"Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that — it's helpless ... it's absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers ... and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever."

―Toni Morrison

Link to Reality

Chapter XXI

November 22nd

Not for the first time, Asuna wondered if her decision to leave Ichigo behind to wait for Kirito had been a good idea. Everywhere she'd looked, it seemed like the fate itself was telling her it wasn't. Multiple times she'd managed to catch a sight of a NO written in English alphabet, but whether that was just her mind playing tricks on her or the fate was seriously trying to interfere, Asuna had no idea. Ichigo had basically begged her with her eyes and Asuna hadn't had the heart to turn her down.

She took a deep breath as the group of them walked down the busy street, only vaguely registering the argument Ame and Tramp were having.

"—lost my only Gnome friend! Thank you very much!"

"And Todoh doesn't count?"

"He's a renegade! Don't try to make it sound like it's no big deal that I lost a friend to bail your ass out!"

"Ame, come on!"

Asuna had to push her worries away when Recon fell in step with her and spoke.

"I take it they act like this pretty often?"

She nodded. "Just give them a few more minutes and they'll be fine. It's nothing that unusual."

Recon nodded in thought, then looked around. Several moderately high buildings towered over them and most of them had built-in shops, inns and even several blacksmith shops. "Umm, are you sure we're going the right way? I don't remember seeing these buildings."

"It's fine," Asuna assured him. "I know my way around here. In the worst case, we can always look at a map."

"Oh, right. Well, I don't have a map of Arun, but if somebody does—"

"It's Yui-chan," Asuna finished for him.

"Well, I was going to say you, but if you think it's the pixie, then sure…"

Asuna hummed in agreement, rather glad that nobody had asked her anything about Yui yet, although she was pushing it a bit, actually touching the subject. Ame had given her several looks that had said 'you're gonna have to explain that' and Asuna couldn't say she'd minded it, but she preferred to keep Yui's involvement down to minimum. She didn't want to risk it. The system might accept her, but it was the GM that worried her. That man, Oberon, hadn't seemed like the type to accept things he didn't understand. Let alone things that weren't even supposed to be there.

"Mama!"

It wasn't the sudden call that surprised her, rather the urgency behind it.

Asuna abruptly spun to find Yui hovering very close to where Tramp was standing. Or rather, where Tramp had been standing a moment ago. Asuna blinked, but indeed, the Undine boy was no longer there.

"What—?"

Recon and Leafa also grounded to a stop and turned to see what was happening. Asuna tilted her head and looked to Ame for some kind of an explanation, but the girl looked flabbergasted, her mouth hanging open as if she was shocked with the occurrence just as much as the rest of them were.

"What happened?" Leafa broke the silence.

Asuna shook her head, watching Ame in hope for some kind of explanation, but she wasn't forthcoming. Rather, she looked at Asuna as if she was the one with the answers, but it didn't take her long to understand that Asuna had no idea what had happened whatsoever.

Finally, she just shook her head as if she were resigning with the fate. "He's mad at me, isn't he?"

"Ame-chan?"

"Well, if he is, fine. I stand by what I said."

"And what did you say?" Recon asked.

"None of your business, if you weren't listening already," Ame huffed. "Come on, let's go."

She then walked past Asuna to the head of their little group and started stomping down while she made one step after another. Asuna and Recon exchanged an awkward look, then Asuna turned around and speeded up after her.

"Ame—"

"I don't want to hear it! It's his fault! And if he can't man up and take the fault, I don't care!"

Asuna wanted to argue more, but that was the time they turned from the busy street filled with players into the street where the pub was. It was a small, gloomy street, entirely devoid of any players or NPCs. And walking towards them, fitting in with the mood of the surroundings, was Kirito.

Asuna wasn't sure what exactly seemed off about him at first. His face looked a bit daunted, but it took her moments to find that wasn't the problem and just her quick, if incomplete, impression of him. However, his entire posture was strange, making him look as if he was dragging himself rather than simply walking. Then she blinked and it was all gone. The person standing before her looked the same as the one that had logged out in the café not long ago and Asuna once again wondered if she was seeing things.

Then Yui perched on her shoulder and told her quietly, "Papa looks upset."

Inadvertently, Asuna found herself agreeing.

"O—Kirito… are you all right?" Leafa asked with a tiny frown of concern.

