A/N: Happy November 6th, 2022, everyone! Today officially marks the day the Sword Art Online Official Service officially started, thus launching the SAO Disaster and kicking off a story that captivated the minds of an entire fanbase forever. In commemoration of this special day, I've decided to post this pre-prepared chapter early. And by golly, this is going to be a special chapter, not just because it's the start of Act II, but also because it marks a true turning point in this story, one that truly justifies the multi-act story. You'll see as you read along. ;D ;D ;D
Man, November 6th, 2022... I can't believe that we actually got to this point in time...and "Sword Art Online", with all of its questionable story beats and creative decisions, wound up creating a timeline that we'd all prefer to live in compared to what we've got right now. :'(
Alright, enough pointless musings! On with the chapter. ENJOY!
P.S.: For updates regarding progress on my writing and just life in general, please check out my profile! I try to update it as often as I possibly can with any status update!
P.P.S.: Due to the slowly improving situation regarding the coronavirus outbreak, I am going to have to remind you all about the basic steps you should take if you want to stay healthy, courtesy of my university's reminder emails:
-Wash hands often with soap and water for 20-30 seconds at a time, and/or use hand sanitizer
-Avoid close contact with people who are sick
-Keep your hands away from nose, eyes, and mouth (I can't imagine how difficult this part is probably going to be)
-Eat well, get adequate rest, and exercise regularly
-Get a flu shot if you haven't already and are able to
-Stay informed on the COVID-19 vaccines, get shots if you're able to, and try to get a booster shot if you're eligible
And if you ARE sick (I hope you get better if you are), please be a good sport and save other folks the trouble of getting sick. You can do this by:
-Covering your mouth and nose with your sleeve, elbow, or a tissue whenever you sneeze or cough
-Not sharing food and drinks with others
-Avoiding touching your mouth, nose, and eyes (Again, I understand this is probably going to be difficult)
-Avoiding close contact with others
-Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and objects
-Staying at home if you're unwell (PRIORITY NUMBER ONE!)
-Staying calm and keeping yourself well-informed (My personal advice)
If you already know this, then great! If you didn't know any of this beforehand, please keep that information in mind as we all go through this trying time. It's a realm of unknowns at this point, and I wish myself and all of humanity well.
– January 22, 2015 –
Real World, Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture
Almost ten years ago
"M-Mr. Midnight..."
"Mr. Midnight... Waaaaahhhhh!"
The two young children stood somberly in front of the fresh makeshift grave, underneath a winter tree growing in front of an apartment complex. A pair of sunflowers laid upon the freshly disturbed, grassless soil, along with a ball of blue yarn. One of the children, a slim, fair-skinned girl with black hair, had her face buried in her little palms while she softly cried; the other, a boy around the same age with brown hair and equally brown eyes, stood tall and firm in an effort to remain strong, even as tears of his own dripped down his red cheeks and he audibly sniffled with a lip that badly quivered. Up in the apartment complex, a few neighbors had noticed the commotion on the ground level and were looking upon the pair of youth with sympathy.
"W-We'll m-m-miss you, M-M-Mr. Mi-Mi-Midn-n-ni-night..." the boy stammered.
"M-Mr. Midnight!" wailed the girl. "Wh-Why'd you have to g-g-g-g-go?!"
Her wailing resumed, stronger than ever, while the boy lost his composure and started to cry himself, even as he tried to remain still and rigid. The air was quickly filled with the sounds of childish crying, and the grim tragedy was accentuated by how naked the tree still was from the lingering effects of winter, stripped of all green leaves that signaled life.
Eventually, the two children felt a presence behind them, but neither budged an inch.
"Keita-chan," a young voice warned, "you need to come inside before you catch a cold. Mom's gonna be mad if she finds out I let you stay out here this long!" The voice then directed itself to the girl. "You too, Sachi-chan. Your dad's gonna be home very soon. I know you don't like him being mad."
"B-B-Bu-Bu-But...K-K-Ko-Ko-Kota-n-n-niiiiiii..." the girl stuttered, "w-w-we c-c-ca-ca-can't...w-w-we can't...w-w-we c-ca-can't...WAAAAAHHHHH!"
Her grief overwhelmed her, and her words faded back into loud, uncontrollable crying. The older boy took a deep breath and sighed, his exhale visible as a cloud of chilly air. Then, he put one hand on the girl's right shoulder and his other on the younger boy's left shoulder.
"I know," Kotaro said sympathetically. "I'm gonna miss Mr. Midnight too. But there are other cats who come around-"
"But they all belong to somebody, Kota-niichaaaan!" Keita snapped furiously, his eyes screwed shut in his tempered grief. "All of them belonged to somebody...except for Mr. Midnight!"
A single tear developed in the corner of Kotaro's eye, but he gave the two children a bright smile. "Well...he belonged to us, right?"
Both Sachi and Keita looked up at him, unsure of what point their brother or brother figure was trying to make.
So, Kotaro continued speaking. "We gave him food, we petted him, we let him into our homes many times..." He smiled slyly. "When our parents weren't around, of course."
Sachi nodded softly. "That's right..."
But Keita was still frustrated in his grief. "We-Well, w-we w-weren't th-th-there wh-when he...h-h-he..."
He couldn't say anymore, but Kotaro knew what he was going to say.
"We loved Mr. Midnight very much," Kotaro said compassionately, "and he loved us all very much. And if he loved us very much, then that's what his last thought was. Us..." The older boy patted Keita's shoulder. "Remember what Mom always said. No one dies alone. Not cats, not doggies, not bunnies, not even us. The memories of the ones that we love are with us to the very end. Is that right?"
Keita looked down at the ground and sadly nodded, while Sachi continued to look up at Kotaro with admiration. The older boy then glanced at the makeshift grave with a happy smile.
"Mr. Midnight's last thought was us. Not the car. And he'll still be with us forever, in our memories."
His assuaging words seemed to do very little to lift up the younger children's spirits, Keita in particular. But Kotaro wasn't fazed by this. Instead, he kept his eyes on Mr. Midnight's grave, thinking and thinking and thinking. And then, his eyes lit up with an optimistic, youthful energy, an energy that could only be spurred on by an idea that he got.
"Hey, I just got a great idea! Keita-chan, Sachi-chan?" He looked down at them. "Tomorrow, after school, let's go over to the park and leave a Memory Heart Message for Mr. Midnight. How does that sound?"
Sachi gasped, and her eyes lit up with delight. "O-Okay!" she cried, her smile shining through her tears. "That's a really great idea, Kota-nii!"
Keita looked at Sachi in awe for a moment, then he eagerly nodded. "Okay, Kota-niichan. We'll go leave a Memory Heart Message for Mr. Midnight! That way, he'll know how much we love him and miss him!"
"Alright!" Kotaro pumped a clenched fist of encouragement. "We will do it, then! Now, let's go home before we all catch a co...co... Ah...Ah...AH-CHOO!"
Spit and snot came flying out of Kotaro's mouth and nostrils before he could control himself. Fortunately, Sachi and Keita stepped of the way, and they watched while the older boy groaned and wiped his nose with reddening cheeks. Then, the groans turned into chuckling, which then turned into laughter.
And then, that laughter was joined by two others, which seamlessly melded together to replace the crying that had once filled the cold winter air.
– X-Y-X –
– January 21, 2025 –
Alfheim, Top of the World Tree
Present day
She thought that she had been running forever.
That was a feeling that raced through Asuna's mind several times while she ran down one walkway and onto another. The winding, snakelike branches of what Sugou once referred to as the World Tree were very much like a maze to the former KoB vice-commander. A maze designed to test every muscle in her leg and every pore in her body. Asuna hadn't endured such tests to her body since the boss battles in Aincrad.
But the thoughts of Kirito and Yui drove her to keep going, to keep running even if every last nerve in her feet protested, even if her heart threatened to break through her sternum, even if her own soul was on the verge of losing all hope.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of running, Asuna saw something ahead of the pathway she was running on at the moment. She forced herself to stop, and she hid behind one of the large, curling, root-like protrusions that bordered the pathway. Peeking out from the corner, the girl trained her hazel eyes on the thing that had attracted her attention.
"An opening..."
Indeed, there was a gaping mouth embedded into the spiraling trunk of the World Tree, a mouth into which the pathway led. Once she was sure no one was coming in or out of the opening, Asuna started running towards it, breaking her pace on occasion to cautiously hide behind corners afforded to her by the root-like protrusions.
It took her a few minutes to reach the opening, and when she did, she hid beside it and peered inside. It was a cave-like tunnel, but the artificial, mechanical door was evident on the other end. After taking another few moments to make sure the door wouldn't open and nobody would come out, Asuna ran deep into the tunnel and reached the door.
"Okay..." she thought as she started groping the door's cold surface. "There's gotta be a mechanism somewhere that can open this..."
A light of muted crimson quickly came into Asuna's peripheral vision, and she slowly, inquisitively looked at it. At first, it looked completely unremarkable, even though it was the only thing that stood out from the metallic-gray surface. Acting on instinct built over the last two years, Asuna unflinchingly raised her palm over the red light.
Her instinct proved to be correct: the red light reacted to the presence of her palm hovering over it, and it turned green. A split-second later, the metallic door opened up at a strikingly fast speed. Asuna gasped in terror and had to lunge her body towards one of the corners of the door to hide herself. Fortunately, she didn't hear anyone approaching, so the girl hesitantly peeked through the human-sized doorway.
It led into a long, winding hallway of bright, amber light, a startling contrast from the all-natural ambience that had been her surroundings for the past few months.
"What's this...?"
Despite her hesitation, Asuna took a step forward into the hallway, which turned into two steps, and then three...
