December 6th 2025

Tokyo School District

Shino Asada took a few steps outside the school gates, taking a deep breath as she did so. She buried her face in her white muffler as she began to walk down the street. Trying to calculate how many more days she had to keep to the same routine as she did so. Shino had never intended to go to high school. Instead she desired to go to straight into the workforce, but her grandparents had forced her to go, stating that if she didn't go to high school, she would never be able to support herself or marry into a good family. 'Marriage? Like I care about that' if only she could've brought herself to actually say that at the time.

Shino bought a few items from a convenience store. Mostly carbonated drink cans and a few easy to cook meals. She had never really been one for extravagant meals or eating out. Not that she couldn't afford it, she just didn't have the confidence to eat out by herself or the skills needed to cook anything particularly complicated. It never bothered her though, he didn't have any friends she would eat with anyway. Well, there was one.

As Shino left the store, she heard a girl's voice call out to her from an alley way to the right.

"Asada-san!" The voice was all too familiar to Shino, and yet it still caused her to flinch reflexively.

Shino found herself following the voice into the alleyway, the sooner she dealt with this the better. As she stepped int the dark alley, she saw three girls wearing a uniform identical to hers. One of them rapidly tapping buttons on her cell phone. She looked up at Shino and gave a slight smirk that make Shino take a step back, the moment she did the other two girls moved behind her and gave her a shove forward.

"E-Endou-san…" Shino whispered, her soft voice shaking. This was not the first encounter with this group she'd had, and it was a fair bet to say this wouldn't be the last.

Endou put her phone into her pocket and stared down at Shino, the few inches between them felt gargantuan to Shino. Endou's eyes shot an intimidating gaze, the copious amounts of mascara she wore only seemed to accentuate the effect of her clear intimidation.

"Asada-san, we spent way too much singing Karaoke today, do us a solid and lend us some money for the train home?" Endou asked, the two girls behind Shino laughed as Endou held up one finger. "Ten thousand should cover it."

'Ten thousand Yen? Like hell I'm giving her that kind of money!' Shino's inner thoughts simply wouldn't leave her mouth. "I-I don't have that kind of money on me." She wavered slightly, Endou's intimidation made her want to run, but the alley had only the two entrances, both blocked.

"Ugh, then go withdraw it then." Endou growled.

Shino shook her head. "I-I won't be doing that." She thought back to how her conviction as Sinon had forced Dyne into action. "I'm sorry Endou, but I won't be lending you any money." She shot Endou a defiant gaze. "Now step aside, I believe we are done here."

"You bitch! Don't you dare look down on me, scum like you should be lucky to get such attention from people like us!" Endou yelled, her patience gone. A wicked smirk returned to her face as he manipulated her hand into the vague shape of a handgun.

She pointed the finger gun at Shino. Shino's face drained of all colour turning a pale white. She let out a piercing scream, her heartbeat rang in her ears as she dropped to her knees, her stomach churning and convulsing. Shino put a hand up to her mouth trying desperately to not vomit, the foul liquid seeping through her fingers.

"Hey, you know my brother has some cool models, you think I should bring some next time. You know some of his pistols?" Endou put special emphasis on the last word, knowing it would have some effect on Shino.

Endou laughed and moved to snatch Shino's school bag. "Oi, oi, Endou. I think that's far enough." A new voice called.

Shino felt weak, her eyes heavy her heartbeat still pounding. As she turned to see a boy wearing her schools uniform standing behind Endou. His dark hair was scruffy and his eyes piercing. He was certainly intimidating.

Endou turned around and began to walk away. "Tch, we were done anyway." Her voice turned form it's distinct bitter tone to a more feminine-cutesy tone "See you at school Asada-san!"

The boy leaned against the wall of the convenience store and let out a sigh. He reached into the pocket of his winter coat and took out a glasses case. They had a thick grey frame, far thicker than Shino's own. His lenses were square shaped to fit into the frame and seemed, at least from where Shino was kneeling, relatively thick. He put on the glasses and used his hand to brush his hair forward, so it hung just above his eyes.

Shino used a cloth she carried in her bag to wipe her hand clean, luckily, she hadn't vomited to the extend where it had splashed onto her own face, however she could certainly use some mouthwash. She recognised the boy who had come to her aid, she couldn't name him, but she had seen him around her school library.

"Thank you." She said giving a bow she picked up her bag. "Sorry, um, I'm not sure we've met." She felt she should at least try and thank him.

He smiled at her, he seemed far less intimidating now. "Ah, maybe not, but I've heard your name Asada Shino-san." Most people used her name with some form of bitterness, but this person used her name without seeming particularly bothered by it. In fact, Shino could hear a slight hint of happiness in his voice.

"Tachibana…Yuuto…" Shino recalled seeing him a few times, she didn't know where exactly she knew his name from. Shino had never seen him talking to anyone, at least none of their fellow students. "You didn't need too do that." She could feel the taste of vomit still ripe in her mouth.

Yuuto tossed her a bottle of water from his pocket. "It's better than nothing right?"

Shino immediately took a swig of the water using it to rinse her mouth out, she did this a few times before taking out a bag of pocket tissues with which to wipe her hand clean.

"Huh, cool." Yuuto commented as he watched her. "You don't seem phased at all." His voice was no were near as deep as it was when he had approached Endou. In fact, as far as Shino could tell, it was almost as high pitched as her own.

