3
Ari
GGO: 21:50
I'm holding an M1911 this time. The grip, grooves, and size give it away. Lets see—I've already got the recoil spring—Spacer—Barrel—what's left on the table? Firing Pin! There it is—safety, slide lock, cover plate—GGO simulates the cold lubricated feels of the parts well. Magazine body, one bullet in, done.
I whip off my blindfold and aim the green retracting bullet circle at the chump sitting across from me. He's still scrambling to assemble his pistol—CRACK—Hmm, GGO simulates the gunpowder smell too.
Immediately, the slumped player sitting across drops 500 credits for the taking. That's the bet—10th one today so far. I accept the loot through the player window appearing in front of me.
"Ooooo!"
Oh? A crowd of players formed since I last had the blindfold on. Greased avatars dressed like Rambo and G.I. Jo's clamor around under the cyberpunk neon lights of the dingy bar. More credits up for grabs? I've got enough to convert to 1000 yen, still need more.
"Who's next?!" I shout. Murmurs in the crowd; no one steps forward. Maybe I went too fast on that last one; I'm scaring these kids. A sea of heads make way, someone's moving through. Good, I'll take it easy on this next one. Out of the crowd: a lean woman with cross tattoos on both cheeks, sleek black bodysuit with dangling holsters and a devil's grin. A little munchkin in all pink clings beside her—hopefully my daughter looks that cute.
"Oh?! What kind of challenge do we have here?" The devil grins and shoves the dead avatar out of the seat. She turns the chair, plops down across from me, and wraps her arms around the chair's back.
I lean back from her aura. She's not just casual, she's confident. I might have to race for real—been awhile. "It's simple, we reassemble the two pistols here on the table, one round each. First to put theirs back together and shoot out their opponent gets the other's credits, 500 minimum."
"Oh?" She licks her lips. "Then I'll put up all 30,000 I've got right here."
"Ohhhhhhhh!" The crowd riots in cheers. The little pink one beside her darts her head back and forth in jitters.
"How about it, old man?" She leans in on the table. "Are ya still gonna put up now that you're not handling these chumps? Can you take a woman's challenge?"
All week I've passively collected 100,000 credits total, unconverted to 1,000 yen yet. I could, but—
"Hey! Arimoto-sensei!"
Perfect timing! Sounds like Mylo. His avatar in a grey half coat with armored shoulder pads appears. He runs a finger past the hightop twists of his hair—exaggerating boredom—brown eyes on my match. He glares at my opponent; he's no stranger to giving off intense stares when his real mind's somewhere else. I'd say he's shouldering more than just last night right now.
Mylo turns to me. "We're going to be late."
I nod. I lose track of time during gambling schemes like this—"Sorry about that. You know how it is. Too much excitement gets the blood pumping, and before you know it, you lose track of time."
"You're the one who yanked me here with the time and everything, sensei. Seriously." Mylo's rigid stature droops instantly. I've gotten him to relax, even just a little. Out of respect, I look across the table to my opponent—moping with lips fluttering. "Heading out of here old man?" She asks.
"Sorry, maybe next time Ms.—"
"Pitohui." She grumbles and crosses her arms.
"Appropriate." I smirk. It might be good that Mylo reeled me out.
I follow him out of the crowd. We walk out of the neon-lit bar and into the dreary washed city of SBC Glocken. The backdrop scales in height tower by tower, symmetrically, until both sides reach an apex at the center, and between them, a gaping hole where an immense strobe light shines across the skyline. Hundreds of smaller lights of the city are radiating underneath. It's how I'd imagine Philip K. Dick would craft a VR world, much more dramatic flair than Orson Wells' dystopias. Engines roar by a highway adjacent to us.
"Who's the contact?" Mylo asks, always on mission as usual. It's sad how much those thoughts consume someone so young.
"No clue. Kikuoka-dono didn't say."
We pass through steel corridors and under dim streets.
"You ever get the feeling Kikuoka's got larger plans besides just catching Kayaba?" Mylo postulates. "Why are we just now finding out about a 3rd party pursuing him?"
"Relax." He needs to focus on the positives a little more, and has he opened up about what's really bothering him? "Kikuoka's still helping to keep your mom on that experimental treatment with the medicuboid, right?"
