Chapter XXIX

November 13th 2025, streets of Tokyo, 12:45 PM:

''So...I know it's really hard for me to ask, but do you feel better since...that day?''

A week had now passed since Natsumi and Kazuto had met Kikuoka in the high-ranked cafe. Since then, their nerves, particularly the ones of Natsumi, were getting tensed up. Everyday, she would gradually study the situation of how her father died and...how the murder cases of both him and the GGO players were awfully linked. That's why she was so angry after the meeting of Kikuoka. If she finds that damn ''Death Gun'', then she will maybe finally discover who murdered her father and, simply, why.

After Kazuto had asked that to her, she shook her head to get off her thinking and turned her look toward Kazuto while trying to smile.

''Yeah, sort of.''

But it wasn't the case, clearly not. In fact, her analysis of the situation bringed her to the thinking that it was rather morbid and she would get rather depressed afterwards. If Yui and Kazuto wouldn't had existed in her life, the murder of her father and the disease of her mother would had sticked to her for her whole life. The smile she was giving was obviously a fake and she decided to take a sad look as she approached Kazuto while they were walking.

''What I'm talking about, of course I don't.''

Kazuto could only give her a sad look as well. For him, it was rather hard to see her girlfriend like that. The only time she finds her a bit more happier is when she is with him or with Yui in the AmuSphere, but that's still not enough. He decided to change the subject before the situation gets too depressing.

''Okay, then...So, what's waiting for me in GGO apart from getting myself shot?''

Natsumi gave him a little smile this time and he felt a little better when he guessed that his lame joke had worked.

''Well, we should probably find ouserlves right after we get in the network and, after that, you have to get some money to buy some weapons and armor.''

''Shouldn't I start slowly? I can enter the world myself a bit more relaxed like that.''

''I would have liked it, but I know that guy would surely not wait for us. Remember, only top ranking players of GGO are apparently in that ''Death Gun'''s aim, so we have to get yourselves ready to go for the BoB as fast as we can.''

''Maybe I could ask you some money...?''

''I'll see what I can do, but I can't really promise much. I spent alot of money yesterday for the tournament.''

Kazuto gave her a dissapointed look and he sighed.

''A-All right...Then, is there someth-''

Suddenly, his cellphone began to rang as he received a text message. After he activated the touch panel to open and read the message, he sighed again and closed it, leaving Natsumi curious.

''What was that?''

''Kikuoka. Apparently, he wants me to go to the hospital I was once was for my SAO medication to prepare myself for the FullDive.''

''Really?''

As Natsumi took a little sad look, Kazuto put his hand on his shoulder, surprising her with a smile.

''Relax, we will see ourselves soon anyway. I'll see you soon, Natsu-chan.''

''Y...Yeah, Kazuto-kun.''

''Do you want me to ride you home?''

''It's all right, I'll walk.''

''Okay.''

The two kissed and Kazuto was forced to leave her to go to his house and take his old electric scooter bike. Fortunately, his house wasn't that far from the district they were, so he should arrive at the hospital Kikuoka wanted him to go pretty early. Natsumi, though, was forced to walk toward her aunt's house for ten minutes until she finally reached the door and opened with her key.

As she entered the house, the only person that she noticed was Amano. She guessed that Haruna was: A) On ALfheim Online in her room or B) Going around town with Machiko and Suguha. It was probably the latter choice since she was trying to take a break from the online world for a while, but she knew she would surely get back on the tracks of ALO in no time.

After she entered the kitchen where Amano was cooking, probably preparing the food for tonight, she smiled.

''Oh, hey, Oba-san!''

Amano quickly returned herself to Natsumi in alert and she sighed in relief after seeing her.

''Oh, thank god, Natsumi-chan, don't scare me like that!''

''Eeeeeh...sorry?''

''Nah, it's all right. It's maybe just the blue blood of mine waking up again after all these years.''

