Pins and Feathers
Chapter 1: The Brain in the Vat
It must be like therapy—at least in the sense that accident victims can find release in watching videos of car crashes. They say that the way the mind works, the more you confront trauma the less it hurts. If you're afraid of dogs, snuggle up with one for a few nights. By the end of the week it'll be your best friend. That's why they reprogrammed Aincrad Castle into the sky above The World Tree. It's been over a year since my stepbrother Kazuto—Kirito, in this world—cleared the game, but without all 100 floors complete, a lot of the survivors still don't feel like it's really over. They need that sense of closure before they can really return home.
What I think is, I've been watching Kirito and Asuna together all night, and that therapy through desensitization idea is a load of crap.
They fight together like they're finishing each other's sentences. Really, it's more like they're the same person. Neither of them have to speak. Somehow they know on instinct what the other will do. They're almost more dancers than fighters. Just as beautiful, too. Maybe even more.
Me, I'm partnered up with Agil, and if there's a more awkward pair doing battle together on the net, send them my condolences. We're constantly shouting directions to one another. I'm stumbling over him. He's stumbling over me. Out of the corner of my eye I see Asuna spiral through the air as she switches in to take advantage of the hole Kirito opened in a monster's defense. No words necessary. And I wonder, if I had partnered up with Kirito instead, could I have done that?
Where we are is floor 76 of Aincrad Castle—the first floor that wasn't cleared the first time the game was played. There's no death penalty this time around—at least not one that really matters—but all of the old Sword Art Online veterans are on edge. They smile and laugh, sure, but it's the kind of weak grin you show when you're trying to pretend you're not having flashbacks to the worst nightmare you can imagine. The kind of laugh the accident victim lets out when she's shown a video of her crash, and she tells herself, "You know, it really wasn't that bad," but the way her eyes can't focus say what she really means: "I just need to get through this."
I look at Kirito swinging his swords and all I can think is, I just need to get through this.
The floor itself is pretty spectacular. It's set up like a giant orchard, but everything in it is made of different kinds of crystal. There are crystal trees and crystal bushes. The paths are made of a cloudier crystal, but it's clear enough to reflect the moon. Catch a glimpse of a crystal leaf in just the right light, and it shines a rainbow spectrum on everything around it. Even the monsters here are made of crystal.
It might be the most beautiful place I've ever seen, but I can't find it in myself to care. What I feel like is the new kid in the guild. All those SAO veterans, this whole raid is for them. They fought together in this castle for two years. Watched their friends die here. They've got a bond with Kirito that I will never be able to understand.
In Alfheim Online, I'm one of the top ranked Sylph. Here in Aincrad, I'm just kind of along for the ride.
Agil and I try to get that teamwork thing down for another hour before our raiding party finds the floor's boss door. I wonder if he'd rather be partied up with some of the original SAO players, but even with us stepping on each other's toes, if he's upset he doesn't show it. He walks up to the door and rests his hand on it like he's touching a grave. "This is where we'd report back," he says.
Some of the other veterans nod. If things had been tense before, suddenly everything's solemn. Those of us who hadn't played SAO try to empathize, but if they're like me, they can't quite get it. No matter how hard I try, I can't imagine looking at a door and knowing that what was on the other side could kill me. I can't imagine knowing it could kill somebody I loved.
Klein steps up next to him. "Almost feels like we should go back," he says, but then he shrugs. "No point to that now, though."
Agil nods. "Still doesn't feel right just walking in." He turns to face the gathered players—about fifty of us in all, including both people who were trapped in SAO and players like me who are just tagging along—and waves everybody into a semi-circle in front of the door. Agil is about the biggest man I've ever seen, and when he's calling for an audience, he gets one. "Before we continue, I want to say a few words."
He clears his throat and pauses. Finally, he says, "Just a few weeks ago, the last of our friends who stood next to us in Sword Art Online returned home." He waves towards Asuna and smiles. Several hands pat her on the back, and when she blushes she looks so pretty that I want to cry. "Unfortunately, not all of our brothers and sisters are with us today. Many of them won't be with us again. Before we begin our journey to the top of this castle, I want all of you to remember that whatever happened in that game is finished. If you fall in battle here today, or somewhere on the next twenty-five floors, that doesn't mean you would have been killed back then. This journey is supposed to be fun—to finish what we started three years ago. To win our final battle against the man that took two years of our lives."
Everybody cheers. I'm cheering, too. "Remember the friends we lost in this tower," Agil continues, "but also remember that this is a chance to make new friends. With us today are many players who have joined us from Alfheim Online." This time, he points to me. When I blush, I don't look nearly as good as Asuna. "This is Kirito's sister, Leafa. She's just one of many newcomers joining us tonight. Make them feel welcome. We can never replace those we lost, but we can always make new bonds." There's more cheering, and Agil lets it die out on its own. When it's quiet, he turns back towards the door. "Alright then," he says. "Asuna. Kirito. Would you do the honors?"