"Yeah, but—"
"How is she?"
I watch Mylo swallows his words—take a minute to process, to think, instead of just being reactionary to what's in front of him, the mission, instead of distractions.
"Dr. Kurahashi and I agreed that—" Mylo pauses again to think on his words. The strobe from the city tower washes right over our heads. Memorial Hall should be a few blocks further as we pass by grunge and military–dressed avatars. "There was a moment this time, she seemed clear."
"That's great news, kid." I instinctively pat Mylo on the back, and he shudders at the contact. I forget sometimes, how long it's been since he's been vulnerable to touch and others.
"Thank you, Arimoto-sensei." He says as he hides his face, brown eyes looking down. "A—anyways, where are we meeting the contact?"
"Kikuoka-dono just said to meet them at Memorial Hall at 22:30."
"Them?"
Eiji and YUUNA
GGO: 22:25
"I really prefer ALO to this place." Yuna waddles her feet on top of a crate container under advertisements in neon. Her military helmet tilts with her head. She prefers the black military camo with red accents today. "It's all so dingy."
"We'll be able to go back there soon." I lie with a smile. Honestly, I'm not sure what's coming next. That's why—"Yuna?"
"Hmm?"
"Did you finish looking into who Kikuoka's associates might be?" She said it'd take a while to crack into all of them through the Ministry of Welfare and RATH files. Plus, she's running her personal algorithm to deduce most likely picks for an operation on Kayaba. That probably includes any recent communications she could dig up on the net from any possible accounts and traces from Kikuoka, and that's based on what she could deduce from his behavior patterns and purchases—I can't imagine the power and intelligence to process results through such a general parameter. No wonder she's of interest for this ghost hunt.
Yuna grins. "Just finished." She reaches up and grabs the neon sign above her—it glitches on the rim her hand touches into discolored pixels until she directly pulls it down to face me. I forget how her hybrid A.I. allows her to interact with worlds from the SEED now- with all of her practice between the worlds we've dived into. A name and face appear on the neon sign. The first one: Kinryuu Arimoto. Middle-aged man, sharp facial features, brown hair, black eyes behind glasses for his last photo ID before he left the Ministry of Welfare as—part of the SAO incident task force? Currently teaching at the Tokyo Institute of Technology-
"Wonder if he knew Dr. Shigemura or any of the others?" I murmur—wait, "Psychology and Shakespeare?!"
"I do love the classics!" Yuna glows.
That's such a random pairing. "Is it just him?"
Yuna frowns. "There's just one more I was able to find through tracing Mr. Kikuoka's search history and file access to the SAO incident—but I can't access a name or photo ID, sorry."
That sounds more in line with Kikuoka's style. The nature of all of this seems to be covert. It probably pays having a ghost to hunt a ghost. "Don't worry about it Yuna. You already worked really hard." I make sure to pat her on the helmet.
"So, new friends, maybe?" Yuna smirks.
"Not every new person I meet is going to be friendship material." I sigh. I'm hesitant to even use the title 'partners'; This all still feels like coercion on Kikuoka's part. I need more information on these guys—I need to find the fastest way out of the situation, or at least to get above any others involved. Anything to keep Yuna safe.
"You're awfully stingy for someone with none but me." Yuna crosses her arms. Her eyes reflect her old self again.
"That's cold." I laugh.
Yuna resumes waddling her feet, dazed and humming to a song, jumping to a completely different wavelength after that burn. Her split between A.I. and real human memories divides her attention. Still, if there is a way to resolve Yuna's personality—
"We have company!" She says.
I snap to where her finger points. Up ahead, two figures. The first shares the same facial features as Arimoto's last photo. He bears plated chest armor over his torso and a green camo flak jacket. His brown military boots stomp in the puddles of street potholes as he approaches. Beside him, near the same height, a younger man, brown-skinned with hair twists on top of a high-fade. He wears a grey half coat, buttoned up and double breasted, but the buttons look like armor pieces to compliment the armored pads on his shoulders. He's the unknown—A Recent Immigrant? African-American?
The man that must be Arimoto approaches the two of us first: "When shall we three meet again, in Thunder, Lightning, or in Rain?"