Natsumi approached her aunt and noticed an metallic grey cauldron with some sort of liquid in it. The smell coming out of it was rather good for something that did not look tasty at all.

''Um...Could I ask you what are you preparing for diner?''

''Roasted chicken and vegetable stew, one of my best plates! By the way, I am just beginning the recipe, so that's why it looks rather horrible to eat.''

''Uuuuuh, okay, if you say so. It looks...rather good already!''

No, it was not. As she said that with a little smile, she immediately though that this food could already by considered uneatable. In all her family, her aunt was known to be the worst cook. Even if she has the best fighting skills because of her police training, most of her food is unfortunately directed straight into the trash can. The rest of her family never said the truth about their taste of it since they didn't wanted to make her sad, but they regretted it everytime she would come and prepare food in advance.

As Natsumi looked toward her aunt, she immediately noticed that there was different about her. She looked...happier, somehow.

''You look rather happy today, Oba-san.''

Amano smiled and started cutting carrots for the stew.

''Yes, I am! In fact, I can't believe I am so happy right now.''

''Really?''

Suddenly, an idea sparked in Natsumi's head and she smiled a little.

''Did she actually played on the AmuSphere?''

Nah, it couldn't be that. Every person in this world who enters the virtual world are directly hit by dizzyness and lost of balance, making them unconfortable. But there was still a chance that her aunt may had played on one of the two machines that were in the house.

That's when she quickly remembered that Amano once told her that she was once a real techno geek in High School and that she played a lot of ''World of Warcraft'' and saw many video game-related movies, like ''Tron: Legacy'' and ''The Matrix''. Maybe the sudden want of experience of the AmuSphere came from there?

She shook her head quickly to forget these thoughts and directed herself toward the Guest Room which was kind of her room for now.

''All right, I'm going to be in my room for now on. Wake me up if there's something wrong, okay?''

''Okay, Natsumi-chan. Supper will be ready at around 8:00 PM.''

''Okay, Oba-san. I'll be there, I promise.''

She got up the stairs, closed her room's door and quickly jumped on the bed while putting the AmuSphere on her head. She turned her look toward the little ''1:00 PM'' marked on the machine's visor and sighed in relief. At least, she will be able to join Kirito on GGO at a faster speed than she thought. She relaxed herself for five seconds, closed her eyes when the machine let a little sound to notice her that it was ready to go and she let a strong and determined voice.

''Link Start!''

And she was gone for the virtual world, where her avatar will spawn in one of the many streets of SBC Gurokken.

While Natsumi had gone to her room, Amano had smiled and had talked to herself while cooking.

''Now I understand why she was so happy in this game.''

GGO, streets of SBC Gurroken:

''Welcome back, Mama.''

As Sakumi appeared in Gurokken, she was greeted as usual by Yui and she let a smile as she activated the hologram of Yui on her A.I. gauntlet.

''Hey, Yui-chan! How are you?''

''I'm fine, thank you. I was checking out on the squadron members while you were offline.''

Sakumi gave her a surprised face quickly after she said that. How could Yui check out on the other squadron members while she was offline? Wasn't she linked to her account? She guessed that every A.I. had to have some little secrets and she forgot about it.

''Really? Well...what were they doing?''

''Mostly training. Since squadron members are also marked as enemies in the Bullet of Bullets tournament, they were forced to train alone in PvE.''

''Oh...Okay, then. Hey, can I ask you something very quickly?''

''What is it, Mama?''

''Well, Papa is coming today on this game and I wondered...could you be able to locate him?''

''Papa is coming in Gun Gale Online?!''

After she smiled and said that in an excited voice, Sakumi smiled even more. Before she even started to explain why, Yui had already started to search for Kirito's location. Soon after it, a marker appeared on her mini-map.

''Since the day ''The Seed'' program was launched, some of my A.I. features were no more permitted, but I still can detect in which location this player is. Papa is located not far from the city gates, in the beginner quarter of SBC Gurokken.''

