Rather short chapter. Didn't want to bore people with details they already knew. At least, I hope you know. If not, watch Episode 6 of Alicization.

Italics inside speech marks signify the speaker is speaking in English.

Chapter 6

Infinite Alicization

Kikuoka looked shocked as he saw Asuna. Higa was surprised, but had a smile on his face after the initial surprise had passed. "I knew it." He muttered to himself.

"Now do you know why I felt obliged to accept your invitation, Mr Kikuoka?" Rinko was now glaring. Yet even her anger couldn't compare to Asuna's. "When I got her email, it wove such a strange tale."

Kikuoka no longer had a smile on his face. "In order to verify your assistant's identity, we had to do a bunch of checks on the photo we got from the university database."

Asuna nodded. "Yeah, I can't tell you how many times they scrutinized my face. But the photo from the university had already been switched out. After all, I have a friend who is good at bypassing defences."

Every word was pissing Kikuoka off more. This is how easy it was for Asuna to get inside the Ocean Turtle. Even so… "How did you find out about Light?"

"Before Kirito had vanished, we were talking to someone online who had been through a similar experience to the SAO Survivors." Asuna explained. "Her name was Holly, and she and Light were part of another Death Game called The Land Beyond. She said that Light had gone to America to try and solve an issue with the databank that was at the core of the game they were trapped in. She hadn't heard from him since. Kirito tried to get in contact with one of the staff but he refused to talk, until his daughter called us and told us that you took him in after something went wrong."

Higa leaned back in his chair, shaking his head in disbelief. "Honestly Kiku, I told you bringing in Kirigaya was enough of a risk."

"Don't worry Higa. If it was just Light, I wouldn't have helped out." Rinko folded her arms as she leaned onto a console. "But after Asuna reached out and told me about Kirigaya's situation, I wanted to help."

"Tell me Kikuoka!" Asuna's temper began to rise even more. "Did you lie when you said you could help Kirito?"

Kikuoka pushed his glasses back up his nose again. "After the attack by the Death Gun fugitive, Kirito suffered severe brain damage, too much for modern medicine to cure. However, here at Rath, we have the technology to treat him. I'm sure Kirito has told you about it. The Soul Translator." Asuna nodded to confirm she did indeed know about it, but the frown showed she was still confused on how it could happen. "By directly stimulating Kirito's Fluctlight using the STL, we can induce the generation of a new neural network."

Asuna seemed to calm herself, but Rinko didn't budge at all. "Then what of the other boy? Light? Was he your test dummy or something?"

"I doubt you've heard of the No Land Beyond incident, but we've been researching it quite extensively." Higa began typing in the keyboard next to him. The massive screen that took up most of the back wall began to show a map. It was in the shape of the Rath logo, with two circles. One was a larger white one that sat on the left side of the map. The other was a dark fortress. The rest of the land was dead, dry and rocky. The scale of this world was insane. "Tell me, how big in terms of data do you think this is?"

Asuna frowned. "I guess hundreds of gigabytes, but it couldn't have been bigger than Aincrad."

Higa pointed at Asuna, a massive grin on his face. "Wrong! This world is hundreds times the size of Aincrad, and it grows bigger every second."

Both Asuna and Rinko had a look of shock pass on their faces. They looked at the map, but the land remained the same size. "What do you mean?"

"In terms of a human brain, every second that goes by, the amount of data increases. You can recall every moment, even if you can't relive it. We can recall any moment in Underworld, whenever we want."

Asuna was still confused. But Rinko seemed to understand. "Do you mean you have a recording of every person inside that world at every moment?"

Kikuoka nodded. "For 300 years."

For the newcomers, this was absolutely unbelievable. Asuna had heard of the Fluctlight Acceleration, but the idea that they could basically recreate any moment whenever they need to was ridiculous. But she could guess who held the answer.

Higa pressed a few more keys and the screen changed. It showed a cluster of tens of thousands of lights. "These are the Fluctlights of every person in Underworld, the Lightcube Cluster. Each one is the same as a human brain." Then he pressed one more key and the entire Cluster became a speck on the screen. "And this is it compared to the databank we're using."

"T-that's impossible." Rinko gasped. "It took an entire basement of servers and hard drives in order to store Aincrad."

"This is Project Infinity." Kikuoka's smile finally returned. "A databank capable of storing infinite data. Created by the same company who made The Land Beyond. And we have the privilege of owning the second one ever."

"How?" Asuna looked at the tiny speck in disbelief. To think that a hundred thousand humans couldn't even fill one percent of this…super hard drive was unbelievable.

"They built one for us in exchange for a favour. And recently, they cashed it in."

"Light." Rinko echoed Asuna's thoughts.

Kikuoka nodded. "Recently, Infinity suffered from a cyber attack. Light went inside to stop the issue and never woke up. One of the developers, Sean, asked us to heal him. After all, we're the only ones in the world who have the technology to heal that level of brain damage."

Something wasn't adding up. "So how long has Light been here?" Asuna crossed her arms. "Was he your test to make sure that Kirito could live in this Underworld?"

"We put Kirito in only a minute after Light. We already had Kirito diving in before at Roppongi, so he was easy to insert into the world. But Light, we had to create an avatar from scratch." Kikuoka sighed, drawing a chair to sit on.

Higa began typing, two Fluctlights talking up the majority of the screen. One was bright and white. The other was bright, but dark patches were all over the surface, as if some sort of corruption was taking hold. "Kirito's Fluctlight is stable, as you can see on the left. But Light's seems to be suffering from some sort of overload. In a sense, he has too many memories that are all trying to return at once. He's regained some memories it seems, but the cause is unknown. Best guess we have is he's experiencing moments similar to the moments that he has remembered."

"Due to his past though, it's not a good idea to try and reactivate his memories. It could endanger his recovery." Kikuoka sighed.

Asuna looked towards the screen and frowned. It showed the Central Cathedral. Both Kirito and Light were there, somewhere. "Kikuoka, will it be possible for me to at least tell Holly that Light is alright?"

"Thank you."

The other girl looked devastated. Asuna couldn't help but feel guilty that she couldn't deliver better news.

Due to the language barrier, Asuna couldn't really explain it all. Due to the limited English that Kirito had taught her though, she was able to tell Holly about Light's situation.

Holly was two years younger than Asuna, with blonde hair that rested just above her shoulders. Some of it was pulled behind her head in a ponytail. Her eyes were a bright sky blue. She was very thin as well, most likely a lasting effect from her time in a death game.

"I'm sorry." Asuna looked down.

Holly shook her head. "It's fine. I'll manage. Just knowing Light is alright is good enough for me."

"I'll update you." Asuna nodded. She didn't understand a lot of that last sentence. Maybe I should learn English while I'm here. Kirito really help with translating when they were speaking last time.

Holly nodded. They ended the call and Higa shut off the signal. Asuna let out a sigh. She looked back at the monitor. Wait, was Holly on a plane?

So hopefully that was adequate explanation enough for now. Of course, when I start publishing my web novel, you'll get to see Light's journey from the very beginning to the end. I should also mention that this is an alternate ending for Light. In his world, SAO never happened and after the "cyber attack", he went on to live a normal life.

Again, I wanted to keep the chapter short as to not repeat information that can be found in the anime/light novels. Speaking of Light Novels, I finished all the Alicization novels and they are amazing. Can't wait for War of the Underworld in October.

As always, thanks for reading. Next chapter, we'll be returning to Underworld. Criticism is appreciated as always. Until next time, stay cool.