"Eh? Yeah, yeah," he replied, voice as if a bit distracted, before he turned to look at Asuna. He bowed his head, refusing to look her in the eyes. "Sorry. I couldn't get in touch with your brother. It looks like he's in some kind of a meeting. I'm not sure."

For a moment Asuna felt relieved. If that was the only thing bothering him, then that was fine. For a moment, she'd been sure something worse had happened. "It's okay," she said, hoping that if nothing else, it would reassure him. "Even a bit later will be just fine."

"I'll try again in half an hour or so. Oh, and where's Tramp? Ichigo mentioned something—"

"He logged out," Ame bit off. "And where's Ichigo?"

Kirito looked momentarily taken aback with her straightforward and quick answer. "Uh… she logged out."

"Fantastic. And you couldn't contact Asuna's bro? So… what are we going to do now?"

For a moment, nobody spoke. Asuna looked from one person to another, hoping that if nothing else, she could come up with some sort of an idea, but soon she realized that she was the only one doing that. Kirito's head was held low and he seemed to be lost in thought while Ame's thoughts were still dedicated to her argument with Tramp. Leafa was looking to Kirito as if she was trying to read him and Recon kept looking from one person to another, completely clueless. However, Yui's reaction was the most worrying one.

She left Asuna's shoulder in order to land on Kirito's, but she was silent when she put her tiny hand to his cheek. He smiled at her, but that smile wasn't the usual, caring or confident one that Asuna had gotten used to over time. It was a smile that made it obvious that the last thing he wanted to do was smile. It told Asuna more than she had expected to know. It told her more than she'd wanted to know.

However, in an unexpected moment, a voice rang through the empty street and Asuna lost her chance to ask Kirito what happened.

"Why, hello. It is a pleasure to see you all present."

The reaction was instantaneous. Five heads turned in the direction where the voice had come from, but compared to Asuna, they were all too slow. By the time they registered the presence of a stranger behind them, she had already whipped out her rapier and charged without sparing any thought to it, without hesitation. Because that ridiculously smug voice, the one that she'd heard only once in her life, but it still sometimes plagued her consciousness with wacky and completely illogical threats, could belong to one person only.

She wasn't wrong.

She saw it, a little before her rapier struck its target, the face of the person responsible for the time she'd spent in the cage. She didn't want to wonder what he was doing in the middle of the game. She didn't care. She just wanted him to go away.

However, despite every single of her expectations, he didn't whip out a sword out of nowhere and counter her attack. He didn't smirk confidently at her, knowing her intuitive attack would fail. Instead, for a moment, his face was that of shock, equal to Asuna's own when his right arm came off, sliced cleanly below the elbow. They watched disperse into thousands of polygons.

Very close to where his hand had been was a floating transparent menu, too big in size to be the menu of a player. Asuna trembled, realizing just how close he'd been to getting absolute control over all of them here.

He blinked, then his eyes found Asuna's and he gave her a look filled with rage, wrath and, much to her surprise, fear. That, more than anything, made her hesitate right when she was about to strike again.

She looked around in a rush, then managed to catch Ame's look just as the girl opened her mouth.

"Asuna, what are you—?"

But she was completely out-voiced when Oberon scowled, voice far too loud to be a normal one. Asuna wondered how she hadn't noticed it before.

"Voice command system activate. Identification: Oberon. Password—"

The words were lost in a gasp when Kirito's sword slashed across his chest. In disbelief, Asuna watched Oberon's HP gauge fall to a point above fifty percent. As Kirito landed in a protective stance in front of her, it occurred to her that a single point away from fifty percent was no coincidence.

"Interesting," Oberon spoke, but whether he was furious or exhilarated was hard to determine.

Asuna tensed, tightening the grip on her rapier, but he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were on Kirito, instead.

Kirito, or at least the little bit of his face that she got to see, was a mask of calm. Not even Asuna could guess what he was thinking, but the sword in his hand was the one she'd seen him use when he defeated Eugene, arguably the best player in the game. It was held loosely, but Asuna had no doubt he'd be able to react the moment he saw Oberon move, perhaps even before. However, Oberon himself looked strangely unconcerned and that more than anything told her something was wrong with this entire situation.

"Interesting indeed," he continued. "I can see why Asuna would attack. But you… you have never seen me before. It is hard to conceive how you should even know who I am, but I can make some assumptions. So why would you ever do it? Do you always attack people you have never met?"

