A New Tale
It was a quiet day in the Dicey Cafe.
Which wasn't too surprising, reflected Andrew. The day's turn was always the tame one. Except for a few workers desiring to get a strong drink after a long morning, there weren't many customers at that time. It was at night that things started to get on a roll. Weekends, specifically, were wild. The barman lost count of how many times he and his wife had to conduct drunk people out of their bar.
However, one type of client broke that pattern. Ever since the Sword Art Online, from which he was one of the trapped people, the Dicey Cafe had become sort of a hub for meetings of survivors in Tokyo. Old guild colleagues meeting together after a long time, lovers separated by the end of the game, and, by far, the most frequent clients, students of the SAO Student School.
Unfortunately, that meant that, sometimes, he had to deal with the antics of teenagers. Three such figures were now at the bar, all girls, wearing the school uniform. The eldest had long chestnut hair and had a certain elegant air on her eyes, like a princess from chivalry novels. Her companions were a brunette nearly falling off her chair and a blonde with the hair tied into two tails by a red ribbon stopping the first companion from falling on her back.
"EEEEEEEH?!" said one Rika Shinozaki. "What do you mean by a week?"
Her best friend, Asuna Yuuki, touched her ear, temporarily deaf from Rika's screech.
"First, ow. Second, that's what I heard. Didn't you hear about the hacking attempt at Ymir's database? From what Kirito gathered, it was more severe than the notice said. They are running an overhaul on their safety measures, and they're suspending all the activities for at least one week to get the least amount of hiccups possible."
Inwardly, Andrew swore. He was that close to making a deal with a group of Imps in selling some rare material that he got. Now, the business may get cold. "So much yrd lost."
"Aw, dammit!" said Keiko Ayano, a slightly younger girl. "I forgot to download my Math homework!"
"Don't worry," said Asuna. "Yui can always get the data back for you. Can't you?"
The phone at the top of the desk where the three girls were sitting hummed.
"Yes, Mama!" said the voice of an even younger girl. Or so it seemed. Considering that they didn't know how much time Kayaba Akihiko had put into creating Aincrad, she could pretty well be older than her appearance would indicate. At least in attitude, she was closer to being like Keiko than a seven or eight years old child.
"Ah, thank god!" said Keiko. "Ever since the incident, things had been in such a rush. So much work!"
"Then again, it's the end of the year," commented Rika. "After all, we're nearly at the time of the recess. It makes sense that they want to wrap up everything now."
Asuna scratched her chin.
"Still, that's annoying. Doing our homework in Alfheim helped us have some quick fun while keeping the paperwork in the day."
"Well, you can always transfer to another game."
Two new figures entered the bar, dressed in uniforms from other schools. One with the hair in a darker shade of brown and glasses. The other with black hair, a bokken on her shoulder. Although they weren't participants in the Death Game, they had a deep relation with that small group.
"Like, say, Gun Gale Online," said Shino Asada. "I heard that there's a quest that involves a gunsmith who gives powerful upgrades to weapons. Hecate would love to have an upgrade to her firepower."
"You want to upgrade the power of the sniper rifle that can bust military-level equipment to use against other people?" said Rika. "Girl, Geneva must have nightmares about you."
The others snickered at that.
"At least I'm grateful that this maintenance happened now," said Suguha Kirigaya. "I'm about to go to another camp to train more of my kendo. There's a big tournament in January, and our trainer wants to choose who will represent our dojo."
"Tough days ahead," said Shino. Then, she made a quick count. "Say, where's Kirito? I thought he would be here?"
"He...had a compromise," said Asuna. She didn't elaborate, but the tired tone on her voice said everything about what involved said compromise. Also known as the newest annoyance in her life. Even worse, a love life annoyance.
"Hey, Agil! A hot drink, please, because goddamn if it isn't cold today."
"I don't think that's so bad."
"Easy for you to say, you're of flesh and bones like us."