Eventually, the door closed behind her.
BEGINNING OF ACT II: A TENDER FEELING
CHAPTER 14: COMBINATORICS
Scionus Castle, Scionus, Imp Territory
"Well, there's nothing more you can do for now. Lord Mauve's hard at work finding your friend, but it's going to take a bit of a while. I suggest you all go take care of anything else that you might have on your plate."
Kirito lowered his arms from the back of his head and stood at attention. Lync was standing in the doorway of the leisure room, his brow wrinkled slightly and his arms crossed. The rest of Kirito's group also instantly came to attention from the Imp captain's new announcement.
"Uh-uh," Kirito said sternly. "No way. We came here to find our friend, and we are not leaving until we get some concrete info on his whereabouts."
Lync blinked in surprise, but he maintained his composure as he replied, "Listen, I don't know how Lord Fjord was able to track down players for you, but Mauve is using absolutely every resource that she has at her disposal. Then again, this is the first time I can recall where someone's made such a request to her. I doubt she's got all of the kinks worked out just yet."
"Well, we have to find him! He's our only chance!"
"Only chance?" Lync blinked again, this time in confusion. "Only chance at what?"
"Wh-What he means is..." Agil cried while putting a hand on Kirito's shoulder to calm him down. "We'll just be logging off now."
"What?!" cried a stunned Kirito. "Agil-!"
The Gnome immediately shushed him. "Not now, Kirito!"
"Very well, then," Lync replied with a bow of his head. "You're all free to log out here. With the trust and backing of Lord Mauve, I can assure you that your avatars will be safe in this castle. After all...you did just save the Imps from complete humiliation at the Salamanders' hands..."
"Ahhh, think nothing of it!" Philia exclaimed with a thumbs-up. "Good seeing ya, Captain! Even if our first meeting wasn't exactly something to celebrate over..."
"Y-Yeah... A-And for that, you have my sincerest apologies." The Imp captain gave the group an awkward, stilted salute. "U-Until next time, then."
With that, he left the room, leaving Kirito and the others all to themselves. The Spriggan turned and prepared to protest when Agil spoke up again.
"I know what you're gonna say, Kirito. Look, you heard Lync. This thing is surely gonna take its time." The Gnome looked over his shoulder at Philia, before turning back to Kirito and lowering his voice. "Asuna can wait for us one more day."
"He's right, Daddy," Yui squeaked while emerging from Kirito's pocket and settling on his shoulder. "According to the ALO player demographic logs, there are a total of 1,574 players who picked the Imp race. They are in the middle tier of Fairy races in terms of popularity. Regardless of what her resources in finding specific players are going to be, Lord Mauve will have to sort through them all to find the correct one."
"Yeah, man," Klein added. "I think we've done enough for one day." He started stretching his arms with a tired groan. "I am all tuckered out too."
"Yeah, same here," replied Liz.
"Let's call it a day for now," Agil suggested. "Call it a day, and we'll log back in tomorrow all refreshed. Whaddaya say?"
"Sounds like a pretty fair deal," Klein responded.
"Yeah," Recon said drowsily as he was splayed out all over the couch. "I need some shut-eye..."
"You've..." Leafa began before her voice trailed off. She spent a brief moment to ruminate her next words, and then she said, "You've probably got someone waiting for you at home, Kirito. We'll get back to this tomorrow."
Kirito looked at all of his friends, and he could see that the events of today had completely taken the energy out of them. Even Sachi seemed entirely fulfilled at what they had done. He looked up at the ceiling and sighed heavily in defeat.
"Yeah, fine," the Spriggan said. "I think my sister's prepared dinner for me anyway. Can't let her food go to waste."
"Well, then I guess it's decided!" Agil exclaimed. He promptly summoned his menu, an act that was replicated by most of the others. "So, I guess I'll see y'all tomorrow?"
"See you tomorrow!" Klein cried with a friendly wave and a toothy grin.
"See ya!" added Liz with a cheerful smile, which she directed at Kirito at particular.
"Bye..." Recon replied drowsily.
"Later, Sachi," Sinon said in a tiny voice.
"Thank you, all of you," Kirito said, "for helping me get this far."
"Hey, no probs, Kirito!" Klein replied.
"What're friends for, anyway?" asked Agil.
With that, the quintet logged off at almost the exact same time, which left just Kirito, Sachi, Yui, Leafa, and Philia. Philia already had her menu open, but her index finger hovered aimlessly over the logout button. After taking a long second to consider her next move, she looked at Sachi.
"H-Hey, uh, Sachi?" the female Spriggan asked timidly.
Sachi looked at her and opened her mouth, only to be reminded of the sudden kiss that she shared with her. Even if she knew it was meant as a distraction and nothing more, she still blushed intensely in embarrassment and averted her gaze from Philia. The others, sans an oblivious Yui, blushed as well, recalling the awkward moment.
"I'm sorry for stealing your first kiss," Philia completed.
"I-It's alright..." Sachi replied bashfully. "I-I know what you were trying to do."
Then, Philia managed a playful grin. "H-Hey, if it makes you feel any better..." Her eyes briefly flitted to Kirito. "You...You are a pretty good kisser, if I say so myself."
"HUUUUUH?!"
Philia giggled at Sachi's outburst and then pressed the logout button, thereby leaving Kirito, Sachi, Yui, and Leafa in the room. Yui looked back and forth between the other three in confusion.
"I...I don't understand..." the «Navigation Pixie» said with a tilted head. "Why is everyone so flustered over a kiss? Didn't Philia admit that it was used just as a means of distraction?"
"W-Well..." Kirito replied nervously, "it's...it was the kind of kiss that...well, g-grownups would use to show that they love each other."
Sachi's face only turned redder at that description.
"Oh!" Yui squeaked cutely in realization. "Like the kinds of kisses that you and Mommy share?"
It was Kirito's turn to have his face grow redder. "H-Ho-How would you know that, Yui? Y-You never saw us ki-kiss!"
"But I can visualize it. You two love each other very much, after all. It's only natural that you two would've exchanged at least one such kiss. And you most certainly have! Am I right, Daddy?"
"Ye..." Kirito briefly looked at Sachi in guilt. "Yeah..."
The Undine's eyes remained covered with bangs of her hair. "You really love her...don't you, Kirito...?"
Kirito opened his mouth to respond, but no voice came out. He felt like he was stuck between two worlds: the warm and homely one in which Asuna resided, and the cool and quaint one where Sachi was waiting. He felt hopelessly trapped in a fence bordering those two worlds, even if the way to get out was easy.
Then, he remembered Yui's presence on his shoulder.
"Yes, I do," he replied mechanically. "V...Very much, Sachi."
"I see..." Sachi replied in striking monotone.
Leafa didn't say anything. Her own face was lowered, her eyes hidden away from the Spriggan and the Undine.
Then, Yui's innocent voice pierced the terrible silence. "Ohhhhh, now I understand why you're still uncomfortable by that kiss, Sachi! It was the kind that lovers used! You must've thought that it was not the most appropriate type of kiss to use in such a situation!"
Sachi couldn't help by chuckle. "Y-You could say that, Yui-chan..."
"Especially since you don't have any feelings for Philia!"
"Well, I mean...sh-she's a pretty-looking girl, but I'm not into her."
Yui tilted her head again like a confused puppy. "In...Into her...? I don't understand now, Sachi. You don't look like you're trying to enter her."
"I-It's just a phrase, Yui," Kirito interrupted while trying to stifle a snicker at Yui's unintentional innuendo. "W-What Sachi meant to say is that she doesn't like Philia. In a romantic sense."
"Oh, I understand now!" The «Navigation Pixie» looked back at Sachi, her beaming face absolutely glowing with childish excitement. "So, who are you into, Sachi?! Leafa, perhaps?!"
Both girls' faces were as red as cherries at that point. "WHAT?!" they shouted at the same time. "NO WAY!"
"Yui," Kirito whispered in slight exasperation, "don't go around pairing people up like that. It's not very respectful."
"Oh, right." Yui's wings drooped in disappointment. "Sorry, Daddy..."
"Good girl."
Then, Yui unobservantly added, "I forgot Leafa was into Recon anyway-"
"WHAAAAA?!" squealed Leafa.
The Spriggan sighed. "Okay, that's enough out of you, young lady."
He grabbed the «Navigation Pixie» and stuffed her back into his pocket, ignoring her pout of protest. Then, he smiled at Sachi and Leafa in gratitude.
"Thank you, you two," he said. He then focused on Leafa in particular. "Leafa...you decided to help us out even if you did not know much of what was going on. And for that, I am extremely grateful."
The Sylph turned away with a faint blush. "Oh, you know...it was nothing. I was...only doing it for Sachi."
Her eyes met Sachi's, and when the Undine beamed at her for her words, she turned away again. She quickly summoned her menu and pressed the logout button before anyone could say anything further. Kirito and Sachi watched in shock as her avatar disappeared in a flash of blue code.
"That was..." Kirito began.
"Weird," completed Sachi. Then, she shrugged it off and looked at Kirito, the only one left in the room with her outside of Yui. "Well, I gotta get going too. Sinonon is probably still waiting for me. I'll see you back here tomorrow?"
"Yeah." He nodded at her in affirmation. "I'll see you tomorrow...Sachi."
Sachi nodded back at him, brought up her menu, and made her way to the logout button mechanic. But before she could press it, something came to Kirito's mind, and his voice stopped her.
"Hey, Sachi?"
She looked at him, and the Spriggan could've sworn he saw a flash of hope briefly passing through her ocean-blue eyes.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"I just wanted to say..." He flashed her a teasing grin. "It was kinda fun watching you and Philia kiss."