Kirito merely moved his sword so that he was holding it in the least obviously threatening way, but he also made a point of standing protectively in front of her.

"Asuna attacked you," he said matter-of-factly. "I don't need any other reason."

For the moment, she felt like melting on the inside. Only the gravity of the situation stopped her from wrapping her arms around him and shouting 'I love you' for the whole world to hear.

There was the sound of a weapon being drawn and when she looked, at the same time as Oberon, she could see Ame holding a lance in an offensive stance and Leafa, who had just drawn her katana and leveled it at Oberon.

Asuna fought the urge to cry in relief, but it was a sobering thought to remember that they were facing the game master. So she prepared her own rapier, looking at the red light effect where the rest of Oberon's arm should have been.

Something struck her as wrong in that moment, giving her the feeling she got when she walked straight into a trap, but she couldn't ponder on it as Oberon started talking once again.

"Curious," he said, looking anything but. "If I had to make a guess, you would be the last person I'd expect to see here, Kirito—or rather, Kirigaya Kazuto-kun."

Asuna stiffened and she wasn't the only one. Leafa looked just as alarmed. It was Kirito's reaction that worried her, however, because even she could see that the hold on his sword just got unnaturally tense and that was never a good a thing. He said nothing.

"I could make several guesses as to why, I suppose," Oberon ploughed on, "all of them closely related to Lady Asuna and…" his eyes narrowed at the sword held in Kirito's hand "the sense of powerlessness in the real world. I suppose that is impressive in and off itself because you have only gotten released from your virtual prison merely days ago. I imagine you must still be feeling paranoid about the log out button simply disappearing one moment… or just not working at all."

Kirito didn't respond.

"Just what do you want from me?" Asuna demanded in a voice unlike her own, stunning them all into silence. What was there to say, anyway? It was a low blow and everyone knew it, but from the way Kirito's hand trembled, it was apparent that out of them all, he was the most bothered by Oberon's assessment. Asuna felt anger, the kind of a fire going through her veins, making her lash out without any excess thoughts about her actions or hesitation. "Who do you think you are, to do this to me? To do this to us? And the other players? Just who do you think you are, you bastard?"

She was apparently onto something, because he unconsciously flinched, before he redirected his scowl at her, but there was hurt in his eyes, much more so than anger.

"Somebody much smarter than you, apparently," he said in low voice. "Tell me, Asuna. What is Arun?"

She blinked, taken aback at the seemingly random question. She tried to understand whether that was some kind of a game he was playing, but there was absolutely nothing related to Arun, except—

"A safe zone," Ame answered instead, breathlessly looking at the lance in her hand, then at Oberon's still missing arm.

"Why, I should probably give you some praise for that, except that I would only be rewarding you for not being as stupid as the rest of your friends. Care to understand what I've done or should I just tell you myself?"

He made a point of looking at his wrist watch, which in a normal circumstance would have been the worst thing he could have done, but anyone who could have attacked him knew that it would be pointless. His status was the same as Asuna's.

"Oh, well, looks like I don't have the time, so I'll be brief." He lifted the little bit of his arm that had remained intact and Asuna watched in horror as it started forming back. "How do you cut off somebody's arm in the middle of a safe-zone?"

"A duel?" Leafa asked hesitantly.

Kirito sent a panicked look in Asuna's direction, as if trying to ask if a duel window had ever opened up in front of her and she could only respond with a hopeless one.

"Well, this clearly isn't one," Oberon drawled, seemingly enjoying how stupid he was making them feel.

Asuna narrowed her eyes on Oberon's hand, watching for any movement that might try to open the system menu and vowing to be fast enough to stop him. It didn't matter if she was unable to harm him. So long as she kept him busy, it would be enough.

"You should probably know that their hometowns are no safe zones for the renegades. They can and will be attacked there, if other players are so inclined. Arun can be called their only sanctuary for such reasons. And, with the power that comes with being the Game Master," he looked incredibly smug at that moment, "under certain conditions, I can deactivate that status."

The meaning of those words had everyone looking towards Asuna in alarm.

Asuna herself wanted to laugh, say it was fine because she was still there, but somehow, that felt stupid and useless, even to her. Then she noticed the smile on Oberon's face, smug and self-satisfied in a way she felt the incredible need to punch him in the face.

"Don't go anywhere without me," he told her victoriously.

The last thing Asuna felt was a tingling sensation a little above her wrist before her surroundings changed.