Two new figures entered the bar. Another girl with long blonde hair tied into a braid with a bow on the forehead. And the boy who linked that whole group together, a boy with hair of the same color as Suguha's wearing a motorcycle jacket and carrying a notebook.
"That's rude," said Alice Zuberg. "I already spent many cold nights while patrolling the Human Empire. And I must say, it's colder at the top than below."
Kazuto Kirigaya, commonly called by his online name of Kirito, sighed.
"If you say so."
Alice made the motion of approaching Kazuto but stopped when she saw Asuna glaring at her. Inwardly, Andrew sighed. While the two girls tried to get along, ever since the Fluctlight got more leeway to explore Tokyo, there was always a tense aura between the two swordswomen. It doesn't help that one of the conditions for the former Integrity Knight to leave her place was for Kirito to be her guardian, meaning that the two were always around each other. The barman knew the adopted Kirigaya well enough to say that he wasn't interested in Alice, being loyal to Asuna, but also knew that the Black Swordsman didn't have the heart to dissuade the advances of the AI.
"Damn your soft heart, Kirito. The last thing I want in this place is teenage drama."
"Hey, brother!" said Suguha. "Why did you take so long to come here today? Even when you have to get Alice, you usually are already here."
Alice stopped staring at Asuna to answer the kendoka's question.
"The people in the Ocean Turtle suggested to me a way to learn more about the outside world, so they advised me to get a laptop. I asked for Kirito's help to select one."
"I would think that a place like that would have a free computer, no?" pondered Shino.
"In the past, yes," said Kazuto. "But they still didn't replace all the things destroyed in the attack. It's a wonder that she managed to get a Soul Translator for her to enter Alfheim with us. And I think they only bothered to do so thanks to Yui's efforts."
Inside Asuna's cellphone, the former mental counseling program puffed up, satisfied by her father's praise.
"Damn. Kikuoka must be having a hard time fixing everything," said Andrew. "It already takes a while to replace broken furniture in some of the rowdy days here."
"Eh, he has free time. Being legally dead has its perks."
Rika's head fell to the table.
"Ugh. Don't even talk about free time. What do we do now? I should have heard from my parents and got a job after school. I don't get why that bar was named 13th Hell, though. The place didn't seem to have a hellish theme."
"As I said, you guys can always transfer to Gun Gale Online," replied Shino. "I mean, you have Yui to keep your items safe during the transfer."
"Maybe. But I think that GGO isn't in my league. Too much steampunk for my tastes."
"Yeah, I have to agree with Rika," said Asuna. "It was alright to help you, but I think that we're not going to be playing much for the week."
"Then why not try a new game?" said Alice. "From what I heard from some employees, there's this one game called Asuka Empire that's free to download."
"I would rather not," said Asuna. "Starting a new game only to return to the old one seems a little too tiresome. I mean, I'm not stopping anyone from doing whatever they want, but it seems like too much work."
Alice raised an eyebrow but recognized the point of the older girl.
"This seems to be leading to a boring holiday..." commented Keiko.
A new figure entered the cafe. The red hair tied with a bandana identified the new customer as Ryotarou Tsuboi.
"Ah! Man, what a drag. Agil, please give me some of the good stuff."
The black man raised an eyebrow.
"At this hour of the day? What happened?"
The man didn't talk until Andrew served a big cup of shochu.
"My guild, man! They backstabbed me. I'll tell you, backstabbed! They're going to Kyoto this weekend and didn't invite me, their guild leader! Betrayal at its finest! That's how Caesar must have felt after being stabbed by Brutus."
"Don't be so dramatic, dude," said Andrew. "They must have a reason to don't invite you," he then gave a toothy smile. "Or maybe they're planning to have Harry One as their new guild leader."
"Now you're just underestimating their smarts. They would never choose Harry as the leader as he receives too many hits on the head to give orders. Yes, Isshin must be the one conspiring to take me out of command, that lying son of a..."
"Language!" said Asuna. "We have two minors of age here, you know?"
