February 23rd, 2024
This might be it… if only I had noticed him sooner. Koharu gasps as her attacker chuckles above her. Immobilized and stricken with paralysis and bleeding effects, she's unable to make any move against her assailant. After almost a year of cat and mouse, the PKers finally got to her, one of the top players of SAO's Assault Team.
"Usually I prefer to take my time with girls like you, but this order came from up high. Our leader, PoH, personally requested the death of the Kindred Assassin. How lucky it is for me to find you. Morte and Buxum were desperate to get to you first."
Koharu grits her teeth and glares at the man. Annihilator...what a stupid name. "I may or may not make it, but you should have asked them why it's foolish to threaten me."
"Is that so? Tell me why."
"Because unlike many players who respect the lives of others and the state of the game...he's not afraid to go orange."
"The Crimson Warrior? He's of no concern. I'm sure he'll be joining you soon enough.'
'No...you just killed the one thing holding him back."
"Koharu!" Annihilator, unprepared for the arrival of her partner, quickly vanishes with the use of a teleportation crystal. Jaymes then drops to the ground and looks over Koharu. He quickly opens his inventory, but it possesses nothing he needs. Not a health potion or a cure potion...he cannot save me. Well...Koharu kind of expected this, but now knowing it…she can't help the tears that appear on her face at the same time as his. "Koharu… I'm sorry. If I had seen the message earlier, I would have left Lisbeth. I would've come."
Koharu struggles to move her arm but manages to do so, grabbing Jaymes' hands. "Jaymes...promise me you'll continue fighting. That you will clear the game with Kirito, Asuna, Liten, Sanya, and the Assault Team. That all our friends who aren't on the front lines, such as Silica and Lisbeth, you will watch over them. Promise me that."
Jaymes nods slowly, "I will. I promise you, I will make it out of here alive. They will too."
Koharu smiles weakly. "Can you do me a favor? Can you tell me your real name?"
"...Joshua."
"Joshua. I'm...well I used my real name like an idiot..."
Through their tears, they both manage to laugh. "Yes, you did. Happy 17th birthday, Koharu."
"Thank you. And Jaymes...thank you for being my partner, for being there for me for over fifty floors. For all the memories we shared. For...telling me how you felt with those flowers. I wish I could keep my promise for us in the real world, but..."
"But what?"
'...I love you too, Jaymes." As her health turns red, Koharu fights her paralysis and surprises Jaymes with a kiss. He soon kisses her back, and they both stay like that until her lips are forever gone…
"How is this possible?" Lieutenant Colonel Seijirou Kikuoka looks at the machinery in the hospital room, then at the young woman unconsciously lying in the bed. The doctor with him adjusts his glasses and keeps looking at the results of the brain scans. "No one has survived death in the game so far."
"I wish I could tell you myself. There's apparent brain damage on these scans, and believe me, I've seen plenty the last year and so. My only conclusion is that her NerveGear malfunctioned while delivering the killing blow."
"But that would mean it was damaged beforehand, right? Assuming she's played the game without much visual stress. I'll have one of my people analyze her NerveGear… Dr. Yuiga, this incident cannot go public."
"I agree. But what about her family? Legally, I have to deliver the news to them, but… What do we tell them?"
Kikuoka looks at the girl, patting her head. "The same truth. No one may know Koharu Hanao lived where she should have died… As for her, is there a chance she can come back?"
"Like I said, her brain scans show extensive damage, but she's alive. Furthermore, when stimulated, the areas responsible for the senses show some activity. In my twenty years, I've seen plenty of miracles. If she wakes up, if she wakes up as who she was two years ago, that's a goddamn miracle."
"After hearing what you told me, I have some news. It might be cruel to say this, it may be wrong for you to be happy over it, but dropping the NerveGear, Mr. Hanao, just saved your daughter's life." Kikuoka smiles weakly as Koharu's parents burst into tears.
"How… How is that possible?"
"We'll have to investigate, but it seems you damaged the device that releases the microwave to kill the players. Under normal conditions, it still functions at a frequency and wavelength safe for the brain. Based on you testing the headgear before your daughter, it must have not been damaged beyond normal operation, but an abnormal wave such as the one that should have killed her became impossible. To that end. there is a huge risk if it becomes known someone died in the game but not in real-life. Your daughter could spark a situation already worse than it is."
Mrs. Hanao wipes her face. "How can we help, sir?"
"For one, no one outside of your household, not even other family members, may know of this. The world must believe Koharu Hanao is dead, so you must proceed as if she's dead. Leave the logistics of her funeral to me. but to preserve the illusion, it will be a 'closed casket' ceremony. As for her, we'll keep her here."
"Is there any way to save her? To bring her back?"
"Mr. and Mrs. Hanao, I'll be honest, it will take a miracle. But something tells me that, if you believe in such a thing as destiny or fate, there's a reason why Koharu, out of nearly 4,000 dead players, is alive. If I find a possible way to save her, I will attempt it myself."