Even before Oberon had spoken that final sentence, Kirito was on the move, his hand reaching out to grab Asuna's wrist in hopes that would stop the teleportation or at least take him along with her.

The most he'd managed was to lightly touch her skin before she disappeared.

His hand still held out and face distorted from his failed effort, Kirito didn't know what to do. He was mildly aware of a tear forming in his eye, but he couldn't decide whether to give in to the urge or lash out against it.

Ultimately, he chose the latter.

However, rather than having a fight within, now that he'd made the decision, he was focused on one thing and one thing only.

Oberon never saw it coming.

A purple barrier and words 'Immortal Object' that appeared a moment before his sword reached Oberon did not dissuade Kirito in the slightest. His weapon clashed against the barrier time and time again and while it made no progression at all, at least the look on Oberon's face as he kept jumping backwards in panic, until he stumbled and fell on his fat ass, was priceless.

Logical thoughts telling him that he was behind an unbreakable barrier, absolutely protected from Kirito's weapon, seemed to be having no effect. Kirito could care less even if the guy started begging for mercy. He wasn't going to forgive this. Ever!

He kept swinging the sword, cries and furious roars escaping his throat.

Vaguely, he could hear voices calling his name and finally, somebody very, very daring and courageous (or maybe just stupid) grabbed Kirito's arm, the one making the swing. It was more on instinct that Kirito stopped the attack than the strength of the person holding him back and he turned to glare at the dauntless fool, to make them release him so that he could continue slashing and swinging, but a pair of eyes that met his belonged to Leafa. To Suguha. And with them, she was begging him to stop.

His willpower crumbled.

"It's no use!" she cried, holding him steady even as he feebly tried to set his arm free.

"I can't!" he voiced out, feeling as if the words were coming from somewhere inside of him and tearing him apart during the process. "I can't let him get away!"

She understood, apparently, because she no longer tried to hold him back. Or maybe she was just terrified.

A part of him reminded Kirito that this wasn't the way it was supposed to be. After all those years of distancing himself from her, he had promised that if he survived SAO, he would change that. He would fix it. However, his actions now were just pushing her away even further and yet another, much stronger part of him could care less about her thoughts or feelings. Asuna was gone. Again.

But it was too late. The time Oberon had gotten by Leafa's intervention he did not spend by cowering in fear and begging for mercy. He was doing something in the system menu and by the time Leafa released her hold of Kirito, he was just about done.

"You'll remember me for this, you brat!" the man snarled, although it hardly had the intended effect as he was still sitting on his but like the coward he was. "You will pay for your actions dearly! Just you wait!"

He gave one more detestable look to Kirito and then he was gone, just the way Asuna was.

Kirito stared at the spot where he'd been, feeling nothing but inexplicable anger threatening to burn him on the inside.

Where?

His mind was too distracted by the day's events, but he needed to focus. He needed to keep his wits and rational thought, otherwise everything would be useless. Just where could he be holding her?

There were no many places he could transfer Asuna to without alerting other players and doing that would be counter-productive, unless if he wanted other players to know he was kidnapping her. Again. But that left one place and one place only—one that was such an obvious, yet so unreachable hiding place.

Kirito lifted his weapon, bent his knees and touched the ground with his hand as he focused the best he could under the circumstances. It would be far too out there to think he'd get another chance at this, but he knew it wasn't impossible. They'd already done it before, after all.

Recon, Leafa, Ame and Yui hadn't gotten a single chance to prepare for what was coming.

When he kicked off the ground, the strong force sent them all staggering several steps backward. In several seconds, Kirito was higher than ever. Not that it helped him the least when he crashed straight into a transparent barrier at full speed.

He shook away the feeling of dizziness and held out his sword, one that had already helped him win an impossible battle, and flew up again with an ear-piercing roar as he made the swing—his strongest swing ever. He swung again and again with all the strength he could muster, but the barrier did not give in.

No. Not… again. No…! I refuse! ASUNA!

He had it this time. He'd singled out the spot where he had the feeling he would be able to break through. The swing of desperation, the swing of strength… stronger than the one he'd started out with. How could it not work?

Game masters could be defeated. And so could barriers. He refused to think otherwise. He'd already done it before. What was another time?