Passcode. "When the hurlyburly's done, when the battle's lost and won."
Arimoto nods and smiles. His demeanor feels more—casual than I expected. He immediately bows. "Kinryuu Arimoto, but you can call me Ari."
Strangely, I can tell in the way his body relaxes after he rises—he's genuine. He elbows his partner to speak up next, even while he looks away, glancing at Yuna and I out of the corner of his eye. He's waiting for me to go next I guess, trust issues?
"Eiji, this is Yuna." I nod.
"Hello everybody!" Yuna cheers.
"A pleasure." Ari smiles, then rings his arm around his partner's neck. "We call this quiet one here Mylo. Don't worry about his demeanor—US military forgot to teach em manners."
US—Military?! He looks like he can't be a year or two older than me.
"What the hell Arimoto-sensei?!" Mylo's tough-guy façade totally deflates. "Why don't you just give away all of my personal info?"
"It pays to start off a new team with a foundation of trust and transparency." Ari grins at Mylo, squinting at him. They lock stare while Yuna and I watch—these two are not what I expected at all.
"I'm Yuna! Nice to meet you!"
I suddenly realize she's not behind me; she's between Ari and Mylo and eagerly taking Mylo's hand to shake, elated.
"M—Mylo." Mylo stammers from the surprise entrance.
Now that the tension's down a bit, maybe I can even more information. Get on their good side. I look at Ari. "That passage earlier, Shakespeare? Macbeth?"
"Ah!" Ari places a hand to his chest. "A new student after my own heart."
"You're too easy to please." Mylo sighs at Ari. He slowly lets go of Yuna's hand, then looks directly into her red eyes, like he's finally taking her in. "She a fluctlight A.I.?"
Of course Kikuoka updated them already.
"I told Kikuoka we needed one for this mission. I thought he said it wouldn't be possible." Mylo rubs his chin, still looking over Yuna. I don't like the way he studies her.
"She's more than that." I instinctively walk over and stand between them, but I can feel Yuna's hands gripping my shoulder to look over it. She's curious about these two.
"And who are you?" Mylo flatly asks. His brown eyes glare into mine. This one's a problem.
"I just said—"
"Right, Eiji. That's your name, but I mean, I only asked Kikuoka about someone to trace our target. If that's her, why are you here?" Mylo says.
Standoffish much? I could probably knock this guy on his ass here and now. Besides, its not like I want to be even be here. "Listen here—"
I feel Yuna's firm hand relax and pat my shoulder. I hold her hand as she comes around me and faces Mylo, standing half a foot taller than her.
"Naut is the most courageous swordsman I've ever known. He's worked hard now to prove he'd lay his life down for me or anyone if it's for the right cause. Trust us, and he'll do the same for you." Yuna says as she stares Mylo down.
I don't deserve that confidence, not after my mistakes.
"Kid." I notice Ari lay a hand on Mylo's shoulder. "This won't be another Sanji."
Mylo closes his eyes. The wrinkles between the bridge of his nose scowl, but then relax with a sigh. Whatever Ari means, it got to him-whatever he means. I don't think I should prod into it. I can't really tell what makes Mylo tick yet. I can't afford more obstacles when it comes to keeping Yuna safe.
"You do know what you're signing up for though, right, kid?" Ari gazes up at me now. "We lost an informant last week, probably the same age as you."
By lost—"Sanji?"
Ari solemnly nods. I watch Mylo's reaction too. His eyes stay downtrodden. So, that's why he's on edge—another kid died.
"I'm no stranger to life and death situations, or Kayaba." I try to say with confidence. "To be honest, they always seem to follow him wherever he goes anyway."
The mention of the commander ignites spirit in Mylo's eyes and stature again, and with that, something wrathful too until it's interrupted in a series of claps down the street.
"Very well said."
Huh? We all turn to the source. A man dressed in black stealth military gear approaches on the street. He wears a face mask and a black helmet to disguise himself until he pulls them down. He adjusts his glasses over his avatar.
"Kikuoka-dono?" Ari asks.
"This is a surprise; you never risk exposure in-person or in VR these days." Mylo remarks.