''All right!''

Then, Sakumi quickly dashed forward, surprising Yui as she disconnected her hologram. If she wouldn't had done it, the movement of Sakumi's arm would have made her dizzy, so she was forced to prompt her A.I. screen on Sakumi's HUD. On the screen, she crossed her arms and took a bothered look.

''You could have told me that you were about to run!''

''Sorry!''

As Sakumi responded in a quick voice, Yui let out a little sigh as her mother was rushing in the city at the fastest runnning speed she could attain. After running for several minutes, she finally arrived at the city district where most beginners would start the game. She stopped, calmed herself to not appear ridiculous in front of everyone and started to look around her to find Kirito.

''Okay, a kind of tall guy wih short or spiky black hair. Shouldn't really be hard to find, right?''

She began to walk around the district to analyse the players that were still in the starting clothes of GGO. Strangely, there was a lot of them, ranging from the twenty players. Unfortunately, none of them was matching a similar description of characters Kirito would fall on. That's when one of the players that looked higher leveled than the others noticed a player that was looking at herself at the same dome where she saw her avatar for the first time.

''Hey, young lady, you have good luck! That avatar, ''F1300'' type! That type rarely comes out. So how about it, since it is now, you only just started, why don't you just sell that account? I'll give you two mega credits!''

The beginner looked at the man with a REALLY bothered look, but soon quickly took a shocked look and began to touch her chest, only to sigh in relief a second later. As Sakumi took a slight weird look, she shrugged her shoulders and replied to the man.

''Uuh...I'm sorry but, I'm a guy.''

Sakumi's eyes suddenly widened as she heard the this player was actually a male player, even though the voice that came out of him could be considered as a female one.

''That player's a guy?!''

As she thought that, the other player had become speechless, but soon talked in a small voice.

''Then, then, it's that the ''M9000'' type?! That's...That's amazing! Then, I'll give you four, no, five megacredits. Sell it to me, by all means, sell it to me please!''

The beginner took a nervous look as he maybe thought that this man could not be dealt with, but he soon let out a small voice.

''Um, this isn't my initial character but a converted one. It can't be easily exchanged for money. Sorry.''

''I...I see...''

The man took a dissapointed face, but soon got himself back and replied back.

''Gossip then, that rare avatar seems to have been used for a long time in a previous account. As a reference, can you count up your previous account's play time for me?''

''What? M-My play time?''

Sakumi raised an eyebrow on that one hesitation. Of course, even herself would lie about it since she played SAO and her playtime would be aproximately of around 17 250 hours counting 730 days time 24 hours since ''The First Day'' of SAO to her GGO experience. If she would really had told that to someone, they would think she's a complete no-life with absolutely nothing else to do other than play video games. But, that guy looked like a beginner. Even if he transferred his account, it doesn't actually mean that he can actually be a SAO player...right?

''Uuuuh...Ten thou-''

Ten thousand hours? Only SAO players have an higher amount of hours than this...then, it means that this guy is...

''Kirito-kun?''

Even if she had said that in her head, she quickly thought that this guy could actually be the character of Kazuto. As she knew of, there were not a really big chunk of SAO players in GGO with the only exceptions being Artrin, Asuna and Taron (Even though the latter is not a real player technically). The only other player who wanted to join in was Kirito. As she thought about it, the beginner quickly regained himself from his previous sentence and replied.

''Uh, around a year. That's why, of course it's a coincidence, right?''

''I see...Well, if you change your mind, please contact me.''

After the man said that, he made his playercard appear from his inventory and gave it to the beginner before he slowly walked away, surely under some sort of a dissapointed state. Sakumi felt a bit sorry for him, since, if this guy was really Kirito, she knew that he doesn't even have a chance to get his account from him. After he made sure that the guy was far enough, she approached the beginner and decided to take a ''Friendly Stranger'' approach.

''Hm, looks like your character is already interresting some people.''