Those thoughts made his efforts, his failure, even more painful when it happened. When his sword clashed with the barrier in an attack that should have been his victory, it shattered into hundreds of shiny pieces that were now slowly disappearing. Whether it was the durability of the sword that had somehow gotten low without him noticing it, or a purposeful action by the game master, Kirito didn't know, but at that moment, all the fight he had left in him evaporated.

His hands fell limp at his side and eventually he realized that his wings had stopped responding. Or maybe he'd stopped controlling them. Not that it mattered anymore.

He was so tired. The wind whistling in his ears did nothing to stop him from closing his eyes as he kept falling down. Eventually, even the sound itself was lost and there was only one person he could see in his mind's eye, one voice he could hear calling his name.

I'm coming, he tried to say. I promise.

Then he blacked out.

Sonic boom.

If she had to look for a name to the move her brother—cousin—had just performed, Leafa felt that Sonic Boom would be a fitting one.

If all her rational thought hadn't left her at that moment, she'd be doing a lot more than just standing there like an awestruck fangirl. But as it was, the most she could really do was sigh in admiration. She was one of the best Sylph fliers and had been playing ALO for months, yet in the short time he'd been there, Kirito just about blew away her sense of accomplishment. He was just so good.

"That idiot!" Ame screamed suddenly as they saw a clash of sparks high in the air.

Leafa wanted to tell her to shut up, that Kirito was brilliant and many other things, but before she could, Ame spread her wings and launched in the air as well.

"Hey!" she called after her, but Ame ignored her.

Leafa nearly had a panic attack when, out of nowhere, Kirito started falling, his wings completely gone.

Spreading her own wings, Leafa flew past Ame in a rush of emotions that now had her panicking the way she never had.

How he'd failed to notice that his flight engine had run out was beyond her, but it was probably a good thing that he'd been so much faster than her when flying upwards. Otherwise she never would have been able to catch him.

It was only thanks to Ame that she'd managed in the first place. He'd started pulling her down at breakneck speed and only thanks to the Undine girl's intervention did Leafa succeeded in hovering about ten meters from the ground without crashing into it.

"Thanks," she told Ame honestly, which sort of surprised her. She'd never liked the girl in the first place. She talked loud, always liked being in the center of the attention and was obnoxious enough to get mad at others for no good reasons. Not to mention, she didn't mind using everything available to get what she wanted. But at least she was quick to jump to other's aid, unlike Recon, who still stood at the same spot where they'd left him.

Ame didn't respond, preferring to take over Kirito's weight completely, then she laid him down on the ground.

"That idiot, idiot, idiot," Ame moaned, then she swatted him on the shoulder. "Just how reckless can you get?"

"Ame, what are you—!?"

"He's using the NerveGear! I figured since he'd logged in, he'd bought an AmuSphere or something, but that idiot is still using that cursed Gear. AmuSphere would have logged him out by now. How reckless can you get?"

Leafa didn't coincide with her point, quite. Yeah, she'd been worried at the start, but Kirito had proved over and over again that he could and would log out, so it wasn't as if there was some exceptional danger present. Ame was really just overreacting.

She then looked down and for the first time since his abrupt takeoff, Leafa got to see his face. She was shocked to see a tear that had somehow lingered on his cheek. A moment later it disappeared in a small light effect, as if it had never been there at all and he looked rather peaceful, as if he was simply taking a nap.

Leafa knelt down next to Ame who shook his shoulder roughly. When he didn't react right away, she tried again, but Leafa stopped her.

"What?" Ame demanded.

"Let him rest a bit. He needs it, if only for a little bit."

"Are you kidding me? Asuna's gone. He'd bite my head off I let him sleep while there're so many more productive things we could be doing!"

"Such as?" Leafa demanded skeptically. "Is there anything we can do? You saw what happened! How can we do anything against a game master?!"

"Well changing your attitude would be a good thing for starters," Ame bit off, then ignored her in favor of shaking Kirito's shoulder yet again. "Kirito! Come on, this is no time for a nap!" she shook him once more and finally, she got a response.

"A-Asu—"

"It's Ame, you moron. Now get up. You're not planning to just sit around and wait for Asuna to break out on her own again, are you?"

"No, I—"

He was stopped from saying anything more as Ame grabbed his wrist and pulled him into a sitting position. He was completely disoriented and almost fell back, but unlike what Leafa had been expecting, he remained sitting on the ground and he bowed his head, as if unable to face either of the girls.

"Kirito?" Leafa called hesitantly, ignoring how foreign that name sounded coming from her lips.