Two years later...
"Mr. Kiku, she's diving in now." Higa turns away from the computer to the lieutenant colonel who sits in concentration nearby. "Should we start with her fluctlight and the memories the boy gathered in GGO?"
Kikuoka turns to the third male in the room, a young man of slightly more than average height. "Are you sure this is her data, Itsuki?"
"Yes. I gathered it while Jaymes was having his heart-to-heart with her. Unseen, of course. If what I learned later is true, it should possess her data from SAO along with anything Jaymes spoke of. But are you sure you want to keep this experiment from him?"
"I am, for now. You will too. If it works, he will meet her soon enough. But first, I wonder… Higa, how is her fluctlight?"
"Pretty stable," Higa says as he pulls up a diagram of Koharu's fluctlight. "As for her in the Underworld, it looks like she's… She's fine. She is located in the Lockiss Rocks region in Norlangarth. But are you sure you want to expose her to combat like this?"
Kikuoka nods. "We're not blocking her memories for this purpose. Putting her in a situation familiar to her might bring her back. I rather let the brain do it rather than forcing her fluctlight. It almost worked for Dr. Shigemura, it may work for us…"
Two days later...
"Brain activity in the cerebrum is rising!"
"I think… I think the memories procedure worked."
'Well don't just stand there in awe, go get the lieutenant colonel!"
"What is going on… What happened? Why does everything feel heavy?" Eyes opening, the brightness of the light causes her to wince. Yet her arms feel too heavy to move anywhere… Wait a minute, where's the sun? The darkening sky? Jaymes? No, forget all that… How is she alive? Neither her nor Jaymes had anything to save her, and she watched her HP drop to zero...the Black Iron Palace is a prison instead of a revival area…
Her eyes adjust to the light a little more, and now she can see she's in some sort of medical bay. But that doesn't make sense either, Sword Art Online doesn't have a...medical bay… No. No, that's impossible. This is a bad dream. Matter of fact, SAO in total is a bad dream, well, the bad parts. She's still on the first floor, it is still November 6th, 2022, and she just hit her head hard while Kirito, Klein, and Jaymes tried teaching her how to fight! Yes, that's it! She was never trapped in there for two years, so maybe something happened outside the game and now she's in a hospital recovering. SAO as a whole never happened. Everything and everyone is safe and sound
But if that's true, why do her lips yearn for the kiss, her first kiss, that did not happen but felt as real as it did?
"Ah, you're more active than I expected." Koharu turns her head and spots a man dressed in military gear entering the room. Why would someone like him...be here with her? He takes a seat in the nearby chair and adjusts his glasses. "I'm sure you're confused and all, but first...tell me your name, if you can remember it."
"K...Koharu…Hanao."
"Great. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Seijirou Kikuoka...and I think it's best to get this out the way. If the procedure was successful, your brain should be healed enough for your memories to start popping up. Your name was the first test. Now, for something more recent, what is the last thing you remember?"
"Dying in SAO...and kissing someone I loved."
"His name?"
"J-Jaymes was his name in SAO."
Kikuoka smiles. "That's good enough. But I'm glad you remember dying in SAO, Hanao. That means you know the consequence of dying in the game...and how much of an anomaly you are. You're one of the four thousand players to die in Sword Art Online...yet one of the six thousand survivors. Seems the microwave transmitter was damaged in your NerveGear, which allowed normal operation, but when you died, it produced an insufficient pulse to kill you. It did damage your brain, but just enough to barely keep you alive."
Koharu gasps. "My father...he accidentally knocked my NerveGear off a shelf… Wait, my family!"
"Your family is aware you are alive. Only them, the doctors who watched over you, and my team here at Rath know of your existence. Well, most of the team. There are two people I'd like you to meet, but only after we're sure you're fine and well. Tell me...do you remember anything about being in a place called the Human Realm?"
Koharu frowns. Nothing immediately comes up, then appears the image of a queen at nightfall with a young boy beside her and a ferocious beast dying with a knife in its neck. "Not exactly, but I remember something that I don't recall from SAO."
"Good enough." Kikuoka's phone begins to ring. He looks at the caller ID and then answers it. "Hello… Yes, I have, unfortunate as it is. But I'm assuming you're calling to help him. I'm ahead of you on that but be warned, your friends cannot know of this… Very well. We leave tonight as scheduled. Leave Kirito to me." Kikuoka hangs up and stands. "Sorry, Hanao, but duty calls. The staff here will take care of you for the time being and manage your recovery."
"K...Kirito?"
"Oh? It's nothing… He survived SAO, all of your friends did. And so did your partner...and you'll see him again soon enough. He misses you dearly." As Kikuoka leaves, Koharu lets her eyes well up and drops their watery contents. Jaymes...kept his promise...and now she has hers, to get back to him.