''Yeah...I must admit that I wasn't really expecting to fall on...this thing. Everyone could think that I'm maybe a girl now.''

As he looked toward Sakumi for a second time, his face took a curious approach.

''Hey...Wait a minute, you look familiar to me somehow. Who are you?''

''Papa?''

As the hologram of Yui suddenly appeared on Sakumi's gauntlet, the player got back in surprise.

''W-Whoa, Yui-chan? Wait, Saku-nii-san, is that you?''

Sakumi shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

''Really, you did not recognised me? My avatar type is programmed to make my real life self more ''pretty''. It should had been easy for you.''

''I-I actually thought that it was you at first, but I also thought that it wouldn't be possible, not to sound negative at all!''

As she began to laugh a little toward the sudden nervous face of Kirito, he finally smiled a little bit, making her a little bit more confident. With Kirito on her side, maybe the case Kikuoka asked them to resolve will be dealt at a faster pace than she thought. After givivng him a smile, she opened her menu and began to look at her inventory.

''Okay, let me look at my credits funds and I'll g-''

This...is also when she fell on her credit marker and took a dissapointed face. By the side of the word ''Credits'', there was a little ''10'' marked on it. Unfortunately, she remembered that, yesterday, she had bought a ton of ammo and protective gear for the BoB, completely forgetting the entry of Kirito as a new player on the way. Even if she indeed warned him about it in the Real World, she felt a bit bad about it. She sighed and Kirito took a curious look.

''Hm? What's wrong?''

''I...I don't have any more credits.''

''...I see. Well, is there something I can buy with what I have?''

''Since you're a starter, you should only have the usual amount of money given at the beginning, which is a thousand credits, no matter if the character is converted or not. If I can remember correctly, this amount could only make you buy yourself a little ray gun or a second hand revolver...Let me think.''

''Isn't there some sort of casino in this game?''

There was indeed a casino in SBC Gurokken called ''The Sandgoose'', but Sakumi shook her head in disagreement. In order to enter, you have to have at least 500 credits on you, so you have to prepare a big chunk of money if you want to win a lot in these. She then remembered something and she snapped her fingers.

''I have a better idea. There are some little gambling games which take form of challenges around the city. I know one not really far from here, but...maybe it will be a little harder than you think.''

''Really? ...Well, let's go, then. If we want to catch that ''Death Gun'', we have to prepare ourselves for the tournament that is coming.''

''Okay, then.''

Ten minutes of walking in the streets later, the two players arrived at a weapon shop, a store called ''The Vault''. As they entered, they were greeted by some female NPC clerks in large silver costumes with a little business smile on their faces. As Kirito suddenly began to feel nervous around the store while looking at the many guns on the wall, Sakumi put her right hand on his shoulder and pointed toward a large walled off area covered by fences laided on metal tiles. The two approached the fences and Kirito gave it a curious look.

''...What's this?''

As they got closer, they could see that the entrance had no fence, but was blocked by a metal closure bar on the side of a cashier-like pillar. Also, on the far end of the area, a Gunman NPC could be seen twirling his revolver around his finger just before a brick wall covered in bullet holes. At the top of the brick wall, a pink neon light sigh was forming the word ''Untouchable''. Sakumi began to explain the game to Kirito.

''Untouchable. It's a gambling game where you have to enter the gate and try to see how close you can approach the NPC over there while avoiding his gunfire. Look, you can see the high score that was settled not long ago.''

At around a bit more than the two-thirds of the area, a bright luminescent red line could be seen, making the two look at it with surprise. How the hell could someone get that far in this game? Kirito quickly shook his head to get back on tracks and gave a surprised look to her.

''Wow, how much credits can you receive from this?''

''Every game like this costs 500 credits to enter and if you can get through ten meters, you get 1000. If you get through fifteen meters, you get 2000 and, finally, if you happen to touch the NPC, you get all the money the players had gambled on until now.''