His shoulders shook once, twice. Leafa reached out hesitantly, but stopped before she could touch his shoulder. Various thoughts plagued her. Was this the time for comfort? Did she even have the right to do it, having not talked to him for over two years and now suddenly entering his life once again?

Ame clearly had no such restrictions, even though she probably should have had even more.

In one simple action, she did what Leafa could only dream of doing one day.

"It's okay," she said, squeezing his shoulder. "I know it's scary, especially as it's only been a few days, but it's not over. Asuna certainly won't accept such a thing. And when she makes her move, we have to be ready to help. You do know that already."

"Y-yeah…" he said, although his shoulders shook again.

"That guy's one mean bastard," Ame continued in a level voice. "But whatever it is he wants, he's not going to get it. We're not going to let him. If we have to involve the SDF, then so be it."

Recon snorted. "And how exactly do you intend to do that? This kind of thing doesn't exactly fall under their jurisdiction."

Ame glared at him. "I'll find a way. For starters, we need to make sure the news of this reached as far as possible. Publicity in this case can only help us."

"Wish I could see how," Leafa said under her breath, but if Ame heard her, she gave no response.

She stopped patting Kirito's shoulder and knelt before him, forcing him to lift his chin as if he were a five-year-old who just got his candies eaten by another kid. There was something disturbing about that image and Leafa quickly shook her head.

"You calmer now?" Ame asked.

"A little, I guess."

She smiled. "Good. Because I'm not smart enough to deal with this alone. So what're we gonna do?"

Kirito bit his lip and remained silent for a while. Then when he looked up at Ame, even Leafa could see a glimmer of determination that wasn't there a moment ago.

"A person from the Rescue Case unit was supposed to drop by today. They changed the time for tomorrow for some reason, but I wasn't really listening. I'll see if my mom has their number and call them. What I have to say should be important enough to get them to do something right away. And in the meantime, I'll try to talk to Kouichirou-san again."

Ame's smile changed into a full-blown grin. "That's more like it. We've got some kind of a plan now."

"Let's just hope it works," Leafa murmured in her chin.

Kikuoka looked over the room and at each and every face present. He then looked at his watch, signifying that it was now exactly 1:53:22 PM. "All right. Is everything ready?"

"Yes, sir!"

Kikuoka nodded in satisfaction, then reached for his earpiece. "Hadeima, are you in?"

"Negative, sir. Whoever you sent to pick me up hasn't shown up yet. I can't enter."

"Wha—" Kukuoka cut off mid-question when his phone started ringing. He checked the caller ID and sighed, figuring he didn't have the time to ignore the call yet again. "Hadeima, stand by. I'll give you further instructions in a bit." He then reached for his phone and answered, "Amayame-san. Is everything all right?"

"No," came a short, snappy answer. Then she snorted and, without further prompting, went for the details. "For the past hour, I've been trying to make out the heads and tails of what you've asked me to do and I have just about a hundred problems. One, I can't breach the security right now. Approximately the safest time to do it would be, what? Five AM? Heck, I bet there'd still be a hundred hackers ready to do use the opportunity and with my access, it would be impossible do it without leaving any breadcrumbs behind. You're forgetting the size of the company you're dealing with!"

"I was aware of that, but the thing I asked you to—"

"Two, it doesn't go that way! That thing you've asked me about is directly linked to the main server! I mess with one, I mess with the other. Which is what I've been trying to tell you for the past half an hour!"

Kikuoka bit his lip as the girl sighed loudly. Apparently, whoever was behind this had protected themselves well enough.

"How about the SAO server?" he asked. "Can you allow us any access there?"

"Not necessary," Amayame-san said, but whether she was satisfied or frustrated with that, it was hard to tell. "I just about confirmed that somehow the SAO players are directly linked to the Alfheim Online server. Don't ask me how. Any information I could try accessing is locked away from me and it's demanding a password. I've been trying to hack through, but they knew what they were doing. One wrong move and I'll be discovered. It would be the best if I could get directly into the control room. Unfortunately for me—and by extension you—there's somebody there twenty-four seven and it's not like I even have the clearance to get inside. You'll have to get somebody of your own to do it."

"With pleasure, only Yuuki-san hasn't shown up to help yet," Kikuoka sighed, his temper starting to flare up. If it weren't for the fact that he knew he was in the meeting, he would have long since gotten worried.