People still look nervous, but they all flash their first full smile of the night when Asuna and Kirito step up to the door. They're holding hands while they push. Even as I wish it were me up there, I can't help but smile with them.
When the door is opened everybody rushes in. The boss's room is all crystal like the orchard outside, but instead of rows of trees there's just one giant one in the center. It's almost like a smaller version of The World Tree. Everything in the room is covered in rainbows. "Be careful," Kirito says, and both of his swords are drawn.
The boss doesn't jump out. The battle music isn't playing. When nothing happens, we start moving slowly towards the crystal tree. Agil keeps his eyes on it when he says, "Are you ready, Leafa?"
"Yeah," I say. My sword is drawn, but I'm watching Kirito push forward instead of looking for the boss.
"You don't seem focused."
I don't know how he can tell, but he's the only one who seems to notice. Up ahead, Recon is readying a healing spell. Players on all sides are preparing for the fight. The boss still hasn't appeared. "Let's just get through this."
The door begins to seal shut behind us. It grates against the crystal floor, and the harsh squeal of the grinding sounds like a whistle. A few of the veterans look scared, but they laugh it off when they realize there's no real danger. "Alright," he says, but the way it comes out, he doesn't seem satisfied.
Kirito reaches the tree. Asuna is a few steps behind him, and she's trying to look through the branches. With all the reflections, anything could be hidden up there. They wait, and they wait some more, and nothing happens.
After about five minutes, Asuna gives up and turns away from the tree. "I don't think this is working," she says. "Could the room be glitched?"
By now a lot of the players have let their weapons slack. A few of the Alfheim players are sitting down. Next to me, Agil checks to make sure the logout function still works. It does. "Maybe it's part of the fight?"
Kirito shakes his head. "I don't think so. The game was tough, but it was fair. There were a few surprises, but waiting five minutes to spawn a boss doesn't feel like—"
The sky above us turns red. It's not like a sunset—it's a dark crimson that looks so thick you'd get lost flying through it. The rainbow reflections shooting out from the tree change to look like blood spots. Some of the players start screaming.
A hooded man appears from out of the clouds. His robes are even redder than the sky. Kirito looks like he's about to take off to fight him, but Asuna grabs his arm. She looks scared, and not the kind of scared you get just playing a game.
"Welcome back to Aincrad Castle," the hooded man says. "For those of you whom I have not had the pleasure to meet, my name is Kayaba Akihiko."
Whether they played SAO or not, everybody in the room has to know who that is. He was the man who created the game. The one who killed over 2,000 people. Who stole my brother. My sword is gripped so tight in my hand I'm sure it's going to break.
"If you are a returning player here today," he continues, "I must congratulate you. While I have already expressed this to Kirito, you played through Sword Art Online from the very beginning to the very end. That deserves recognition. If this is your first time in my world, then I welcome you."
I can't begin to imagine what the veterans feel. I wasn't trapped with them, but just from having heard the stories about what happened, my heart is pounding. Maybe it's the adrenaline thinking for me, but I want to drive my sword through Kayaba's hood. Kirito looks like he wants to do the same, but he shakes his head when I look at him.
"I'm sure many of you are angry with me. That's fine. However, I feel I must come before you in person to deliver my message. If you do not want to listen, you may log out now. You are not and will not be trapped in this castle again."
Left and right, more people check to see if they can still log out. A few of them leave. Most of them just make sure it's there and then close their menus. I check mine, and everything seems to be working the way it should. More than anything I want to sign out, but as long as Kirito stays, I won't. Even if it meant being trapped for years in game, I'd rather be in here with him than outside waiting helpless while he fought for his life.
"I'm sure you are all wondering what is happening," Kayaba says. When Kazuto was trapped, I spent hours imagining what I would say to the man responsible. I imagined telling him he was a monster. That I'd like nothing more than to watch him die. That if I had the chance I'd kill him myself. With him actually in front of me, I couldn't say anything. "As you have likely guessed, this encounter wasn't programmed into the original version of Sword Art Online. However, now that the game has been reborn, I've seen it fitting to change the stakes."
Kirito leads Asuna closer to where I'm standing. I've never been more angry, or scared, but even through it all I have to try not to smile—I'm second fiddle to Asuna, but he cares enough to keep me close. Even closer than the other veterans.
Klein sidesteps his way over to us, and whispers just loud enough to Kirito that I can hear, "Didn't you kill him?"
"Yeah," Kirito says. "That's not really him. At least, not the way we knew him before."
Kayaba doesn't pay attention to the people talking below him. Over players shouting threats and curses at him, he says, "The next 24 floors will play very similarly to how they would have played in the original version of Sword Art Online—with some additional rules. Your goal is still to reach the Scarlet Jade Castle on the hundredth floor, and I will still be your final challenge. But without the threat of death upon failure, your motivation for reaching the top must be changed. So too must your reward."