"This isn't the first time." Shino explained, burying her face in her white scarf. She didn't particularly want to spend anymore time explaining herself. 'Why should I? He's probably gonna find out, that is if he doesn't know already' this thought continued through her mind. Everybody found out eventually. She had one friend in this world, that was enough. Yuuto wouldn't stick around after he found out her secret, so it was better to be rid of him sooner before she felt any sort of emotion toward him.

"So, you're Asada Shino, I always figured you'd be, I dunno, more violent?" Yuuto murmured. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

A shiver shot up Shino's spine. "W-Why would that be?" She stammered, knowing the answer, it was obvious.

"Let's not discuss it, all you need to know is that I know enough about you to know why you reacted the way you did." Yuuto had stopped smiling at this point. His dark brown hair hung just above his glasses. Shino could see that without the lenses his eyes would be piercing enough to be intimidating on their own. "But I think it's best to form your own opinions about someone. I-If you'll allow it that is?"

Shino had found him slightly irritating at first, but with the way his hands were fidgeting in the pockets of his brown winter coat was 'kind of endearing' at least according to her.

"Sure." She gave him a smile, not dissimilar to the one he gave her. She found this to be surprising even to herself. After the two had exchanged numbers and mail addresses they parted ways. Yuuto still seemed to have a nervous fidget, a far cry from the intimidating figure she first saw him as. Shino continued her walk home, 'Am I happier for having met him?' she wondered to herself.

It wasn't as if she was totally alone, Shinkawa Kyouji, she had met him in the library a few months ago. He had introduced her to Gun Gale online after discovering her reading a magazine on firearms. Shino was apprehensive at first, it took all her effort to even read or look at the images of firearms in the magazine even then she couldn't bring herself to look or read up on handguns. But after a few days she was convinced to buy a pre-owned old-model Amusphere and a copy of Gun Gale. It was her escape her way of coping of an event in her past.

As Shino entered her small one room apartment, she removed her uniform, stripping down to only her button up shirt and underwear. She moved over to her chest of drawers and opened the second one down, inside it contained a first aid kit, some sewing thread and a replica optical handgun from GGO.

Shino lifted the replica with both hands, her heartbeat racing. She strained all her effort into holding it, but it was no use, she dropped it with a scream as her mind flooded with memories she could only describe as 'horrifying'. After dropping the replica, she ran into her bathroom, her stomach churned and twisted as it emptied itself, unlike before though Shino had the convenience of a toilet to vomit into.

Shino felt exhausted from the vomiting and the mental exertion. Her mind still flooded with the memories of five years prior. A small post office, a man yelling, her mothers' cries, and three gunshots. Shino remembered it all too well, it was the man who carried the gun, but the 11-year-old Shino who had fired it, she who had killed him that day. Shino truly believed she deserved every bad thing that happened since. The last thing she remembered of that day was her blood-stained clothes and her mother's terrified face.

Shino placed her hands on the seat of the toilet and used it as leverage to stand. She flushed away the results of her stomach emptying itself and swished around mouthwash. She grabbed a cloth from her dresser as she walked out and laid it atop the model gun, she had dropped moments earlier. She gripped the cloth covered model and laid it back in the drawer, she removed the cloth and slammed it shut almost in one motion. She glanced at herself in the mirror and could see the streaks down her face where tears had washed away the light make-up she wore. She laid herself on her bed and gripped the sheets close to her chest as se curled up. "Someone…Anyone…Save me…" She whispered as she continued to cry.

"Sis" Yuuto didn't particularly like the look his older sister was giving him.

She stepped forwards and stubbed out the cigarette she had been smoking before handing him a file. "Not my decision but the bosses want you to investigate that thing you saw." She had a serious aggressive tone.

7 years difference between them and his sister had made a career in the VR division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. She had called it 'a perk of being one of the few unemployed adult SAO Survivors'. Since then she had made sure that her younger brother was careful in the virtual world, she had spent 2 years trapped in one, she'd be damned if her brother had to experience what she had.

"Why me? Why not you?" Yuuto asked. "I'm not the one who works for them, perhaps you should let them know that Rina-nee." He walked past her still holding the file, he slid a key-card into the lock beside his apartment door. "I'll take a look." He told her before closing the door behind him. He heard his sisters' heels clack as she walked away.

Yuuto opened the file and read the case title: Death Gun. He kissed his teeth as he skimmed through it, two deaths related and his transcript of the first murder was being used as key evidence. He had thought of it as nothing but now people were dying. He closed his eyes and remembered spending days alone waiting for a phone call from the hospital telling him Rina had died. He understood why she didn't seem happy earlier, she didn't want him to go in, but her bosses had ordered it. 'God knows why' he thought as he read the details. He was to make contact with a new player, their name Kirito. The job started on the 8th.

The information was limited, inside was written that he would be paid three million yen upon completion, but there were no clues on the method of murder, how exactly Death Gun was carrying out the killings. It simply wasn't possible for a gun in GGO to kill a player in the real world, Yuuto knew that. He figured there had to be something more, his curiosity getting the better of him.

He placed the file on his computer desk and sat on his bed, a smirk on his face 'If they're paying me that much, I suppose I could keep an eye out for this Kirito.'

"Well shit." He said aloud as he realised his mind was made up, he would be investigating Death Gun.

Authors note: Finally, I have begun to diverge from the source material, and hopefully my writing will improve to some degree as I now have an editor. In return I must edit his work if ever he gets around to it, I'll let you guys know when he uploads his stuff, its actually really good from what I've read.

Editor's Note: It is not a mere fanfiction plebeian, it is a true masterpiece, my Magnum Opus.