Amayame, however, did not sound frustrated. When she spoke, she was concerned, more than anything else.

"No? I thought he was already on it."

"Clearly, he's still in the meeting he'd mentioned."

"He's not. Sugou-san sent Ayasu-san to find him about half an hour ago. They even asked me about it. He'd never showed up. I thought he was working on this so I didn't say anything."

"You mean, he's unaccounted for?"

"According to Ayasu-san, the last place he entered was my office before he left the building. Should I start panicking?"

"How about we try calling him first, then see—"

"Been there, done that. His phone is off." She paused. For a long moment, the silence stretched and several members of his team sent Kikuoka curious looks, the ones he merely ignored while his mind tried to come up with plausible explanations as to why Kouichirou would just plainly leave. Amayame Jun then spoke again, in a rather weak voice, "Should I start panicking now?"

"No, leave that part to me," Kikuoka said, then reached for his earpiece. "Hadeima, abort the mission. Our inside contact has gone missing. The rest of the team, stand by." They quickly obliged and he once again reached for the phone. "Amayame-san, what information can you access without anyone batting an eyelash?"

"Player data, component data, anything game-related, really… I mean, it'd probably raise a few eyebrows if I tried to look through components, but nothing that'd cause me trouble. Why?"

"I see. That should do. Could you find a specific player if I asked you to do so?"

She hesitated for a moment, then said, "Yeah, sure. You mean in-game, right?"

"Yes. Look for a player Kirito and if it comes off with nothing, look for a player named Ame."

"I'll do both and—whoops. Wait, hold on a sec." The most he could hear was a sound of swooshing, then something strange he couldn't identify and finally, Amayame was back. "Sorry. I almost spilled the water bottle. Okay, I registered both the players. Not sure if this is a good thing or not, but they're at the exact same spot right now."

"It's… useful," Kikuoka determined. "I suppose the location is Arun?"

"Err, how'd you g—"

"Thank you, Amayame-san. If possible, I have one more request."

"I'm not a miracle worker," the girl said dryly.

"Then it is fortunate that I am not asking for a miracle."

"Point. Well, then, ask away. Oh, I know this is probably unrelated, but this Kirito player just logged out."

"That's quite all right. I know who that is so it is not necessary for him to be logged in at the moment. However, it would help if you could send me your boss' file."

"Oh, su—wait, what? You mean Sugou-san or Yuuki-san? Err, the older Yuuki-san."

"Sugou," Kikuoka clarified. "I am intending to bring this investigation to a close by the end of the month, so I need to speak to him. It would help if I knew who I'd be dealing with."

"Oh, for a moment I thought he was your suspect."

"Not yet, Amayame-san. I first have to speak with him. Not that I'm trying to say he will become one."

"Right. Well, I'm sending it to the address you forwarded earlier. It's not very detailed, CV only, I think. It's the most I can get. With your own status, you'd probably be able to find more than I could ever get you."

Kikuoka knew that already and really, the only reason he was asking was because he didn't need any detailed information. That name rang a few bells and he'd be damned if he'd let it go that easily, without confirming where he'd heard it first.

"It'll do for starters," he reassured her and, with no parading, he hung up.

Not a moment too soon, one of the girls ran to him with a phone in her hand.

Kikuoka raised an eyebrow.

"The call was just forwarded from the office. They say it's urgent."

Kikuoka wasn't sure how he'd managed to keep his face and voice neutral in that moment, as this was indeed curious. He wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out it was Kouichirou calling because he couldn't get him on the mobile.

"Do you know who is calling?" he asked.

The girl shrugged. "I think they said the name is Kirigaya Kazuto. Um… were you expecting it, sir?"

Kikuoka ignored the question as he took the phone. Normally, he'd berate her for asking such an impudent thing that she generally had no right to ask, but the fact that the very person he wanted to speak to was contacting him now took precedence.

"Why hello, Kirigaya-kun. This is Kikuoka Seijirou. You wanted to speak with me?"

Author's Note: Holy shit, this is the longest it took me to update yet. Sorry about that. Responsibilities caught up with me and laziness took over the little time I actually had to commit to the story so rather than finish this rather short chapter in the time it would usually take me, I had to struggle to finish it. Not that it was hard when I actually got to it. I wish I could promise that the next chapter would come out sooner, but for all I know, it might take me longer. Sorry about that.