Keiko puffed a little bit.
"I have heard many plagues before, Asuna."
Klein continued to talk.
"Eh. Whatever. I'll get my revenge in Theldesia. There's that new quest that involves a stable and many horses."
"Huh? I didn't know that you play Elder Tale, Klein," said Kirito.
"Elder Tale?" asked Shino.
"Oh, I remember you playing that game, brother!" said Suguha. "Before you entered Sword Art Online, you were crazy for that game."
The face of the boy turned red.
"Now you're exaggerating. I wasn't that-"
"Kazuto, you once stayed a whole weekend playing the game, only stopping to get snacks and go to the bathroom."
"That was a limited-time event! I grew up five levels on that weekend, so I would say it was worth it."
"Slow down a bit," said Alice. "We got that Elder Tale is a game, but what kind of game are you talking about?"
Tsuboi straightened his back.
"Now, that's easy to answer. Think of it as the ancestor of games like Alfheim and Gun Gale. An MMORPG of the old era. It's one of the few survivors of its type after the craze of the VRMMORPG. Instead of playing in Fulldive equipment like the Amusphere, we use either computers or notebooks like this one."
"Really? Interesting," said the mechanical girl, glancing at the device.
"Honestly, I thought that the game had shut down," said Kirito. "After I saw that World of Warcraft fell out of favor, I presumed that Elder Tale would also be closed."
"Nah, man, thing's still kicking ass. This Sunday, it will receive its twelfth expansion, Pioneers of the Novasphere, or Homesteading the Noosphere. I don't remember which one is quite correct, cuz there are some underlying issues with the translation..."
"To the point, please?"
"Uh, right. You guys must already know the gist. There are new quests, areas, monsters, an increased level cap. All the stuff one would expect from an expansion in Alfheim."
"Neat," said Suguha. "That's a game for veterans."
"Yeah. The others from Fuurinkazan and I played that a lot before SAO. We're now trying to catch up, but it's hard to keep track of the game when we spend much of our free time in Alfheim. Maybe we finally can get to max level with this new expansion."
"It sure seems nice..." said Asuna, thoughtful. "Say, are there any restrictions on playing the game?"
"Hm...other than paying for the game and having something that can run it off, I don't think so."
Kazuto smiled.
"So, that's how you're planning to pass the week? I was planning on finishing my school project, but I can use some of my time to teach you the ropes and see what has happened ever since I left. Maybe even finally reconnect with some old friends..."
Ryotarou raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Well, I think I can help anyone who wants to buy the game. I know a guy who owns a game store that sells the all-in-one pack cheaper than the competition. And I'm sure we can bargain for the new expansion. He's that cool of a guy."
"Hm...that seems interesting. I'm in," said Suguha. "I'm also seeing if Rec- I mean, Shinichi, wants to get in this."
"I'm also in," said Keiko. "My family is going to spend their vacations in Hokkaido, and it would be nice to have ways to interact with you guys. They don't like that I bring the Amusphere with me for family trips."
"Huh. So we're going to deal with portals earlier than we thought," said Ryotarou. "Meh, I'll give you the instructions before you leave."
"I'm also going," said Asuna and Alice. The two looked at each other in a mix of confusion and maybe tension.
"I'm going too!" said Rika, rather rushedly, trying to cut any fight before it happened. "And what about you, Agil? Interested?"
The barman scratched his chin.
"Well, it's already been a while since Trish and I managed to get in a game together. But I think I'll see what she thinks before going head-on in this business. Also, we're going to visit some parents in America. Is that a problem?"
"Well, if you want to play with us, you also have to take a gate to Yamato, but I can explain that later. So, it seems we have something to do for our weekends. Unfortunately, I'm going to be busy with something on Saturday..." the samurai slowed down. "Dammit, I have work tomorrow! I was so focused on the betrayal that I forgot that I have things to do tomorrow."
"Don't you think that said 'betrayal' happened because you already have the hands full of things to do?"
Silence.