"All of you finally meeting is too exciting to pass up." Kikuoka smiles.
Eiji
GGO: 22:35
"Let's get started." Kikuoka leans against a glowing green holo-table in the center of a private lounge. We're secluded in a cramped room with crescent leather sofas in a circle surrounding us. Mylo sticks close to Ari; I stick close to Yuna.
"I gathered you all here today, first, because I figured you'd want to get acquainted, and so Arimoto could finish running GGO scams to pay for diapers." Kikuoka says.
What?
"Babies are expensive you know, Kikuoka-dono." Ari rubs the back of his head.
"Does Jules know you're still running gambling schemes?" Kikuoka grins.
Are they—joking? Isn't this a little off topic?
Arimoto stammers. "Well—"
"There is a reason you assembled us, right?" Mylo speaks my thoughts. Ari sighs relief at Mylo's interruption, and Kikuoka adjusts his glasses.
"Ah-hem, yes, well-" Kikuoka makes a few clicks on the holo-table. A 3D directory hovers over the table of usernames and aliases. "After Mylo and Ari interrogated Sanji, I took it upon myself to trace the people he attempted to recruit that night."
"Recruit?" The question slips out. I know they're getting into last night, but I'm out of the loop.
"You didn't bring him up to speed yet?" Mylo frowns at Kikuoka.
"Right, sorry about that." Kikuoka nervously grins, but I know he's fronting. He probably wants to keep me as ignorant to the details as possible. It's easier to make people tools that way-like he does Kirito, or how Dr. Shigemura operated. If I can't outmaneuver Kikuoka, I'll never have agency. If I can't even get that far, how can I protect myself and Yuna?
"Eiji-san?"
"Huh?" I realize the others are staring, even her. I hope I'm not wearing my thoughts. "Sorry, just blanked out trying to process the information. That's usually Yuna's department."
Yuna cockily grins at the compliment.
"Of course." Kikuoka smiles-even that looks loaded. He changes the hologram on the table. It's the layout of the first page of an image board online. "We already know Kayaba's been operating as a digital ghost across the net and The Seed since the end of SAO. After this, fringe groups appeared on the net. Some fantasized about SAO, others were actual survivors, but they all formed a following for its creator. Some even advocated bringing back the Death Game."
That—makes sense. I have moments where that world bleeds into my real one, days where I remember I'm Nautilus, a member of The Knights of Blood Oath. SAO lasted 2 years, I've only just been back in this one longer than that—at least that's how it feels—the dissonance between the two realities, the two lives I've experienced. It's why when I think about what Yuna's going through—
Yuna's hand holds over mine. I watch her red eyes as the scan the 3D chat boards and messages. I know deep down her memories are a storm. The ones we share together in SAO are precious, but she also died there—so to think that others would celebrate that, let alone people who never took part in it-
"How awful." She murmurs. That gets an eye raise from Mylo.
Kikuoka nods to her comment. "Naturally, the SAO task force kept tabs on them, but because they were mostly college kids and younger, we left it alone and just monitored their activity. They were practically harmless."
"But something changed?" I catch on.
Kikuoka nods. "First, what happened at the Ocean Turtle a few months ago." Kikuoka plays a video recording over the table:
Sparks of gunfire ricocheting off hallway corners and, behind one, a man in a suit. On the other side of the hallway, a man in military gear unleashing automatic fire, but then something appears in the hall: a man in armor? No, the motions of its body are too unnatural, its trudging—straight into the gunfire with arms raised to shield. It's a robot flashing green eyes. At first it recoils from the shots, but presses through the hall, sparks from bullets bouncing off its chest. It's advancing slowly. Then, Kikuoka himself appears on video, rushing to use the robot as a shield, and then firing from his pistol as the military assailant on the other end drops dead.
Yuna gasps at the playback while my head buzzes. When Kikuoka said that Kayaba's consciousness survived, I didn't think—
"That robot—is Kayaba himself, rescuing the passengers from the armed assault of the Ocean Turtle." Kikuoka adjusts his glasses. "It's not in the official incident report, but someone leaked this video to online spaces sympathetic to Kayaba. In it, they claimed that Kayaba had plans to usher the world to a new digital age. Naturally my first thought went to—"
"Another SAO." I murmur and clutch my fists—It couldn't happen again, could it?
