"We're trapped in a facility," Monika said. "They are doing human experiments on us. I don't know what they are planning, but they talk about the Third Eye or something."

"Hm. But how did you get here then?" Kirito asked.

"One of the people wants to help us. His name is Michael. He can't smuggle us out by himself, so he gave us an AmuSphere. We took over this game to contact someone."

The Black Swordsman frowned. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Why not?"

"Well first of all, who's blocking you? You said your messengers all died or vanished. But if they knew you were sending messages, they would have taken your AmuSphere by now. Secondly, if this guy wants to help you, why hasn't he given us a location? How am I supposed to help you if I don't even know where you are? Thirdly, why did he pick this game? Wouldn't a game like Alfheim be way easier to contact someone? You could talk to multiple people at the same time there. And lastly, why is this guy helping you? Out of the goodness of his heart? Don't you think a company like this would carefully select their personnel? What does he gain by helping you?"

"Uhm."

"Unless…"

"What?"

"How did you say you killed people?"

"I send large pulses of data to their AmuSphere."

"And who gave you that idea?"

"Michael. I told him I couldn't get any message through so he suggested drawing attention that way."

Kirito nodded. "I'll be back tomorrow. I need to check something."

"Hey, wait."

He logged out before she could stop him.

Kazuto removed the helmet.

Asuna fell into his arms.

"You're okay."

"I was never in any danger, Asuna," he assured her.

"Yes you were. She said she could drive you insane with a data stream."

"Yes. And I think that's our clue. I need to call Kikuoka."

He picked up his phone and went outside.

Kazuto briefly explained what he had found. Kikuoka promised to call him back.

"We need to call the group together," Kirito said.

"I'm on it," Yui said.

Half an hour later, they met up with the gang in Alfheim. Just as they were gonna start, Kikuoka's avatar showed up.

"You were right, Kirito," he said.

"I thought so."

"What did you discover?" Asuna asked.

"The data streams Monika sends aren't just random bits of code," Kikuoka said. "And the log shows a copy was taken. But it will take time to decode everything."

"I don't get it," Klein said. The others looked equally confused.

"Someone is doing a human experiment," Kirito explained. "To unlock the Third Eye."

"And what is that?"

"I don't know. Look that's not important for now. The important bit is that they have a spy inside."

"And he's working for us?" Klein asked.

"No. He's working for a rival company that also wants the Third Eye."

"I still don't get it," Klein said.

"Can I finish?" Kirito asked.

"Sorry."

"Okay, so this company is obviously extremely tight on security. They don't want anything to go out. And they keep a close eye on him. So he decided to smuggle in an AmuSphere to send out data. However, he can't do it himself. They are watching him 24/7. So he decided to hand it to the prisoners and convince them they could escape with it. But his allies made sure everyone they contacted was blocked. And then he convinced them to kill people to draw attention. Then, all they had to do was retrieve the data from the AmuSphere of the dead persons. And inside of that data is information about the Third Eye for the rival company."

"And you just guessed all this?"

"More or less," Kirito admitted. "It was pretty easy to deduce."

"But how do we free them?" Asuna asked.

"We wait for the right bit of code to come out. Once it is finished, he will probably send out the location of the facility so the rival company can retrieve it. Once we have that, we sweep in and free them."

"Wait, but that means…"

"Waiting for the experiment to finish," Kirito said. "I know. But I don't think there is another way."

"Maybe we can tell them?" Klein suggested.

"No. They could be watching me. Keep in mind they managed to kill every single player that contacted her so far. I need to stay in the hospital. For now at least."

"You're right," Klein reluctantly agreed.

"We'll talk later. You guys should focus on decoding the messages."

"On it."

Everyone logged out. Apart from Asuna.

"What are you going to do?" Kirito asked.

"I'm staying with you in the hospital."

"I suppose I can't convince you otherwise?"

She smiled. "Probably not."

Asuna leaned in and kissed him.