"OhlookatthetimeI'lldeliverthegamestomorrowokbye!"
Almost leaving a cloud of smoke, Ryotarou ran away from the bar.
"He didn't pay the bill," sighed Andrew.
Asuna threw a bill of 5000 yen.
"Stay with the change. I feel that Klein would do the same."
Two days later, five minutes for the release of Pioneers of Novasphere.
"Kazuto, have you taken my sea-salt potato chips?"
"It's in the second cabinet, Suguha! Don't you remember mom switched the places of everything yesterday? Besides, you know that I like spicy food!"
"Sure, sure..."
Kazuto ignored the ramblings of his sister as he opened his pack of chips, taking a good breath. Oh, he didn't realize how much he missed that feeling. One of the few disadvantages that he could attribute to virtual reality is that, from time to time, one must stop playing to take care of the body. It was possible to shorten the time needed to do such things, but it wasn't possible to do a gaming marathon like in the old days.
"Ugh, now I'm thinking like an old geezer. I'm taken by nostalgia, huh?"
"Daddy, it's almost beginning!" said Yui from Kazuto's computer.
"No rush, Yui," said the adoptive father. "It's not like we're going to miss anything by getting late a minute or two."
He put on a headset and connected in a tab where the group's voice channel was active. Although there was an in-game chat, it depended on the players having the people they wanted to talk to in their friend's list, and currently, the only member of the crew he had on it was Klein.
"Alright, you guys have finished the tutorial?"
"Yes, most of us did," said Asuna. "Recon had some issues in the quest, but he managed to solve them and is teleporting to Akiba."
The boy nodded, satisfied. His friends had entered the game earlier to finish the tutorial and get to Elder Tale proper as soon as Pioneers of Novasphere was available.
"Daddy, can I help you with something in the game?"
The boy scratched his chin.
"Well, you sure can try Yui. But I don't think there will be much to do in the game. You can relax and see daddy teaching everyone-"
A cough.
"-bar Klein how to play Elder Tale."
The AI nodded and... sat at the navigation bar. Literally. "I think that AIs don't have many places to sit outside of VR."
"Hey, it's almost time for the release of the expansion!" said Klein, excited. "Let's make a countdown, guys! With me! Ten..."
"Really? Come on, Klein, as if someone would..."
"Nine!" said Recon, to the surprise of some.
More surprising was Lisbeth joining the group.
"Eight!"
"Seven!" said Sinon. At this point, Kirito got convinced that everyone was following the flow.
"Six!" said Alice.
"Five!" said Agil and Trish at the same time
"Four!" followed Silica.
"Three!" said Leafa.
"Two!" said Asuna.
At this point, Kirito just shrugged and decided to finish the chain.
"One!"
And, at the moment, about 100 000 people worldwide, 30 000 in Japan, lost their consciences.
The first thing that Kirito felt upon waking up was a searing headache.
"Ugh...what the hell...?"
He looked around, expecting to see his computer ahead of him. However, he soon realized three things:
1-He wasn't more in his room, being in a city that seemed familiar to him;
2-He felt himself in different clothes, with two weights on the waist;
3-There was someone on his side.
Said someone being his daughter, in its human form.
"Yui!"
He went to pick his daughter off the ground, his mind trying to figure out what was happening. He didn't remember being in a VR ambient, so why was Yui in front of him?
He then looked at the glass of a shop and realized a few more things about his body as more people started to be aware of their surroundings.
The figure ahead of him wasn't too different from his real-life self. The physical differences were the hair being a little spikier and his height, two centimeters taller.
The clothes weren't too elaborate, being a simple black coat that covered the mail chest plate and the gray pants held by a belt with a bag on the right side. On the left, there were two sheathes with steel swords.
The truth of the situation dawned on Kirito's mind. For a second, he thought that it was impossible. However, no matter how much he thought, the only reasonable answer for his situation was improbable and nothing else.
"You gotta be kidding me," grumbled the Swashbuckler.