syringe utilizing a high-pressure gas, inside of which was with the frightening chemical which could stop the heart.
“I have—, I have the poisoned weapon— I’m sorry it’s not a knife though—“
As he was shaking the tip of the syringe, which was its only metal part, Kanemoto made a creaking-like laugh. Kazuto grabbed the umbrella with both his hands while directing it cautiously towards Kanemoto, then called out in a low voice.
“Asuna, run away! Call someone for help!”
After a moment of hesitation, Asuna nodded, then turned around and started running. From behind, the voice of Kanemoto could be heard,
“Oi, «The Flash»! Make sure to let everyone know….. that the one who took the «Black Swordsman»’s neck, is this Johnny Black!”
The doorbell of the nearest house was about thirty meters away.
“Someone…… help!!”
As she ran and called with her utmost voice. Isn’t this a mistake to leave Kazuto and run away? ……If we both jumped on him at the same time, shouldn’t we able to suppress that weapon? She passed the halfway point as she thought so, at that time, a sound reached her ears.
Like when the cap of a carbonated drink was opened, or a can of hair spray was used; a short, sharp compression sound. Yet, she understood its meaning right away; Asuna, overwhelmed with fear, twisted her foot, staggered, and leaned her hand against the damp brick.
Asuna slowly turned and looked over her shoulder.
A gruesome scene entered her vision.
The shaft of the umbrella in Kazuto’s hand had stabbed into the base of Kanemoto’s right thigh.
And the syringe in Kanemoto hand was pushed against Kazuto’s left shoulder.
Together, their bodies separated from each other, before collapsing violently onto the road.

The several minutes after that was unreal, like she was watching a black and white movie.
She ran up to the side of the unmoving body of Kazuto. She pulled Kazuto off Kanemoto, who was holding his right leg in agony, “Hang in there,” she was calling as she pulled out the mobile terminal from her pocket and opened it.
She couldn’t feel anything from her fingers, as if they were frozen. Her stiff fingertips desperately operated the touch panel, and she reported the current location and situation to the operator of the emergency center, panting and out of breath.
Curious spectators gathered. Then, a policeman appeared from a crack in the crowd. Asuna just briefly answered his questions as she kept on tightly hugging Kazuto.
Kazuto’s breath was short, and shallow. Under his pained breath, he whispered two short words. “Asuna, sorry.”
The next several minutes felt like an eternity. Kazuto was brought into one of the two ambulances which had arrived, and Asuna also boarded the same car.
As Kazuto lay unconscious on the stretcher, a paramedic put his face close to Kazuto’s mouth to check his airway, then immediately called the other rescue member,
“Respiratory failure! Give me the Ambu bag!”
To hastily support his breathing, Kazuto’s mouth and nose were covered with a transparent mask.
Asuna somehow managed to suppress her urge to scream within her throat, as she informed the paramedic about the name of the chemical she miraculously recalled,
“Erm, s-succinylcholine…… he was injected with that drug. In the left shoulder.”
The paramedic looked at her in amazement for a moment, then he gave new instructions in rapid succession.
“IV inject epinephrine…… no, use atropine! Make sure it’s IV!”
A transfusion needle was put into the left arm of Kazuto, who had his shirt taken off, the electrodes of the ECG monitor were placed on his chest. In addition to the voices fluttering about, a siren ripped the air apart.
“Heart rate is dropping!”
“Start chest compressions!”
The face of Kazuto, with his eyelids shut, looked terribly pale under the car’s internal LED light. “No… no… Kirito-kun… not something like this…” the small voice continued to spill out of Asuna’s mouth without her noticing for a while.
“Heart stopped!”
“Keep compressing!”
Kirito-kun, it’s a lie, right? You aren’t going to leave me, right? You said we’ll be together forever…… didn’t you say that?
Asuna dropped her gaze to the mobile terminal held firmly in her hand.
The pink heart displayed on the monitor throbbed slightly once, before it stopped pulsing.
The digital figure cruelly changed and stayed at zero, as everything became silent.