Through the Looking Glass

Synopsis: Earth, Japan, Tokyo, February 2026. The assassin Johnny Black attacked Kazuto Kirigiya, and left the former Black Swordsman in a coma, with brain damage...

So, how exactly did he disappear from a hospital bed, under 24 hour supervision?

Even with all minds on the case, the former SAO players hit a dead end, until one night, when a random call changes everything they have and will ever know...


Episode One - Part One - The Ocean's Call


Two weeks. Two weeks now it had been since Kirito had vanished without a trace, from a coma, in a hospital bed.

In her younger years, Tomo had spent her childhood engrossed in stories of hard-boiled detectives, the type who spent years pursuing cases halfway across the world, their plucky assistants following them to the ends of the earth it happened to lead to just the faintest inkling of a lead. That had taught her determination, never to give in even under the most adverse of situations.

Her mother's job as an investigative journalist had taught her the other important lesson in research - don't blindly follow the Holmesian Fallacy. The belief that you should consider every possible option, no matter how unlikely it was, eliminating each possibility until you were left with the truth, no matter how improbable it was, was certainly a good thought for an investigator, and did teach her to keep an open mind, but to eliminate every possible option? It required a degree of omnipotence, and that was something that no one had...

In pursuit of her mission to find Kirito, she'd spent those two weeks pouring tirelessly over any possible lead, no matter how minor or coincidental it could be. Before the whole death game thing, a detective had came into school, and given them a lecture on how detectives worked to solve cases, and a key point she'd taken from that experience was to be thorough. Sometimes, even the smallest thing could unravel something massive after all... the example provided by the detective had been that of the Yorkshire Ripper, a serial killer who'd claimed thirteen victims throughout the 1970s, and had only been caught after an officer had a hunch on a man they'd arrested for public urination, and it turned out they'd detained the killer, after over a decade. In no particular order, she'd come across a few possibilities:

People who might have seen him being moved? Either no one had seen his mysterious abductors, or the more likely option, they'd been told to keep their mouths shut about it.

Medical records? Completely inaccessible, hidden behind an ungodly level of security clearance, to a level that most generals probably didn't possess... which led to her to wonder: Who actually knew about Kii-bou being taken into hospital?

Obviously their little group all knew about Kirito's disappearance, but there was no feasible way any of them could've taken a comatose patient, let alone kept them alive afterwards, so that ruled them out... except one person: Seijirou Kikuoka, or Chrystheight as he went by in VR, an officer in the JASDF and Kirito's contact within the military sphere of influence after SAO concluded. Which made it all the stranger that he was being uncooperative, given Kirito's seeming status as his prized operative...

/-/

Sensing a migraine fast approaching at the mere thought of dealing with Kikuoka, Tomo looked over to her clock - 02:48am. She really should be asleep, she thought, especially if she actually wanted to find Kirito. A tired detective was of very little use to anyone, after all, and if Asuna found out about the constant all-nighters, Kirito wouldn't be the only one in the doghouse when they found him...

Clearly, the thought of sleep was too much of a temptation, as she slumped over her desk, the weight on her eyelids closing them, as her mind began to wander...

PING.

Reflexively, Tomo grabbed her phone and opened it, to find her usual lock screen - a photo of better times, everyone in their school uniforms and smiling, except for Kii-bou, who suffered from a complete lack of any photogenic appearances, and was therefore grimacing instead. Atop the picture though, was a push notification telling her that she had a voicemail...

Seriously, who rings a gal at this time? Ne'er mind that, who answers their phone at this time! She thought to herself, as she tapped the notification and entered her passcode. The phone went straight into a call to the voicemail service, repeating the usual about the date and time of the message, before it went to the message itself:

''Argo. At the following address, you will find the answer to your problem. When you find it... ask for the doctor. Good luck.''

That was strange. Not only had the person used her in-game name, rather than her actual name, but she could've sworn she recognised that voice. The air of authority around it, and the cadence felt familiar to her, but she couldn't place it, not with the heavy amounts of adjustments that had been made to it anyway. Then came the next question... what address?