She immediately pouted at him for his words. "Pervert."
He could only laugh heartily at that. Even so, Sachi gave him one last smile before logging off.
– X-Y-X –
Real World, Asada Apartment, Nishitōkyō
The first thing she saw was the promotional ALO poster depicting the Cait Sith.
Sachi sighed softly and removed the AmuSphere from her head. After gently setting it down beside her sleeping bag on the cold floor, she sat up and blankly looked into her own palms.
"You have to give him up, Sachi," she thought forcefully. Then, she narrowed her eyes in discomfort. "He's with someone else. Someone who loves him back... Someone who's waiting for him... Waiting for him... Maybe if I-"
Sachi caught herself and frantically shook her head in horror. Then, she looked up towards Shino's bed, hoping her friend would distract her from her troubles. Her exhaustion quickly turned into alertness when she saw her friend sitting upright on the bed mattress, clutching at her curled legs and burying her face in her thighs.
"Sinonon?!"
Sachi quickly sprung on top of the bed beside Shino and took her shoulder in one hand while using the other to warmly, gently stroke her back. Immediately, she felt her friend's trembling form, and the terrible memories of her sitting in the police precinct, emotionally broken, returned to her mind.
"Are you alright, Sinonon?" Sachi asked.
To her relief, Shino was able to utter a response. "Sachi...?"
"Yes, Sinonon? What is it? You know you can tell me anything."
"...Do...Do you not...like me...?"
Sachi blinked in surprise. "Wh-What're you talking about, Sinonon? Of course I like you! You're my friend, after all!"
Her words were met with a cold silence. Sachi felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach, and her mind began to swim with all sorts of possibilities over what that could mean and whether or not she misspoke.
"Please tell me I didn't lose her!" she thought frantically. "God, please tell me I didn't lose her! I can't lose her! Not when I've already lost..."
Then, Sachi's terror was assuaged when she felt the trembling subside. Shino finally lifted her face from her thighs, and she looked at her, her dark eyes as clear as day to Sachi now that she wasn't wearing glasses. And she could see every last trace of brokenness and vulnerability in her pupils, qualities that reminded her of herself when she was still trapped in SAO.
"Then..." Shino said in a low voice, "could you...please stay with me...for the night...?"
"Stay with you...?" A warm smile then formed upon Sachi's lips; no further explanation was needed for her to make the decision. "O-Of course. Of course, Sinonon. Just give me a moment to call Tetsuhiko and Kotone."
The teenage girl got off the bed and walked over to her bag where her cellphone was. She could feel Shino's eyes on her all the while.
– X-Y-X –
Alfheim, Scionus Castle, Scionus, Imp Territory
"Sachi's very nice. I like her."
Kirito cracked a smile while Yui reemerged from his breast pocket and flew around for a bit. Then, in a flash of light, she transformed from the minuscule «Navigation Pixie» into the normal-sized young girl that he loved and adored.
"She has a kind heart," she continued. "Like you and Mommy!"
"Ye-Yeah," Kirito replied with a smile that almost seemed dreamy. "She sure does..." Then, without thinking about it, the Spriggan blurted out, "You wanna consider her part of the family?"
Yui's eyes shone with childlike delight. "Of course! She'll be my..." Her brow became scrunched in concentration. "Ohhh, what was the word?" Then, the light in her eyes returned. "Oh! Auntie!"
Kirito blinked in surprise, and he cracked a smaller grin of apprehension. "Yeah, Auntie... Auntie Sachi... That...That rolls off the tongue well..."
"Yes!"
A giggling Yui excitedly twirled around, swiveling her body around on one heel while holding her arms out. She looked so innocent and childlike in that moment that it made Kirito's heart ache with immense regret.
"She will be Auntie Sachi!" she declared childishly. "She's going to be so excited!"
"I bet she will..." Kirito replied apprehensively. Then, he forced a warm smile upon his face. "And what about the others? Klein, Agil, Liz, Leafa, all the others? Are they your aunts and uncles too?"
"Uncles? Oh, you mean the male counterpart to 'aunt'." Yui took a moment to think about it. "Well...I suppose."
"You...suppose?"
"I haven't had a chance to read their personalities in full detail. I understand that Klein is a hopeless womanizer-"
"He'd blow his top if he heard you say that," Kirito interjected with a twitching eyelid of amusement.
"But other than that, I need a moment to evaluate each and every one of them."
"Evaluate? You make it sound like you're trying to run background checks on them or something!"
"Of course, Daddy!" Yui stubbornly crossed her arms like a protective guardian. "I cannot have anyone tearing my family apart! I want us all to live together happy and safe, in your cabin! You and me and Mommy and Auntie Sachi and all the others! I want nothing more!"
Her words brought even more ache to Kirito's heart. The Spriggan struggled to keep a grimace at bay as he approached his daughter, knelt down on one knee so he could be at an equal height to her, and gently stroked her hair, earning a coo of content from her.
"We will, Yui," he said. "I promise you that."
Yui simply giggled in response. With that, the Spriggan stood back up and summoned his menu.
"Alright. I have to go now. You go sleep on one of those couches while you wait for us. Will you be alright without me?"
The girl nodded. "Mm-hm. I just need to stay out of sight of any strange players."
"Good." As soon as he found the logout button, Kirito patted Yui's head for one last time. "I'll be back soon, I promise."
She nodded again. "Okay. Good night, Daddy."
He gave his daughter a parting smile, and then he pressed the button. A moment later, he saw a bright flash of light, and then...
Real World, Kirigaya Residence, Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture
He opened his eyes with a low groan, and he was Kazuto again.
The adolescent boy sat up on his squeaky bed and slowly, carefully removed his NerveGear helmet. He set the device on his lap and started absentmindedly at it. His eyes traced the faded NerveGear logo and the empty console lights.
"What the hell am I doing...?" he asked to himself.
– X-Y-X –
In the outside hallway, Suguha stood before the door leading to Kazuto's bedroom. She heard his return to the real world and had been listening in. The girl felt her own chest tightening up, and she lifted both hands to clasp them directly over her heart.
"Leafa...you decided to help us out even if you did not know much of what was going on. And for that, I am extremely grateful."
"Oh, you know...it was nothing. I was...only doing it for Sachi."
She then reached into the pocket of her shorts and procured the spy-camera that she found in the bushes by the kitchen window. She had removed its batteries and secondary solar panel-based charging device a long time ago, but if what her recent foray into technology told her was correct, then it was clear that whoever employed the device had already figured out their cover was blown.
"What the hell am I gonna tell him now?" she thought grimly. "Oh sorry, but I'm Leafa. I was Leafa all along and decided not to tell you because I was afraid of revealing a lot about me...a lot about us in the process. But I may have blown our search for Asuna in ALO by finding this spy-camera outside our house..."
Her grip tightened around the spy-camera, threatening to crush it. Then, with pursed lips, the teenager forcibly stuffed it back into her pocket and walked away from Kazuto's bedroom door, making sure not to make a sound as she left.
"No. No. I'm not gonna leave my onii-chan again. I'm not gonna leave him to die again. I'm gonna get to the bottom of this myself. That, I promise..."
– X-Y-X –
Unknown location
Asuna tiptoed along the brightly lit, golden hallway. The soles of her feet, left shoeless for what seemed like an eternity, had long become accustomed to the cold, smooth, glossy surface of the floor. She clung to the wall like it was a lifeline as it turned a corner in a seamless manner, like it was leading the chestnut-haired girl down a circular path. Asuna had been clinging onto the wall for hours, hours that chipped away her resolve and her patience.
"How far does this hallway go...?" she eventually thought in exasperation.
Then, after a few more minutes of tiptoeing, Asuna saw that the corner was finally coming to an end. She slowly peeked her head out from behind it, and she saw nothing but more of the same hallway. But this time, her heart did not fill with despair, for she saw something that stood out from the golden walls that she had become accustomed to.
Asuna ran up to it, a circular, multicolored symbol with three squares protruding from it. She'd never seen anything like it before, which only commanded her attention and analysis even further. She was really quick to notice the Japanese kanji and English captions denoting certain segments of the symbol, which were divided by solid white lines and varied in size. Then, the texts themselves drew her attention.
"Observation room?" Asuna mentally read in confusion. "Ground level access? Assistant's office? This symbol, it's..." Her heart leapt in delight. "It's a map!" Her hazel eyes started to dance about, trying to find certain kanji and words. "Where is it?! There's got to be a main system console where I can log out!"
She finally saw something that intrigued her, and the girl leaned closer so she could accurately read the minuscule text.
"«Yggdrasil» access point...?"
Asuna was about to determine where the access point was when another kanji came to her attention. Her pupils flitted to it, and then to the text that it was a component of. It denoted a certain conspicuous block that was located in the upper left-hand corner of the circular symbol.
"Experiment...hangar...?" she read with realization.
"Did you know that by expanding the brain's control regions, one could...influence a person's thoughts, emotions, and memories?"
"The only thing standing in the way is finding people to experiment on."
"It wasn't too difficult to adjust the routers. The minute SAO's players were logged out, I just grabbed a few from the flow. Just like that, I had 300 of my very own test subjects."
"The experiment hangar..." Asuna thought again. "Those SAO players who have not yet been freed, that may be where they're being kept! That may be where Sugou's torturing them! I...I should..."
Her body suddenly tensed up, encouraged by innate signals from her brain urging her to seek out her own freedom. But her heart stubbornly continued to tug her in another direction, motivating her to go and save the remaining SAO players however she could. Memories of Kirito and Yui clashed with her intense sympathy for the other trapped players, players whose fate she was currently sharing.