"What matters is how we're going to stop it if it's true." Mylo practically growls. Guy's harboring serious anger at the thought. Can't say I blame him, but I don't recall meeting someone like him in SAO. So why does that look seem so personal?
"We don't know if that's his end goal." Kikuoka clears his throat and the atmosphere. "But what we do know, is that Kayaba is too chaotic a player to be left to his own devices."
"And threat or not, he needs to be taken in. Someone should answer for trapping tens of thousands of people in SAO." Arimoto nods.
Kikuoka nods to Arimoto's sentiment. Then he clears his throat.
"There's more." Kikuoka says. "After the operation last night, I did some digging. Sanji's body wasn't reported to police, nor were there any reports of a disturbance on campus, and Sanji's school records say he's recently withdrawn from the university."
"What?" Mylo scowls.
"Additionally," Kikuoka continues. "There's others around his age range and situation with the same status, all suspiciously within two weeks of Kayaba's appearance at the Ocean Turtle. Although, no missing person's reports have been filed as of yet."
"Are you saying there could be missing kids?" Ari asks. "More—bodies?"
"We have to consider the possibility." Kikuoka sighs. "Whether there are or not, someone's covering their tracks. I intend to follow up on this while the four of you carry out your mission."
Kikuoka leans in. He directly stares at Yuna and I.
"Eiji, as you know, I decided to bring you in because I believe Yuna might be able to track Kayaba's digital signature, especially if he's residing in SEED worlds and traveling in the nexus between them to communicate with a following." Kikuoka says. "I'd like to find a way to put that theory to the test after intercepting his followers."
The hologram over the table changes to an overhead street view map, somewhere in Shibuya. There's multiple shops along a strip, a bustling district.
"Tracking communications with this group is difficult now. They don't message each other through image boards since the incident with Sanji, and they already primarily communicate and recruit in-game." Kikuoka says. He leans on the table as the green overhead lights reflect on his glasses.
Of course. It'd be more difficult to intercept messages that way unless someone directly eavesdropped—so they have a process.
"Because we were successful at finding Sanji's group in ALO, we've been able to track their movements through map data in their cell-phones." Kikuoka paces around the table and draws an arrow with his pointer finger to one shop within the district, a café. "Every day they've been meeting here at this café. I'd advocate a similar tactic like what we did with Sanji, but after what happened, I'm guessing they're no longer leaving themselves isolated when they full-dive, and opting to dive in public instead for safety."
"But Sanji was ultimately pretty low on the food chain, Kikuoka." Mylo keeps his eyes down. It looks like he's recalling that trauma.
Kikuoka nods to that. "I know It's a small lead, but that's the most I can figure out until we can get Yuna and someone else in there to take a closer look."
"Could also just be coincidence, it's a popular café. I'm sure teenage kids visit it all the time." Ari shrugs.
"Think so?" Kikuoka smiles like he was waiting for the challenge. Almost on cue, Yuna eagerly raises her hand. Her eyes glisten like rubies.
"Kikuoka-san?" She asks.
"Yes! Yuna!" Kikuoka leans in and answers.
"I took a moment to look up all the usernames from the picture of the image board you showed us. It's well hidden and there hasn't been posts since yesterday, but a lot of the IP addresses from most recent posts come from the general area that the café is located in." Yuna explains. "Also, I extended the cell tracking search to their friends list, and friends of friends. Small groups in large frequencies aren't just visiting the café, they're diving from it."
Arimoto whistles—thrown for a loop. Me too. She's amazing when she works her magic, but I don't like the smile Kikuoka's wearing now—like he just confirmed a hypothesis.
Kikuoka bows. "Then, here's the mission: We're going to stake out this spot with a van parked in an alley further away. We're going to take this opportunity to figure out what they're up to."
Wait, why not just spy on them in VR if we know their user names? "In person?"
"Synchronized diving." Mylo murmurs.
"Huh?" Yuna and I ask. Mylo pouts and folds his arms—it's not our fault Kikuoka kept us in the dark.