He extends his hand, and from out of his palm floats what look like a golden set of stonemason's tools—pins and feathers. "Being able to create is the only true freedom we have, both in the physical and the virtual worlds. I have created the world of Sword Art Online, and it has evolved to become more than even I had imagined possible on the day I wrote its first line of code. But my power stops within the virtual realm. To create in the physical world, I must turn to you."
The golden tools float higher into the sky. "A block of marble can not become David until it has been fractured. Only by carving away at the stone does it become a statue. I offer the tools necessary to cut that stone to the first player to defeat me in the Scarlet Jade Castle."
The crowd murmurs when the tools begin to glow. Kirito says nothing, so I say nothing. I don't know anything about statues or carving stone, but whatever it is Kayaba is talking about, Kirito's gritted teeth tell me it can't be good. "I'm sure," Kayaba continues, "you have all heard about the Alfheim Online scandal. While the quest to climb the World Tree was posed within the game as the players' ultimate goal, Nobuyuki Sugou was using it as his personal research facility. He studied the mind, and kept 300 players from Sword Art Online as test subjects in order to find a way to control peoples' feelings and memories. He attempted to control the human soul."
He gestures up to the tools floating above him, and the light shining from them is almost blinding. It's like staring into a truck's high beams on a moonless night. "These are the Pins and Feathers of Sugou Nobuyuki. He failed in his quest, but his dream lives on, and I pass it now to you. These tools will be granted to the first player to clear the Scarlet Jade Castle. They will give you the ability to put his research to use. With them, you can permanently alter the soul of any person linked in to the net."
Power like that could change the world. I use my FullDive gear to play games. Really, I've always used if for Kazuto. But even with the SAO tragedy and the ALO scandal, FullDive has taken the world by storm. It can be used for gaming, sure, but how many other applications are there? Militaries use them. Doctors use them. Therapists. At any time there are millions of people hooked up to the network. Us gamers, we're just a small chunk of the pie.
"Before your climb begins, we need to set up some ground rules." Kayaba lowers his hand, and the golden tools disappear. "First, the quest for the Pins and Feathers of Sugou Nobuyuki has been flagged for every registered player in the game. Anybody who can log in will have the opportunity to face me on the hundredth floor. Second, there is a death penalty."
A few people gasp, but otherwise the murmuring stops. Some of the people in the room look so scared that they couldn't move to log themselves out if they wanted to. "The data for Aincrad Castle has been isolated and transferred to my private servers. If at any point you are killed in game during your climb, you will be unable to access the Aincrad Castle zones. Your quest will be over."
"Further," he continues, "starting on the next floor, your FullDive gear's pain absorber will be dropped one level for every two floors you traverse. It will start on the next floor at level nine. On floor 79, it will be dropped to eight. On floor 89 it will have reached level three, and on floor 95 it will turn off completely and remain disabled for the final five floors. While death in Aincrad Castle does not necessarily equate to death in the physical world, I feel it prudent to notify you that once level three is reached, injury in game begins to translate to damage to your physical body."
Other players begin to log out, and I don't blame them. Kayaba calls this a game, but it sounds more like torture. The reward was a weapon, and I wouldn't be willing to trust anybody so desperate that they would fight through five floors without a pain absorber with a tool that could rewire a person's mind. Then again, what would I do with it?
What would I do for it?
"Finally, I have one last rule. This quest must be completed within six months. If the Scarlet Jade Castle has not been cleared within exactly six months from this moment, I will use the Pins and Feathers of Sugou Nobuyuki to completely wipe the minds of every person hooked into a FullDive system at the time of the item's use and any time following."
Agil grunts, but he doesn't move to attack. "That would be the end of FullDive technology."
"All of those people," Kirito says, more to himself than as a response to Agil. "He'd wipe all of those people."
I want to tell him that it'll be alright. That he'll save the day, just like he always does. He's the hero, after all. It's what he does. But the way he refuses to use a shield catches the words in my throat. He's not a defensive fighter. He takes hits when he shouldn't. Without a pain dampener, reaching the top will cripple him.
And I know him well enough to know that he doesn't care.
Kayaba begins to rise into the sky. Slowly, he fades away. Before he disappears completely, his voice floats through the air as if he were standing right there with us. "Good luck."
Like magic, the stairway to the next floor appears in the trunk of the giant crystal tree. Nobody moves towards it. It's silent still, as if what we all saw was a hallucination or a nightmare, and no one wants the other players to think they're crazy. I just want to go home.
Kirito though—he's looking at the stairs, and I don't have to ask him to know what he's thinking. He'll climb it. He'll climb the whole damn tower. And if he goes, Asuna goes.
I go, too.
I'll follow him all the way up. I'd follow him anywhere, pain absorber or not. And in the end, we can't let Kayaba use that item. We can't let another player win it, either. Because nothing good can come from giving somebody the ability to alter another person's soul.
And when somebody puts that much power in the palm of your hand, how can you not use it?