"No," she thought determinedly. "I have to do something! I can't just abandon these players to this lunatic!"
And so, Asuna began to run in the direction of the experiment hangar, whilst shoving all thoughts about her escape into the back of her mind.
– X-Y-X –
Alfheim, Helmstok Inn, Neutral Territory
"I mean Umbra's dead! I went to his place yesterday, just like you said! But he never answered the door or his phone, so I just assumed he went out to get his AmuSphere fixed after it glitched out on him! But when I returned earlier today, I found the place being infested with cops! And the coroner was there too!"
"Well, as soon as we post a strange photo on the Internet, Umbra dies because of a conveniently damaged AmuSphere!"
"Perhaps I can help you guys out on one of those missions you go out on! That'll be fun! Getting to see hidden stuff, like that girl in the birdcage that you talked about..."
"Oh! Welcome back, Eiji-kun!"
Yuna's voice pulled Eiji out of his thoughts. He couldn't even remember closing the door behind him a mere second ago, while being met with the lovely sight of Yuna using her oft-needed Cooking Skills to make some food that she apparently bought at the local marketplace. A fragrant aroma hung in the air, a stark contrast to the kind of smells that Eiji had long associated with Yuna's old residence in Aincrad.
"Did you find anything that tastes like my favorite lozenges?" asked the girl with the milk-tea-brown hair.
"Huh?" Then, Eiji recalled the deal he struck with her. "No, I didn't. Sorry, Yuna."
His heart fluttered at the sight of her soft, forgiving smile. "Ahhh, it's alright. The Earth wasn't made in a day, after all. I can wait on that." She resumed stirring the steaming pot. "How'd your day go with your friends? Did you guys have to do anymore...er, what'd you call it? Shootin'?"
"Launching," corrected Eiji. Then, he grimaced at the memory of Squiggle's panicked revelation. "And...no, we did not do any of that today. Um...Umbra's issues...st-still needed fixing."
"Oh, that's a shame." Yuna shook her head in disappointment while she looked into the pot. "Maybe you should tell your friends that you know someone who specializes in fixing VR gear. You still have your old NerveGear unit, right?"
"Well...ye-yeah, but..." Eiji narrowed his eyes in discomfort. "I stuffed it away somewhere at my place. I...I don't wanna look at that thing ever again..."
"Why not? I've got mine sitting at the top of my shelf, looking down on me."
Eiji tried his best to crack a wry smile. "Sounds a lil' creepy, if you ask me."
"I'm serious, Eiji-kun!" The girl fondly looked out of the window. "Those two years that we all spent trapped in SAO, they are two years of our life that we're never gonna get back. I understand if you choose to think of that time period in such a way. But...we made the most out of those two years too. I finally made use of my love of music and singing to inspire hope in others, and you overcame your inner demons to become a great, brave warrior fighting for everyone's freedom."
"A great, brave warrior..." Eiji's smile, already halfhearted in quality, faltered and quickly faded away. "That, I never was. I just froze up in fear every time."
Yuna whipped her head at him. "But that was something completely out of your control, Eiji-kun! Your NerveGear had a FullDive nonconformity problem! You said so yourself!"
"Even so, Yuna..." His face fell, and a gloomy darkness spread through his eyes. "I-I was scared, every time I froze up... How...? How could I expect to protect you if that's all I could ever do in the face of danger...?"
A deathly silence entered the room, enveloping both adolescents. They stood there, rooted to the spot, while Yuna's pot continued to boil and emit a fragrant steam. Then, after a few minutes that seemed like an eternity, Yuna's leg muscles moved, unbidden, and she approached her friend, who was increasingly lost in thought. She cupped his chin between her thumb and index finger, and she tenderly lifted his face so his eyes could meet hers.
"Is that why you've been hanging out with those new friends of yours and helping them out on their missions?" the milk-tea-brown-haired girl asked. "So you could get stronger?"
"So that I could protect you..." Eiji clarified. His voice was so low that it sounded like he was trying to affirm it to himself than confirm it to her.
"So...So that you could...protect me?"
Eiji's elongated sigh of defeat was all the confirmation she needed, apparently.
"Eiji-kun...you know it's not your fault that I died in SAO. It never was."
"But..." The boy clenched his fists tightly. "It was. I tried. I tried so hard to get to you, Yuna, I really did."
"I know you did. I know." Yuna took his hands in hers, and she could feel them trembling. "But I made the choice to lure those minions away from the Boss. I chose my fate then and there, and there was nothing that you could've done to take it back or alter my course. I had no regrets back then, and I certainly don't have any regrets over it now. So please, Eiji-kun..." She squeezed his hands, and she could feel the trembling subside. "Please don't live your life with regrets either. I am asking you of this as your loving friend."
The last three words caused Eiji to freeze up and lower his face again. Yuna seemed to sense this, for her body tensed up in worry, which he sensed in turn. With a quiet but deep breath, Eiji raised his face again and delivered her a stiff smile.
"Thank you, Yuna," he said. "Thank you...for being you."
Yuna continued to stare at him with concern for an unbroken minute. Then, her face broke out into another warm smile, and she nodded in affirmation.
"You're welcome, Eiji-kun," she said. Then, the girl playfully winked at him. "Well then, I hope this means that you have decided to drop the overprotective dad image you've so painstakingly cultivated!"
"Heh heh heh..." The boy shook his head. "Again with the comparisons between me and your dad. I'm not too sure what exactly brought this up, but-"
He was silenced by Yuna's raised index finger, which she wagged at him.
"One of these days, Eiji-kun," she said, her teasing voice laced with a hint of genuine seriousness. "One of these days, I am gonna trap you and my father in the same room. You can hash out your differences there and then. Unless you want to take the initiative yourself?" When Eiji scowled in response, she added, "Come on, Eiji-kun. You wanted to protect me, right? Well, make amends with my father. Put an end to all of this. And find something, anything in ALO that tastes a lot like my lozenges. You promise?"
Realizing Yuna would not let the topic go otherwise, the defeated Eiji took another, louder deep breath...and uttered out his response.
"Yes, Yuna. I promise." Then, he quickly added, "But only if you promise me not to leave Helmstok! Alright?!"
Yuna made a dismissive wave with her hand. "Yeah, yeah, I know."
"Yuna, do you promise me that?"
"I already did, Eiji-kun, but for you, I'll do it again." She dramatically held up her hand as if she was making a pledge. "I promise not to leave Helmstok until Eiji-kun expressly instructs otherwise." Then, she winked at him. "There! We good?"
Eiji cracked a smile of amusement. "Yeah. We're good."
"Alright! Now, let's eat! I hope you enjoy it!"
– X-Y-X –
– January 22, 2025 –
Real World, Asada Apartment, Nishitōkyō
"Kirito..."
It had been a while since Sachi had some alone time.
"Kirito..."
The events of the last couple of months had left her with a blooming desire for intimacy, the touch of someone, anyone. Particularly him.
"Kirito..."
The desire proved to be so hot and burdening that, in an act of desperation, she quickly capitalized on Shino being in the bathroom when the dam finally broke.
"Kiritooooo..."
And God, did it feel so good, even if it was just all by herself. All she had to do was imagine him, and the rest was easy.
After all, she wanted him. So badly at this point.
"Kirito, Kiri-"
"'Kay, Sachi. It's your turn to-"
Shino's voice sent a cold shiver up Sachi's entire body. Her shock paralyzed her, overwhelming her in all of its ferocity. It was like she was a child caught doing something forbidden by their parent. She could do nothing but lie there in the bed, Shino's bed, while staring at her friend with awkward terror. And Shino stared back, equally paralyzed, unsure of what to do or how to react.
Eventually, reality returned to the forefront of Sachi's mind, and she used Shino's covers to conceal herself.
"Si...Sinonon..." she mumbled in embarrassment.
A blank, hollow look suddenly appeared on Shino's face, and the bespectacled girl started walking towards the kitchen.
"Oh, don't mind me," she said with a cold voice.
"Sinonon..." Sachi uttered.
But she didn't know what else to say. She could only watch, sweaty and with her heart beating as fast as a jackhammer, as her friend departed for the kitchen.
– X-Y-X –
Unknown location
Using her memory of the map that she found, Asuna found the experiment hangar after what seemed like an eternity of running and running. She slowly, carefully approached the door and held out a hand that was trembling more and more by the minute. As soon as her fingertips touched the door handle, Asuna quickly felt a minuscule jolt of static electricity, which was nevertheless enough to stun her and make her hesitate for a moment.
"Do I even want to open that door...?" she thought. "I don't know even know what I'm going to find in there..."
Thoughts of all sorts of scenarios zoomed through the adolescent's head at lightning-fast speeds. Many, many scenarios, none of which she wanted to entertain. Nevertheless, her courage and her detestation of Sugou overrode any feelings of terror and uncertainty.
So, she took the handle, held it tightly in her hand, and opened the door.
The moment she opened it by an inch, she saw movement behind the door...and heard voices.
"Huh?! What do you mean Yanai called in sick today?!"
Asuna gasped and hid behind the wall, hoping that nobody noticed her movements outside. Fortunately, she didn't hear any reactions to the ajar door, and the sounds of movement that she heard didn't change one bit.
"I mean Yanai called in sick today," a second voice replied. "Just out of the blue like that. Totally unprofessional."
"And you want me to fill in for him? You do know I already have a job to do here."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, but the boss is cranking up the schedule, and we gotta move. After that wacky murder at the Toto Institute, the potential of cops breathing down our necks just went up."
Asuna gasped at the revelation. "Murder? At the Toto Institute? Father has friends there..." She clenched her fists in fury. "So you're not above murder, huh Sugou? You're gonna pay for this even more now..."