"What he means," Ari explains. "Is that we break off into teams. Two in VR, and two to watch the situation in the van from the café. It's to double our chances of successfully getting intel, on the off chance either team loses their target."
"If the VR team fails to intercept, then we'll use the café team to tail a member of the fan club after they leave. Also, there's another reason." Kikuoka says as he adjusts his glasses. "We need to verify if the 3rd party will show up again. It's an opportunity to learn more about who we're dealing with on that front if they do."
"So who's going in?" Mylo eyes Kikuoka.
Honestly, Yuna and I probably have the most VR experience here because of SAO. If we need to infiltrate this group in VR—
"Team 1 will be Mylo and Yuna. Team 2 will be Arimoto and Eiji." Kikuoka says as he brings up our names on the holo-table. It marks Mylo and Yuna as the VR team. I'm on-the café?
"What is this?" I blurt.
"Is there a problem?" Kikuoka frowns.
"Yes! Our agreement is that I would stick with Yuna to keep her safe." What if Kayaba really is there? Sure, I have her data saved to my augma, but I can't imagine Kayaba wouldn't have some way of neutralizing Yuna if he saw her as a threat. "Also, shouldn't we be on the VR team? We have the most experience since we're—since I'm an SAO survivor."
"Don't take it the wrong way, kid, but you're still new." Ari sighs. "We don't know how you operate yet. Plus, Mylo's got experience dealing with these guys in VR, and we need Yuna to be there in case anyone tries to communicate with Kayaba and run a trace."
"How about the three of us?" Yuna tries to compromise.
Ari shakes his head. "I need someone else with me. We need one lookout ready to for any followers that make a break for it or if the 3rd party shows. And we'll need someone with their foot near the gas in case either of those happens."
I don't like this. How quickly Kikuoka switched on his promise—just like Shigemura when he double-crossed me. Forget it. I'll find a way to protect Yuna on my ow—
"You think you can handle the VR task?" Mylo sighs.
"Yes, I do."
Mylo firmly stands and hovers over me. I won't be intimidated; he doesn't know what I've been through. I stand up to meet him, eye to eye. We're the same height.
"Kid—" Arimoto shifts to Mylo to diffuse, but Kikuoka places a hand on Arimoto's shoulder and shakes his head.
"Any time wasted arguing is less time devoted to finding Kayaba." Mylo says and then smirks, but—there's something wicked in how the corners quirk. Is he intimidating me out of ego? No, his look is too sober. There's cold-blooded calm in those eyes; they reflect my avatar under the neon green lights. I see it. To him, right now, I'm just an obstacle, Inconsequential otherwise.
Mylo lays a hand on his hip as his smirk deflates into his usual dry stare. It pisses me off. I'm not sure if anyone else can catch a glimpse with us so up-close, but I see it. This guy clearly carries demons; He just thinks he's the only one.
"Speak with your sword. That's how it goes in SAO, right? Face me, 1v1. You win, and I'll gladly let you take my place as a trust of strength." Mylo says.
I see Yuna frowning at me. I feel her hand taking mine, trying to bring my emotions back down and take a seat, to accept it. Whether I truly still know her or not, no one else sticks by me like her, so I won't lose her. Not again.
"You're on."
*Lengthy Author's Note: Hey Everyone! If you've made it this far, thank you so much for your continued support of SAO Alt: Specter! I've spent a lot of the last chapter and this one trying to build up the characters and where they're at emotionally, especially for new ones like Arimoto and Mylo. This is all to prepare for the more exciting action and revelations to come. Please let me know how you're enjoying (or not enjoying) the story so far.
Oh, yeah, the reason I'm writing this note: So, I'm trying to keep to the current publishing schedule of 1 chapter a week/week and a half, but I'll admit that Chapter 4 has been a beast to take on, so much so, that I'm thinking of splitting the chapter in half, both to keep up with schedule and to not overwhelm the reader. This is also because A LOT is set to happen during the chapter. I'm still mulling it over, but I'm hoping to still have something in time for next week.
Lastly, if anyone has any questions or ideas for the story or characters moving forward, please let me know what you think! Most of the general story has been outlined, but fitting in the details (especially for Ch. 4) has been the biggest challenge by far.
Ok, that's all for now. Until next time, peace!
-EF