"It doesn't feel the same," she said.

"Well just log out and you can kiss me in real life," Kirito said.

"I know, but…"

"But what?"

"Do you ever wonder if… if we go somewhere else if we… 'log out' of the real world."

"I suppose it's possible," Kirito said.

"And maybe if we kiss in that world. It will feel even better."
"Maybe. But we don't know for sure. So let's just enjoy our time in this world before we have to 'log out'."
"Yeah."

"But this world has his advantages too," Kirito said.

"Such as?"

"Well things like stamina and appearance work very different here. For example, if you wanted to undress, you could do it in under a second."

She smiled mischievously. "But what would be the fun in that, Kirito-kun?"

…

Kazuto removed his AmuSphere.

"Everything alright?" nurse Aki asked. "Your heartbeat went up for a while there. I considered pulling you out. But Yui said I shouldn't."

"Oh," Asuna smiled. "Sorry, that was my fault."

Aki frowned, but she decided not to ask.

"So how goes the mission?"

"Not bad," Kazuto said. "But we'll have to wait for other people to finish their tasks."

"Maybe we don't have to?" Asuna said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well there is this thing called the internet. We could do some research. See what we find."

"I suppose we could do that. Or…"

Asuna blushed. "Let's focus on the research first."

He frowned. "Or we could try and contact other SOA players and see if they played the game."

"Oh. Yeah, that's a good idea. How about you stay here to do research and I'll go contact them?"

"I thought you weren't going to leave me?"

"I won't. I'll be in the room next door, video calling other players."

"Oh. Okay then."

"Good luck, Kazuto-kun."

"You too."
Asuna placed a kiss on his cheek and left.

When she was gone, Kazuto pulled out his laptop and started to do research.

He found a whole bunch of weird spiritual stuff. But eventually, he came across something that seemed relevant.

Kazuto frowned.

"Project Libitina."
It was a simple website which only contained one page. A mission report.

It involved a three year old girl named 'Libitina'. First, there was a bunch of unimportant stuff about her. Then, there was an update dated in May of 2004.

[The following occasional behaviors have been noted and should be ignored in

future examinations:

Twitching; vocal tics; biting; epiphora; vomiting; screaming; harm to examiner;

harm to self; misplaced laughter

Any self-harm attempts must be interrupted immediately.]

Very disturbing.

"Yuri shows those symptoms," Yui said.

"What?"

"I just finished digging through the computer of one of the suicide victims. Deep inside, I found a recording of him playing the game. He followed the Yuri route and she shows self-harm, laughter, screaming and twitching."

"Why didn't you tell me you were digging?"

"Then it wouldn't be as impressive if I brought this up, right?"

Kazuto smiled. "I guess so."
So what did this mean? Were these side effects of the Third Eye?

"Papa?" Yui asked. "Have you read on?"

"Hm."

He continued.

[Physical Response Test: PASSED

Emotional Response Test: PASSED

Physical Control Test: FAILED

Emotional Control Test: FAILED

Third Eye Activation Test: PASSED

Third Eye Suppression Test: FAILED]

"Well that's disturbing. Especially that last part."

"They already awakened the Third Eye more than a decade ago," Yui said. "But she couldn't control it. I think they killed her."

"I'm starting to think we shouldn't wait around until they finish their research. Or there won't be anyone left to save."

"Have you looked at the last line, papa?"

[You are choosing to avoid the measures necessary to prevent a repeat scenario,

Doctor. Will you not have as much faith in your personnel as you do in your God?]

"God? Hm."

What did that mean?

Was this related to Yuri's story? The book she was reading mentioned a religious camp with human experiments. Was this experiment tied to religion in some way?

But how?

In any case, he couldn't afford to wait around. Before, it had seemed like they might finish soon, but if they had been going since 2004, that seemed a lot less likely. They had to get their location. And there was only one way to get it.

"Yui?"

"Yes papa?"

"I need to go back in."