"They know nothing, Azumaya," the first voice snarled.
"They may not, but the boss's intel just told us that that pesky member of the SAO Victims Rescue Task Force is involved in the investigation. Since, you know, the victim at Toto helped design the White Star? So, it won't be long till they make a connection to our little experiments."
The first voice heaved out an exasperated sigh. "I'm scheduled to dive back into the game in another couple of hours-"
"Then let's put those couple of hours to good use," the second voice interrupted. "Come ooooon, man! Didn't you say you had somebody under your finger down there in that game?"
"But she doesn't know the ins and outs of being a-"
"Wait, wait, hold that thought! Subject 297 is showing some pretty interesting brain patterns."
Asuna heard the disgusting noise of sludge moving away, followed by a set of footsteps. Then, the footsteps stopped just a second later, causing her heart to skip a beat in terror.
"Oh, no! Does he see the open door?! I gotta move-"
Then, to her relief, she heard the first voice angrily mutter to himself, "Damn, where the hell's my access keycard? Urgh, I probably left it at the main system console..."
Asuna's heart leapt with relief. "There's a main system console in there!"
"Yo, Shiokawa!" the second voice called. "Come over here!"
"That's not my actual name, you know..." grumbled the first voice.
"Yeah, yeah, do you have your word processor tool in handy? Subject 297's thoughts are straying to her cat again. Pina, I think its name was. I need someone to jot that down."
"Don't you have a word processor of your own?" Shiokawa asked.
"Hey, I am trying to readjust the circuits over here. For your info, Subject 297 has a tendency of going off-script. I've got my hands full trying to control her as it is."
"Don't you mean tentacles?" Then, Shiokawa heaved out a sigh. "Fine, fine, I'm coming, I'm coming..."
Asuna heard the same set of footsteps again, and this time, they were louder, accentuating Shiokawa's unhappiness. As soon as they faded away, she seized her chance to approach the door and slowly open it. Once she did, she was greeted with a truly horrifying sight, one that forced her to cover her mouth with her hands to suppress a gasp.
It was indeed a large hangar, filled with row after row after row of capsular consoles. Every last console was projecting a 3D holographic image of a human brain, annotated with several gauges and other readings. As soon as she laid her eyes on that hangar, Asuna knew exactly what she was looking at.
"I don't believe it... They're all...players..."
Even as she was horrified, Asuna slowly walked into the hangar, her hands still over her mouth. As she approached, she could distinctly read some of the gauges. They were measuring all sorts of emotions and receptors, and the readings all varied depending on the human brain in question. And with every measurement, the hangar was filled with cold beeping noises, all of them melding together to create a horrible orchestra befitting of an unsanctioned scientific experiment. The unethicality of it all was laid bare to Asuna, for her to absorb and be repulsed by.
And then, an image of a triumphant, manically grinning Sugou with a human brain in his hand flashed through her mind.
"Oh, my God..." Asuna thought. "This is horrible..." Then, her horror slowly turned into hatred. "He won't get away with this. Not if I can do anything about it."
She approached one of the consoles and stared deeply into the human brain it was experimenting on.
"Don't worry," she whispered gently. "It'll be okay. I'm gonna save you. No matter what."
And so, after taking one last, cursory look over her shoulder, Asuna started running past the rows of consoles, in search of the main system console. She didn't hear any surprised outbursts, indicating that she wasn't spotted.
Then, after what seemed like many minutes of running, the chestnut-haired girl finally spotted something just up ahead. It looked like some sort of ebony-black cube, suspended in midair by an unknown force. Her heart started to beat faster with joy, as the sight of the cube triggered memories of the time she, Kirito, and Yui were trapped inside the white room with the black GM console.
"There it is. The system console."
Asuna eventually reached it, and once she did, she took one last look over her shoulder. Almost immediately, her fair skin crawled at the sight of two beings in the distance. One was distinctly human-shaped, though she could not make out any distinguishing features; while the other was clearly a gigantic pink slug with multiple tentacles protruding from its body. Fortunately, neither appeared to see her, for they were walking in another direction, but Asuna knew better than to linger and find out for sure.
With that, she glanced at the cube hovering in front of her. To her surprise, she quickly saw a keycard still slotted into its side, left there unattended and conspicuous.
"That must be Shiokawa's access keycard. I could use it to get out of here!"
Asuna took the card, but as soon as she did, she hesitated to swipe it against the cube's side. With quivering lips, the girl shut her eyes and tightened her grip around the keycard.
"Please work!"
She finally swiped it. At first, there was no response. Then, about a second later, the action triggered a menu to pop up. Asuna gasped in relief and started scrolling through the menu in search of a logout button.
"This is the main console menu," she muttered to herself. "There's gotta be a way to get out of here-"
"HEY!"
Asuna's heart froze at the yell. She twirled around with a gasp and saw Shiokawa and Azumaya, both of whom had now finally noticed her. The one using the human avatar was running towards her and seemed to be reaching for a sword, as the one using the slug avatar trailed behind him. However, they were still a considerable distance away from her, giving her enough time to do something. Swallowing her fears, Asuna turned back to the menu and continued to scroll through the menu.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"
"I've still got some time," Asuna thought while beads of sweat started to run down her temples. "I can still escape."
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
"I can still find the logout button."
She then dared to look behind her, and she saw the man charging at her in a blur of white and blue. He was getting close now.
"STOP THIS NOW!"
She looked back at the menu, just in time to see a button that read, 'LEAVE EXPERIMENT HANGAR.'
"It's not a logout button, but this is close enough! Here goes!"
"RRRRRAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!"
She pressed a button, and before she could feel the man's sword pierce through the her, her vision was filled with a burst of brilliant golden light...
– X-Y-X –
Alne, Neutral Territory, Base of the World Tree
"Come on, Eiji-kun. You wanted to protect me, right? Well, make amends with my father. Put an end to all of this. And find something, anything in ALO that tastes a lot like my lozenges. You understand?"
"I hope Eiji-kun listens to me this time..."
Yuna felt her wings give one last flutter before they disappeared. Then, with an exhale, she looked around with a bright smile, admiring the sights and sounds of Alfheim's largest and most bustling city. She especially enjoyed the sight of the players of all nine races mingling with one another in the central plaza like there was no Grand Quest to complete. It had been a while since she had actually been in the city, behind Eiji's back, so she had to return there.
After all, it was a place free from violence and conflict. Her kind of place.
"But only if you promise me not to leave Helmstok! Alright?!"
"I promise not to leave Helmstok until Eiji-kun expressly instructs otherwise."
"I'm sorry, Eiji-kun," the Pooka thought as she procured her custom guitar, the fruits of her secret labor. "I know I broke my promise. But you're much more like my father than you think. And I need this moment...to shine!"
With that, she began to play her guitar...and sing.
"You offered me your gentle words, and embraced me in times of loneliness..."
She started to glow a bright golden color, and her gentle voice started to echo through the central plaza. Everyone in the square turned towards her, and many started to smile with awe and admiration.
"Hey, it's that Pooka bard!" a Salamander exclaimed.
"She's back!" cried a Gnome. "Holy crap, she's actually back!"
"We love you, Yuna!" an Undine hollered excitedly. "Whoop, whoop!"
Yuna ignored the cheering and hollering and simply continued to sing, letting her heart guide her words.
"There were sad times, but we shared the short-lived joys of spring between the two of us."
By that point, a considerable crowd had begun to congregate around Yuna in the plaza. Some continued to cheer praises to the Pooka, others used their Magic to conjure improvisational glow-sticks to wave around, and most just sat there and listened intently to Yuna's song.
"Before my time comes to an end, I searched for the words I wanted to leave behind, to that person who's ever so far away. I simply repeated 'thank you'. That's all that needs to reach your heart."
It did not take long for Yuna's voice to reach the entirety of Alne and fill its skies. Somewhere, anywhere in the city, the hundreds of players within its borders could hear and relish in the soothing, angelic voice, while even a few NPCs, guided by their automated responses, were triggered to react to the music with elation.
"O heart, please fly far away, through the sky, and convey this smile to my dearest. I hope that I can leave behind, ever so gently, only a warmth in your chest that's like the vestiges of the fading spring.
"Smile for you."
In the plaza, Yuna finally finished her song, and the audience broke into a storm of cheers and applause. She smiled and bowed her head in elation at the joy and love that she was inspiring in the Alne populace. Then, the next several minutes were spent with her fans approaching her to shake her hand, get some sort of autograph from her, or at least acquire her number. The Pooka reciprocated all of the positive attention as best as she could, saying words of encouragement to the players and politely turning down any pleas to date them, from boys and girls alike.
Eventually, once the crowd dispersed and she attended to the last of her fans, Yuna was quick to initiate her escape plan. Before anybody else could have the chance to recognize her and talk to her, she equipped a special white cloak that she bought while out on a secret excursion in Alne many months ago. Wearing it over her entire body and drawing the large hood over her head, the Pooka stealthily strolled through the pedestrian pathways of Alne in plain sight. She made sure to stick to the larger crowds, where more people would be more preoccupied with other tasks at hand and therefore less likely to notice her.
"Hopefully I get back to Helmstok before Eiji-kun returns and finds out that I'm gone," she thought. She briefly looked at her surroundings and then moved to remove her cloak. "Maybe I can start flying now-"
"You need to calm down, Pyre."
"How the hell am I supposed to do that, Eiji?!"
Yuna held back a gasp and refrained from removing her cloak. Using her peripheral vision, the Pooka idol saw a group of players entering the same pedestrian walkway as her. They consisted of a Gnome, a Leprechaun, a Salamander...and an awfully familiar Imp.