''A-All of it?!''

''Yui-chan, how much money is banked in the game right now?''

As Kirito quickly noticed the right eye of Sakumi getting cyborg effects, the voice of Yui came out of her gauntlet.

''Right now, it's approximately at 295,000 credits.''

Kirito took an even more surprised look than before and replied.

''That's...That's an incredible amount of money.''

Sakumi nodded but soon took an irritated look.

''Yes, but this challenge is considered impossible. I tried it one day just for fun and I was only able to get to 11 meters.''

''Why is that?''

''Do you remember when I talked to you about Yui could help me for in GGO?''

''Yeah, you said she could predict something called a prediction line before the actual prediction line comes, right?''

''She can do many other things, but she can do that as well. Anyway, when you reach the eight meter limit of this game, this NPC over there will begin to shoot cheating draws. It shoots so fast that even D.C.A.I.A.s like Yui-chan cannot even calculate the shots in time.''

''Hm...''

That's when Sakumi noticed a little group of three players coming toward the game's entrance. They were two guys and one girl with their leader being the one in the center. He was a man wearing a black and grey military jacket surely made for winter combat and, as she know of him, Sakumi once encountered him in a fight.

He was good, but he was mostly too slow for her and his weaponry was a bit too bad, only leaving him a pistol and hand-to-hand combat; his best skills being the latter. Of course, being an hand-to-hand expert is pretty bad in GGO since you can get killed even before you approach someone (This is also why he was killed by Sakumi's SG550 way before he had time to reach her while they were fighting in the forest). If she remembers it correctly, his name was Spike and he was the leader of a little squadron called ''Red Eye'' containing only four members. However, those four members had decent skills since they all came from fantasy games where they were once greatly famous players in them. In ALO, Spike was recognised as ''Great Blade Kaiju'', one of the best Spriggan tanks in the history of ALO. Although she respected him greatly, she never knew why he came on GGO. Maybe it was just for fun; to change his playstyle for a bit.

As the two lovers noticed Spike getting in front of the entrance and paid the entrance fee, activating a little fanfare music in the background in the process, Sakumi pointed him with a headsign.

''Looks like someone will increase the sum again.''

As she said that and Kirito looked at Spike with an interrested look, around ten people joined the fences around the game's area to see what was going on. As the Gunman NPC let out a ''Let's knock this bastard's ass up to the moon!'' shout, a big green holographic ''3'' appeared in front of Spike as he prepared himself to go. When the countdown finally reached ''0'' with a loud beeping noize, the metal bar opened and Spike rushed in with a war cry.

When he got at about the half of the first meter, he quickly stopped himself in his run and did a strange posture involving his his hands and his legs. As Sakumi noticed with amusement that Kirito was looking at him with a strange look, three bullets were fired under his arm, leg and at the side of his head, surprising the once ''Black Swordsman''.

''...Just now, that was the trajectory...?''

Sakumi replied with a calm voice while Yui had already analysed the prediction lines, showing her three bright yellow lines in her vision, passing at the same places the bullets were fired to.

''That's right. Evasion by means of ''Trajectory Perception''.''

''You surely know a lot of things since you've come in this game.''

''Heh, what can I say? Having played so much games can ''expand'' your memory, I guess.''

After she had said that, Spike had already reached the seven meters. Then, with a kind of a cheating draw, the Gunman NPC shot two bullets at lightning speed and shot another bullet quickly after them. Spike jumped up to avoid the first and second bullet, but destroyed his balance in the process, forcing him to put his right hand on the ground. While he quickly tried to get up, it was already too late as the NPC quickly shot again and orange sparks appeared on Spike's vest.

A ''game over''-like fanfare played has the NPC began to shout exagerated victory words and the metallic sound of cash was heard as Spike's money was put in the cash pool of the bet. He stood up, put his hands in his pockets and got out of the area with a dissapointed look. While he was walking out of it, Sakumi noticed that he got a little bit angry as one of his teammates that were with him was trying to calm him down. She quickly ignored the two and turned her look toward Kirtio once again.