PING.

A text message, listing an address in a district in Tokyo, came through from a withheld number. Well, that taught her to tempt fate... Can I get a billion yen please? She thought to herself, before grumbling about it being just the one miracle then.

Though the less said about the whole doctor thing, the better... What exactly was that voice even on about?

(Later that morning...)

Unsurprisingly, after telling Asuna about the mystery caller at three in the morning, she was getting the nth degree off her for overworking herself. Even if she was right, it was still ironic... not that she'd ever tell her that. ''Asu-chan, I'll be fine...'' Tomo dismissed as she left the train station. It was only a short walk to the address listed from the station, and the address was in full view of a busy street, albeit down an alley. '''Sides, I got a lead in Kii-bou, so I'd call it a productive night, wouldn't ya?''

She didn't even need to see Asuna to tell how exasperated she was at her. She really was the mother of their little group sometimes, she thought... ''Please be careful, Tomo... I'd feel more comfortable if you had someone with you, you know?''

''I know ya would, but time may be of the essence here...'' She trailed off as she reached the street, and began searching for the elusive alley. ''I'll call ya later, Aa-chan.''

A few minutes passed by, alongside a number of alleyways, before Tomo found the odd one out. An unremarkable alleyway, with nothing of any note to it, except for one item at the bottom of it, partially obscured by a fire exit of the adjacent building - a large blue box.

The box was easily around seven foot tall, even without including the plant pot light atop it, and above the doors read: Police - Public Call - Box. As Tomo checked her surroundings, she began to walk down the alley, constantly vigilant. Something about the box filled her with unease, a sense of tension she hadn't known since they'd been in SAO, but other than that vague explanation, she couldn't really offer any more details as to her feelings.

Approaching the box, the sense of unease had faded and been replaced by a bizarre sense of familiarity. Whatever it was, it was indisputably out of place in its current location, and yet it felt as if it had always been there... Just what was this thing?

Up close, she took note of some more details about it. The box itself was clearly wooden, yet a quick shove revealed far more weight to it than a wooden box should reasonably have. She stood on her tip toes, attempting to peer in through the windows at the top of the door, but they appeared to be nothing more than a decoration, as she saw nothing on the other side.

Steeling herself, Tomo knocked on the door and took a step back, as she remembered what she'd been told to ask for by the mysterious voicemail. She needed to ask for a doctor, though why, she really wasn't sure. Maybe they knew more about Kirito's condition than she gave them credit for? Maybe they were responsible for it...

All of those thoughts raced through her mind like a Shinkansen, in the brief moments before a door opened, and a man stood there, partially out of the frame. The man looked quizzically towards her, as she looked him over too. Around his mid twenties, but possibly into his early thirties, she reckoned, with styled brown hair, wearing a blue pinstripe jacket, a bright red tie and a brown trench coat. He definitely wasn't Japanese, she could tell that much, but exactly where he was from... she really couldn't say, not until he spoke...

''Oh, hello?'' The stranger asked, giving her a questioning look.

''I'm lookin' fer a doctor?'' A strange glint appeared in the stranger's eyes, as he gave her a look that was completely indecipherable...

''Well, you've come to the right place...''


{Author's Comments}

I'm not dead! I've been a bit radio silent for the past few weeks, and this won't replace any of my current fics, with both An Englishman and ACES continuing as I hoped. As for the schedule on this, I'll post when I can, given the likelihood of Uni life being a bit chaotic from September, but until then, I hope to update this once a month.

At least how I'm planning this, it'll be a roughly four/five episode story, with a few parts making up each episode.

Anyway, I've had this idea for a while now, and although this chapter is quite short, I hope it'll be enough to draw people in. This won't exclusively focus on the Doctor's side of the story, as it would be a really short story, I suspect, and I've got what I hope are interesting things planned later on...

Also, leave your thoughts on who the mystery voice down the phone is, along with any comments or criticisms you've got. If you've enjoyed this bit, or want to see more, leave a favourite and a follow,

Signing off,

Midland 2541.