"Eiji..." she thought with realization.
"It's like Squiggle said," Eiji said exasperatedly. "What happened to Umbra isn't going to happen to us."
"HA!" spat the Salamander. "What are you, RECT's PR person?! I ain't buying all that official BS! After the SAO Incident, one faulty AmuSphere is enough to be a goddamn bad omen!"
"You're just overreacting-"
"How the hell am I overreacting when Umbra's frigging-!"
By that point, the group was standing just a couple of feet away from Yuna. She kept her back on them, and she held on to the sides of her hood to prevent it from falling away and revealing her identity. With the close distance between them, she could hear Pyre cutting himself off, looking around, and then whispering to his teammates in a low voice.
"When Umbra's frigging dead, dude?!"
Yuna had to suppress another gasp of horror. "Hold on! One of Eiji-kun's friends...is dead? From...From the AmuSphere? H-How? I thought that it was supposed to be safe?!"
"Look, Umbra wouldn't want us to freak out, Pyre," the Gnome said consolingly.
"Well, how the hell should I know, Orceus?!" Pyre spat. "I've only known the guy for a couple of months!" He glanced at the Leprechaun. "Squiggle, you're friends with the guy IRL! What would he have wanted us to do?!"
"I think he'd want us to continue on as usual," the Leprechaun replied calmly.
Pyre scowled at him. "You know, you sure seem pretty spry for a guy who lost his IRL friend less than 24 hours ago."
Squiggle remained calm and collected, perhaps a little too much. "I'm only doing what he would've wanted me to do. I'm honoring his memory."
Yuna blinked in confusion while she continued to eavesdrop on the conversation. "Eiji-kun's friend...died yesterday? Then that would explain the weird look he had on his face when he returned home then! So...why didn't he tell me...?"
"The news isn't saying much at the moment, but...I'm hearing rumors floating around the institute. Dr. Yonemoto's pacemaker apparently suffered what they believe to be a catastrophic failure."
"A catastrophic failure? Pacemakers don't just fail on you, not with today's technology. And not in the way you describe."
"Yes, yes they don't. And...judging by the way he was talking to Kikuoka, it sounds like Dr. Yonemoto's death was not an accident, but rather murder."
"First Dr. Yonemoto, and now Eiji-kun's friend..." she thought. "That...That can't be a coincidence, right? Is that why Eiji-kun didn't say anything about this? Does he think these two deaths are related somehow?"
"Some friend you are," Pyre spat derisively.
"Hey, calm down, Pyre," growled Eiji. "You're not helping."
"Yeah?!" The Salamander crossed his arms. "Well, until we get an answer to all of this, I am NOT gonna calm down! I am gonna keep positively freaking out till I hear some actual transparency coming out of RECT's mouth and not its ass!"
Then, as if on Pyre's cue, a bright white light started to shine in the middle of the walkway, surprising all of the players in sight. Yuna had to impulsively draw her hood further over her eyes to shield them from the shining light. The strange ray of light shone brighter and brighter by the minute, until finally, it disappeared in a flash, punctuated by a strange grunt.
In the place of the light stood a teenage girl with chestnut hair. She wore a white outfit with a long white skirt and a thin, provocative crop-top that showed off her smooth shoulders and midriff, fastened together with only a crimson ribbon that went around her top and was styled into a bow. To Yuna and Eiji's surprise, the girl was completely barefoot.
Moreover, the girl looked absolutely familiar to them. In fact, it didn't take long for either one of them to reach the same realization.
"No way!" Yuna thought with her hands clasped over her mouth. "Is that-?!"
"The vice-commander...?" thought a mortified Eiji.
– X-Y-X –
Real World, Kawagoe Shiritsu Kawagoe Daiichi Junior High School
Suguha strolled out of the junior high school grounds, carrying her wooden shinai behind her back as usual. However, for once in her life, the bag containing her trusty weapon felt a lot heavier on her back. She subconsciously patted her skirt pocket, where she briefly imagined the spy-camera to be at. A split-second later, she remembered that she had already hidden it in the safety of her bedroom drawers, underneath her own underwear. A place where Kazuto wouldn't even find it, unless he was an extreme sis-con.
"I've gotta find out where that camera came from," she thought with narrowing eyes. "And who used it to spy on us. The camera should have some sort of unique serial number, right? If I could just find it and have someone check it out, then I could perhaps find out who bought it-"
"Hey, Leafa!"
Suguha yelped and nearly fell over in shock when Shinichi jumped in front of her out of nowhere, his eyeglasses glinting and his fists clenched. She impulsively reached for her shinai, only to realize who it was when the boy recoiled and held out his hands in surrender.
"I'm sorry, Leaf- er, I-I mean, Ki-Ki-Kirigaya-san!" he wailed, sounding less resolute and determined than he did a mere moment ago. "I'm so, so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you like that!"
"Guh!" With a twitching eyelid, Suguha lowered her arm away from the shinai. "Idiot... What kind of moron jumps out in front of a girl like that unannounced? If anyone else saw this, Nagata, they'd think you were a shameless pervert."
"We-Well, I-I'm not!"
Suguha's eyelid twitched again. "Says the creep who tried to ogle me, Sachi, and Sinon in the hot springs."
"I told you, I wasn't looking! And it was misty otherwise, so I wouldn't have seen anything even if I wanted to!" Then, he shook his head, his glasses bobbing over the ridge of his nose as he did so. "An-Anyway, th-that's beside the point! I just wanted to talk to you!"
"Hm?" Suguha's hostile expression slackened. "Talk to me?"
"Yeah! A-About ALO!"
The girl crossed her arms. "What about it? And if you're gonna whine about how potentially rescuing Asuna is gonna spoil the game for you, then-"
"No, it's not about that!" Shinichi interrupted. "It's about something totally different! ...Well, it's a little related, but-"
"Spit it out already."
"It's about the Convention of the Nine that Lord Fjord wanted."
This caught Suguha's attention immediately. "What about it?"
Shinichi looked over his shoulder to check if anyone was eavesdropping, before whispering, "Don't you feel that all of it's a little too convenient?"
"There's no one around who'd be interested in what you have to say, Nagata," Suguha replied coldly. "You can speak in a normal voice. Here, you walk with me."
She took the boy's shoulder and half-dragged him along as she continued to walk away from the school. At first, Shinichi was stunned by this move, but eventually, he calmed down and started to match her pace with his.
"I don't understand why you feel weird about this Convention of the Nine," the girl commented. "It's a good sign that the Grand Quest is heading in an ideal direction. Hopefully, a mutual understanding could be reached between all nine races, and we can figure out a way to finally achieve the Grand Quest without any more of this ridiculous interracial fighting."
"Y-Yes, I do think that course of action would be ideal!" replied Shinichi. "But...didn't it strike you as odd that Lord Fjord seemed...overconfident that it would be happening?"
"You heard him back then. He said he wanted to think outside the box to complete the Grand Quest."
"But it sounded like he'd already been banking on Lord Mauve to switch sides and help him get one step closer to calling for the Convention. Don't you think?"
"I have filed initiation proceedings for the Convention of the Nine, and my action already has the support of Lords Sakuya and Alicia."
"The...The Convention of the Nine? But...the votes of five Lords are needed to officially initiate it!"
"Indeed. And I was hoping you and Mortimer could make it five."
The exchange between Fjord and Mauve echoed in Suguha's mind, and it caused her to stop walking.
"Come to think of it..." she said, "Sakuya and Alicia did look uncomfortable when Fjord said he already had their support in calling for the Convention."
"Yeah!" Shinichi replied. "I noticed that too!" He clenched both of his fists in determination. "Something's not right here, Leafa! I just know it! And we gotta get to the-"
"Hold up right there, Nagata," Suguha interrupted coldly. "First off, don't call me that name in public. Last warning."
"S-Sorry, Le- er, K-Kirigaya-san!"
"Hrrrrrmmmmmphhh... Second off...just because Sakuya and Alicia were both uncomfortable with the idea of supporting Fjord's proposed Convention, it doesn't mean that there's something ominous going on in secret." She ignored Shinichi's moan of protest and continued, "And I doubt that Fjord knew Lord Mauve was gonna switch sides in the end. One wrong move and we could've botched the whole thing. The Imps' alliance with the Salamanders would've been strengthened. I don't think Fjord would've allowed his plan to call for a Convention ride on so much chance."
"W-Well, maybe he was counting on Sachi, then!" suggested Shinichi.
Suguha blinked, and she felt bitterness well up inside of her. "Sachi?"
"Yeah! You know how she has a way of inspiring people!" The bespectacled boy suddenly started to blush, which served to irritate Suguha further. "M-Maybe Fjord knew this and wanted to exploit it! He figured that Sachi would be the one to-"
"Is that your rationale speaking? Or is that your crush on Sachi?"
Shinichi became tight-lipped, and he looked away while his face reddened even more. Suguha grabbed the straps of her shinai bag and held on more tightly than ever. For once in her life, she was absolutely annoyed that Shinichi's unwanted attention was now elsewhere, on another girl.
"First she's charmed Onii-chan, who's in a relationship already, and now she's wooed Nagata-kun of all people?! What is that Outlier trying to do, build up a harem of boys?! Maybe she's got Sinon wrapped around her finger as well-"
A brief, bright glint bloomed at the far corner of Suguha's eye, catching her attention. She stopped and looked across her shoulder, at the source of the light. What she saw next made her heart freeze.
There was someone standing on the other side of the street, partially hidden in a dark alleyway. She couldn't distinguish any of the person's features, but there was another flash of light in front of where the face should be. Suguha's heart fell as she reached an ominous conclusion.