''So...Want to give it a shot?''

''I could do so.''

''Really?''

As Kirito gave her a little smile to her surprise, he got to the cashier-like pillar and touched it with his right hand. Soon after, a little sound of an old cashier was heard and Sakumi was looking at him with a surprised look. She...never actually thought that he would really try the game. As she looked to him with the same look, Yui made her screen appear on her HUD.

''Mama, are you sure this is a good idea? This game was indeed programmed to be impossible if I check in the game's files.''

''Well...Maybe he could do it. He's Kirito-kun, after all.''

''Hm...''

While Yui had started thinkng about it, the holographic ''3'' had already appeared in front of Kirito as the countdown started. When the countdown hit ''0'' and the Gunman NPC had stopped shouting abusive words, the metal bar opened and Kirito rushed in.

Just after he got in, there was already three lines pointing at his head, his chest and his leg. As soon as Kirito noticed it, he jumped forward to the right and the bullet passed quickly, missing it's targets. The bullets hadn't even dissapeared completely that another bright orange line appeared on Kirito, forcing him to kick the ground with his right leg and return to the center.

As Sakumi was surprised by how well Kirito was already performing for his first gunman encounter, she remembered something that Kirito had told her in SAO.

He told her that every enemy A.I. with any type of projectile weapons can be countered easily. The only thing that you had to do was to look at the enemy's eyes; normally, their eyes should point at where they want to shoot. Since Kirito had told her this advice, she never had any problem with enemies like that in PvE, but it was obviously completely useless in PvP.

As she thought of that, Kirito had already reached the ten meter mark and a little sound effect came out, making much more people come around the area, interrested to see how this is going to end. Just after Kirito reached the ten meter mark, the Gunman NPC reloaded his revolver at an completely inhuman speed, proving that the NPC was indeed using some cheating quick draws, and soon aimed at Kirito again. Soon after Kirito quickly evaded another six bullet and passed out the fifteen meter mark, the NPC quickly reloaded again at the same inhuman speed and shot again.

''Come on, Kirito-kun! Five meters left!''

As Sakumi whispered that, the NPC suddenly took some sort of nervous face and Kirito quickly threw his body on the ground to avoid a rain of bullets shot to the left, the right and the center. As he slided and was almost just in front of the NPC while it realised that he had to reload, Kirito noticed something and quickly jumped off the ground with all the strength he had left. As soon as he jumped in the air, the place where he was before was now completely covered with six bullet holes without even letting the Gunman NPC reload, making Sakumi think that it would have been totally unfair if Kirito would have been shot there.

Kirito quickly made a complete rotation of his body, landed in front of the NPC and leapt toward the NPC's chest, touching it.

Then, almost all of the store's clients, including Sakumi and even Yui, fell into a complete silence. After almost thirty seconds of this complete silence, the NPC finally let out a ''YOU ACTUALLY...!'' in a shocked shout, fell on his knees and put his hands on his head while some sort of joyous fanfare began to play in the background of the store. Just after that, the brick wall collapsed in a crashing sound and a mountain of money fell on the ground, to the point of reaching Kirito's feet. As soon as it fell, the money dissapeared and a loud ''CASHING'' sound was heard as the money was put in Kirito's inventory.

Sakumi couldn't believe it. He actually done it! He beat the ''Untouchable'' game! As soon as Kirito got out and approached Sakumi, she talked in a small voice.

''In-Incredible...How did you...''

A small smile appeared on Kirito and he replied.

''Welp, it's...kind of hard to explain, really.''

''L-Let me guess, you predicted the prediction line, did you?''

As Kirito nodded, Sakumi couldn't believe it even more and Yui looked like her eyes were shining with admiration for her father on her hologram that appeared a second ago.

''You are amazing, Papa!''