"A person..." she thought. "The person who planted the spy-camera!"
Then, to her growing horror, Suguha watched as the unidentified person lowered what appeared to be their camera...and waved at her.
"They know I've seen them!"
"Hey, Lea- uh, Kirigaya-san!"
Shinichi's voice pulled her back to reality, and Suguha glanced at her classmate. She could feel the beads of warm sweat cooling down on her skin already. She watched while Shinichi blinked at her in confusion.
"Uhhh...are you...alright...?" he asked. Then, he peered over her shoulder, right at the alleyway. "What were you looking at?"
Suguha gasped softly and looked back at the alley as well. Her heart fell when she saw nothing but darkness there. The mysterious person had vanished.
"Is...everything alright, Kirigaya-san...?"
She looked at Shinichi, and he looked back at her. She hoped and prayed that her terror and her concern for Kazuto was not obvious in her eyes. She had always prided herself in being tactically reserved when she needed to. After all, it was that trait of hers that got her and Kazuto as far as they did when he returned from SAO...
"Yeah," she replied with an awkward, stilted smile. "Everything's alright, Nagata. Everything's just fine."
Shinichi's eyes grew wide slightly, alarming Suguha. She didn't know if she tipped him off that something was amiss. But eventually, he relaxed and nodded at her.
"Okay," he said. "Just asking. That's all..."
Kirigaya Residence, Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture
By the time she returned home, Suguha had broken off from Shinichi a while back. With a nervous sigh, she approached the old Japanese-style home and prepared to open the front door when she noticed something lying at her feet.
"An...envelope...?"
The flash of light and the shadowy person in the alleyway returned to her mind. Suguha turned around and gazed at the gateway to the home, almost expecting to see that person there. When she realized there was no one behind her, the girl knelt down, picked up the envelope, and tore it open. To her surprise, she found a New Year's Day holiday card inside.
"What the...?" she muttered to herself.
When she opened the card, Suguha nearly dropped it in abject horror at the handwritten message scrawled onto it, right underneath the cheerful printed text declaring a happy new year.
If you want your brother to live, you will do exactly as I say.
We'll meet again soon, and I'll give you further instructions then. You'll know it's me. ;)
Until next time, Suguha Kirigaya! XOXO
– X-Y-X –
Kirigaya Residence, Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture
"I think the others are starting to misinterpret our friendship, and I just wanted to get this out of the way so that we could draw a line for them."
"We'll just make it clear to them that we're just friends and nothing more! Alright?!"
Kazuto sighed while he continued to slice the meat on the cutting board with the kitchen knife. He and Suguha were both making dinner, but to him, nothing about this occasion was ordinary. He felt an odd, eerie tension spring up between him and Suguha the moment their eyes met as she was leaving for school, and he didn't know why. Now, here he was beside her, making dinner in cold silence.
Moreover, his heart was continuing to grapple with his returning feelings for Sachi and his burning love for Asuna, who he was still desperately searching for in ALO. Not to mention Yui had taken a strong liking to Sachi, which just made things all the more complicated.
It was just one problem on top of another on top of yet another, and it was driving Kazuto crazy inside.
"These past couple of days have been so terrible," he thought sullenly. "I've got Sachi back in my life again, I have a lead on what could be happening to Asuna, I managed to get Yui restored, and I'm starting to get along with Sugu again. And yet...everything seems like it's just falling apart... Like something just sliced through my life as if it was a sword cutting through paper..."
"Hey...Kazuto...?"
Suguha's voice reached him from afar. He looked at her with a creased eyebrow, before forcing himself to relax. He may have known the truth behind their actual relationship the entire time, but he knew that she didn't. So he knew he had to play it safe and natural.
"Yeah, Sugu?" he asked with a small smile.
He was met with more odd, eerie tension, which was building up between him and Suguha and primed to explode like a grenade.
Eventually, she asked, "Do...Do you have plans...this week...?"
There seemed to be more that she wanted to ask, but her voice trailed off, and she couldn't force herself to say anything further. He blinked at her in concern, before rubbing the back of his head in search of a perfectly-worded answer.
"Well..." he replied, "I'm gonna go to the hospital again, tomorrow evening. There's that."
"Ah. You're gonna visit her. I see..." Then, to his surprise, Suguha looked at him with a tiny but warm smile. "If you don't mind, can I come along? When you do go to visit her?"
Kazuto blinked at her again, this time with surprise. He was instantly reminded of the hostility that Suguha held towards Sachi, and the memories struck his heart with dread. But then, he looked into her eyes and saw the genuine interest and enthusiasm in accompanying him, a stark contrast to the bitter detestation that she always subjected Sachi to.
"Well, who knows? Maybe it'll be different with Asuna..."
He smiled and nodded affirmatively. "Yeah, sure. I can wait for you to come home after school. I-It's..." He briefly pursed his lips with discomfort. "It's not like she's gonna go anywhere anyway..."
Suguha seemed to sigh in relief as she smiled at him. "Great! I can't wait!"
"Huh." Kazuto couldn't help but feel taken aback by her eager enthusiasm. "I...I'm surprised you're so excited about this. I mean, this is the first time you're gonna be seeing her-"
"Oh, please," Suguha interrupted with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. "I had to deal with watching over your shriveled, pale butt for two whole years. I think I can handle looking at her for a few minutes."
The adolescent boy snorted. "Okay, but that wasn't what I meant. Either way..." He beamed at her. "I'm...I'm happy that you want to meet her. I can't wait to introduce you to her."
Suguha looked away, and Kazuto could've sworn he saw a ghost of a grimace passing through her features. But his sister still maintained her smile as she uttered her response.
"I can't wait either...Onii-chan."
– X-Y-X –
Ayano Residence, Asaka, Saitama Prefecture
Sighing sullenly, Sachi approached the front door to the Ayano home in lonely silence. The image of her leaving a clearly irritated Shino behind at their high school was burned into her mind, and it made her heart become constricted.
"I shouldn't have done that," she thought. "I shouldn't have! Gah, I'm so stupid!" She lightly hit herself in the forehead. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! I gotta think of a way to make it up to Sinonon when we log back into ALO for today."
By that point, Sachi had grabbed the door handle, but she stopped short of opening the obstacle in front of her.
"Speaking of which...I wonder if Lord Mauve was able to find the person Kirito's looking for by now. Fjord found Sinonon for me by himself, so it shouldn't be that hard. But if she's not able to find that person...what then? Will we just do what Kirito wanted to do in the first place? Take advantage of the Convention of the Nine to go to the base of the World Tree? Try to get to the top by completing the Grand Quest? How will we even do that? No one's found a way to get past all the Guardian Knights. It's practically next to impossible!"
She finally opened the door, slowly and collectedly, and started to step into her foster home.
"I guess we'll think of a plan when we reconvene-"
"Stop it, Tetsuhiko. Just...Just stop it."
Kotone's harsh voice froze Sachi in her tracks. She was halfway through the door when she heard the conversation. She couldn't see Tetsuhiko and Kotone in the hallway, so she assumed they were in the kitchen.
"What's wrong with that, Kotone?!" Tetsuhiko cried in protest.
"What's wrong with that?!" Kotone repeated with a shrill voice. "What's...What's wrong with that?! D-Do you even know what you're suggesting?!"
"It can be done, I tell you! And maybe, just maybe, if she'd actually feel the outside world-"
"SHE'S NOT COMING BACK, TETSUHIKO! SHE'S NOT!"
There was a brief but terrible silence, which was then penetrated by Tetsuhiko's voice, reduced to a savage growl.
"Don't. Don't you DARE say that. She is coming back, Kotone-"
"WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR TWO YEARS, TETSUHIKO! TWO YEARS! AND EVEN AFTER ALL THOSE PLAYERS MANAGED TO LOG OUT, SHE'S STILL ONE OF THE FEW WHO HAVEN'T! FOR TOO LONG, WE'VE BEEN DOING THIS DANCE WITH THE DEVIL THAT IS AKIHIKO KAYABA! I...I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! I DON'T WANNA PLAY HIS GAME ANYMORE!"
"I won't have that kind of talking in this house, Kotone!" barked Tetsuhiko. "I-!"
He suddenly stopped, and Sachi became fearful that something had happened. But then, after a brief lull, the adolescent heard his voice again, and this time, it was completely apologetic.
"I'm so sorry, honey. Please don't-"
"DON'T YOU DARE APOLOGIZE TO ME!" shrieked a furious Kotone. "DON'T YOU DARE GO AROUND TREATING ME LIKE KEIKO-CHAN!"
"Wh...What're you-?"
"You know what I'm talking about," Kotone snarled, clearly through clenched teeth. "You were so hard on Keiko-chan and forbidding her from playing those video games that she went behind our backs and bought that...that death game on her own, in secret!"
This seemed to touch a nerve with Tetsuhiko, for Sachi could hear his voice becoming choked.
"I...I just didn't want her to...meet up with...weird strangers-"
"Yeah, well now that you blame yourself for getting Keiko-chan stuck inside that game, you're going out of your goddamn way to make it up to her should she get out of there alive! And how do you do that?! By making sure she returns to a...a fucking spoiled life, that's how!"
"What's so wrong with that?!" Tetsuhiko protested.
"What's so wrong with that, you ask?! EVERYTHING! You have scheduled and are still rescheduling all those trips to the amusement park, the zoo, and the waterpark! You are draining our money on so, so many things that you're packing her hospital room with, things that the nurses are now asking about! And...And most of all, you took in Sachi because Keiko-chan wanted a sibling!"
"W-Well..." The patriarch's voice faltered. "Ke-Keiko-chan wanted a younger sibling, not an older-"
"DON'T YOU DARE MAKE UP THOSE FLIMSY EXCUSES! WHAT IF KEIKO-CHAN NEVER GETS OUT OF THAT DEATH GAME?! WHAT IF SHE NEVER COMES BACK?! HUH?! DID YOU EVER STOP TO THINK ABOUT THAT?!"
"NO!"
Tetsuhiko's voice penetrated Sachi's heart like a spear. For the briefest but most terrible moment, she was standing back in her old, cramped, oppressive apartment unit in Aomori Prefecture. Her mother's pleas and her stepfather's screaming were echoing throughout the whole unit and hammering into her eardrums like a horrifying orchestra.
"SHE'S COMING BACK, KOTONE! SHE'S COMING BACK TO US! SHE'S...She's...She's..."
He finally lost his voice, and all Sachi could hear from him was heavy breathing. She then overheard Kotone scoffing.
"That is what you keep telling yourself...while you put up those thick blinds of yours. But before you delude yourself any further, just think about what Sachi would feel in the midst of all of this. Unless that's all Sachi ever was to you. A way to apologize to Keiko-chan for being so hard on her."
Sachi then heard a set of footsteps approaching her at a rapid pace. Thinking quickly, she retreated back outside, closed the door as quietly as she could...and then reopened it, louder and with more emphasis this time. She immediately saw a teary-eyed Kotone in the hallway and beamed at her, feigning obliviousness.
"I'm home!" she announced.
"O-Oh!" Kotone exclaimed worriedly. "S-Sachi! You're home!"
"Mm-hm!"
Humming a certain holiday tune to herself, Sachi focused on entering the home, closing the door behind her, and taking off her shoes. All the while, she consciously avoided eye contact with Kotone, not wishing to see the tears in her eyes, or recall the heated exchange from earlier.
"H-How was school?" Kotone asked, in a voice that made clear to Sachi how hard the woman was trying to stay calm.
"It was good," Sachi replied plainly.
"And your sleepover with...Shino?" Kotone asked. She had to take a brief moment to recall Sachi's friend's name.
"It was actually pretty great!" Sachi wanted to say more, but her memories of Kotone and Tetsuhiko's argument weighed on her mind. "Pr-Pretty great."
"I-I see..." Kotone took a deep breath before asking, "I made some dinner. Do you wanna-?"
"No thanks, Kotone," Sachi interrupted quickly. "I had a pretty full lunch at school."
She tried to make eye contact with the woman, but it was only a fleeting, meaningless glance. She then rushed past her and up the stairs, ignoring Tetsuhiko's distant greeting. Before long, she was entering the room that she had to call hers and partially closing the door behind her. Once she did, Sachi sighed and rested her forehead against the door's polished surface. She could no longer hear Tetsuhiko and Kotone's voices, but that was fine with her.
"But before you delude yourself any further, just think about what Sachi would feel in the midst of all of this. Unless that's all Sachi ever was to you. A way to apologize to Keiko-chan for being so hard on her."
"He never did deny it," she thought grimly. "I guess that's all I ever was to Tetsuhiko. A way to fill in the hole that Keiko left behind in his life. And...if it ever comes down to it...a replacement..."
She balled her hands up into fists and held them against the surface of the door. She did not move for a few minutes and simply let her realization, and the words from Tetsuhiko and Kotone's venomous argument, slowly seep into her body like a virus. Nothing about it felt like a stab to the heart, not anymore, at least. Then, with a long, deep breath, Sachi parted her forehead from the door and ventured further into the bedroom.
Ever since she moved into the Ayano home, Sachi had done little to decorate her new room. She only had her closet with her school uniform and only a few civilian outfits that she bought with what little yen that she had during her stay at the hospital back home. She also had her small, simple bedside desk with her school textbooks on top of it. Other than that, Sachi had done nothing remarkable to her room, to truly make it hers. It looked even more barren than her old bedroom at the apartment back home.
It was like she had taken a step down in life, despite all the positive developments that had been happening lately in her life.
But in ALO, she was the Sapphire Shielder, the accomplished Undine warrior and the great pride of Fjord's domain. Need she say more?
"My survival has meant nothing in the real world," Sachi thought. "I've done nothing of worth here."
She expected tears to form in her eyes, but they didn't. Instead, memories flashed through her mind.
Her attack on Endou and her cronies.
Her inability to stop her fellow outlier from slitting his own throat.
Her failure to save Shino from Endou.
"But in ALO...I...I am worth something. I am strong, unlike my weak real-world self...and Kirito-kun knows this. And if I just continue to keep flying, to keep reaching for the highest level of strength with my Trident, then maybe...maybe...he will..."
She clutched at invisible air, momentarily feeling the phantom sensation of the «Trident of Protection» in her hand. Then, she glanced at the bookshelf above her bedside desk. Like many of the other things in her room, it was empty, save for a couple of things.
On the lowermost level, her AmuSphere. On the uppermost one, tucked away in a corner and away from sight, her dusty old NerveGear, the very thing that spared her from death.
"I've got nothing here. Nothing except ALO, and...Kirito-kun..."
Sachi's mind then took her to the moment when Kirito, her savior, comforted her in the canal. He looked so handsome in the glow of the moonlight and the water's glimmer...and his smile...
The image of him sent a spike of heat traveling through her gut. With a desperate gasp, Sachi hurled her own body onto the bed and stuck her hand underneath her skirt. She didn't care if she didn't check the door to see if it was locked. She needed it now. She needed him. Him, and only him.
Her escape from this reality.
"Kirito... Ugh! Kirito... Mmph! Kirito, oh Kirito, Kirito, ugh, I-"
"Nyaaaaa..."
Sachi squeaked in terror and tugged her edge of her skirt down as much as she could, trying to hide her lewd indecency. But to her relief, it was just Pina, sitting on the windowsill without her knowledge. She looked down at her judgmentally, a casual swish of her tail betraying her almost predatory stillness.
"What...?" Sachi asked, her face pink in embarrassment.
The cat simply leapt off her resting place, landed on the floor, and sauntered out of the room, departing through the gap in the ajar door with another flick of her tail.
– X-Y-X –
Alfheim, Alne, Neutral Territory, Base of the World Tree
"Whoa, who the heck is she?"
"I dunno, but she's goddamn hot..."
"I don't see a username on her. She's gotta be an NPC."
"Ah, damn it! I was hoping I could ask her out IRL!"
"Uuuuuggggghhhhh..."
The flurry of words, nearly incomprehensible and coming from the depths of oblivion, dragged Asuna out of her slumber. Her eyelids fluttered open, and the first thing she saw was two sets of towering buildings on either side. It triggered her memories of the marketplaces in Aincrad, but the next thing that she saw, a mighty tree trunk that was higher than the cloudy sky, put her immediate assumptions to rest.
"Where...Where am I...?" she asked.
"You're in Alne."
The voice, vaguely familiar but not enough to trigger any sort of memory, prompted Asuna to slowly turn her head to the left. As she did, she realized that she was surrounded by at least a dozen people, all of whom bore elf-like features, just like she did. Unlike her, however, they were clad in assortments of clothing following color schemes of red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, gray, gold, and black. Asuna was also quick to notice the gamer-tags hovering above their heads, a crystal-clear indicator that they were players.
Then, Asuna saw who was speaking, a young man wearing a uniform of purple and black. Like his voice, his weathered, aged-looking face looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place a specific identity on him.
And then, his next words, spoken with absolute seriousness, rocked her to the core.
"I honestly didn't expect to see you here...vice-commander."
Next Time: Initiator
A/N: Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Asuna has managed to make a successfully escape unlike in canon, but it is to a place that she would've never expected! Fortunately, she's managed to meet up with what could hopefully be a familiar face. Unfortunately, Sugou's head is going to explode from this, for sure. (Well, that's also supposed to be a very fortunate thing for us, but I digress.)
But in the meantime, more drama is unfolding behind the scenes. Kazuto is continuing to weigh the scales between what kind of role he wants Sachi to play in his future and what kind of family he wants to create for Yui. Suguha has suddenly found herself in what appears to be an extortion scheme following her discovery of the mysterious spy-camera, and she can't do a thing to tell Kazuto about it without outing herself as Leafa. Eiji's efforts to protect Yuna from what he found in the World Tree are having the opposite effect, with Yuna sneaking out to Alne behind his back and singing in public. And most of all, Sachi is facing an identity crisis that has only been exacerbated by Tetsuhiko and Kotone's argument.
Without a doubt, the climax is going to be quite an EXPLOSIVE one, don't you think? :O :O :O
-Xperior:
1) Yes, there'll be tons of more drama, drama that'll make one's head spin with emotions! Look forward to it!
2) The next time you review, would you mind leaving behind some feedback on the current chapter that you're reviewing for? Praise, constructive criticism, miscellaneous comments, anything? And not just one or two sentences of feedback. I'd like some higher-effort reviews, please. At least some remotely high-effort ones, so I can easily crack down on what I am doing right, what I should improve on, and what I should probably drop. It'd be highly appreciated. Thanks!
-Tertius711:
1) As it should! As it should... ;D
2) The next time you review, would you mind leaving behind some feedback on the current chapter that you're reviewing for? Praise, constructive criticism, miscellaneous comments, anything? And not just one or two sentences of feedback. I'd like some higher-effort reviews, please. At least some remotely high-effort ones, so I can easily crack down on what I am doing right, what I should improve on, and what I should probably drop. It'd be highly appreciated. Thanks!
-Naruto Sakura Uzumaki:
1) Well, Act II is here! I hope you enjoyed the start of it!
2) The next time you review, well, you know what. See above for further details.
Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter! TheCartoonFanatic01 is out. PEACE!
