December 8th, 2025

Yuuto's apartment

Tokyo Residential District

Yuuto had read the file through multiple times, twice in the morning and three times since he had returned from school. The file instructed him that as of the 9th, he was not to attend school under the pretence that he had a 'family emergency' of some sort. He assumed his sister had made the call.

As Yuuto began to read the file once more he made note that Death Gun had claimed two victims, XeXeed and a player who went by Ushihiro Tarako. Both had died of heart failure. Yuuto had spent most of the school day formulating theories. It wasn't like the NerveGear, the autopsies had revealed no brain damage of any sort. And the pain inhibitors in GGO were sufficient to prevent real world damage. And, considering the murder Yuuto himself had witnessed was performed whilst the victim was logged out of GGO, appearing in MMO Stream, it wasn't the gun. 'There's something I'm missing' his mind went through every possible theory of how Death Gun was performing murders in-game. His conclusion: It wasn't being done in-game.

Yuuto started to pace back and forth in his small one room apartment. Barely having enough room to take ten steps before having to turn. "How, how, how?" He repeatedly asked himself aloud. He glanced over at his Amusphere, realising why he had been hired for the job. "Death Gun has the answers, I'll have'ta ask him." He muttered to himself.

A buzz from his phone caught his attention. Grabbing it before sitting in his computer chair and reclining in it, he looked over the mail he had received.

Tachibana Yuuto-san,

Hello, my name is Nakamura Miyami.

I will be monitoring everything during this operation remotely from the VR Division offices, the company running GGO's Japanese servers have given me access to what your character sees and hears. Unfortunately, I must ask that you inform me before logging in so I can monitor any interactions in game.

Also, my boss told me to tell you that Kirito will not be involved until the 13th. However, we expect you to begin your investigation tonight.

Good luck.

Yuuto gave a shrug and sent back a simple 'Okay' and setting the phone down again, it had just turned 5:16 PM. He figured he'd have some time to kill before beginning any sort of work. His phone buzzed again. His eyebrows raised as he noticed that it was a standard SMS Text message from a certain Shino Asada. Opening the messaging App, he saw her full message.

Are you okay? I noticed you seemed…absent at school today.

Yuuto hadn't noticed Shino throughout the school day, but she evidently noticed him.

He thought for a moment before responding.

Not really, can I ask you something?

Shino's reply was almost immediate: Of course.

Yuuto gave the file one more glance, he debated whether to tell her everything. He decided against sit simply asking her: Ever played Gun Gale?

Shino's reply took several minutes to come through: I log in occasionally.

Yuuto decided there and then: Tomorrow meet me at the old café nearest the school at 16:00. He hoped she wouldn't think he was up to anything unsavoury; they hadn't known each other long but he was at least going to make sure as few people as possible became victims of Death Gun.

Alright, I assume this about the game, right? I have a friend who plays too, should I bring him?

Yuuto felt his heart sink slightly. 'A boyfriend, of course.' He couldn't help but feel disappointed but at the very least he would be able to ensure that two people were safe.

Yeah, bring him too. Trust me this is important.

He hit the sleep button on his device before tossing it onto the cabinet behind his bed. He lay down on the bed and reached underneath, after a brief rummage he pulled out his Amusphere. He reached over his head to the cabinet his phone lay on and gripped a thin cable. Plugging it into the Amusphere and ensuring the orange charging light came on he placed the device on his head and lay flat.

Yuuto arrived in the SBC Glocken, he opened his menu and hit the External messaging tab. He selected the E-mail from Miyami and hit reply.

Nakamura-san

Logged in, proceeding with investigation.

Tachibana

He hit send. The message was curt and short, but he felt it would be preferable to keep his contact with Miyami as minimal as possible. Primarily because he didn't want to be called on for any further jobs.

He felt slightly on-edge as he stretched his arms above his head. He'd ruled out the possibility of Death Gun actually being able to do anything in game, but there was still a lot he didn't know 'too much I don't know'.

As he began to walk through the city, he caught the occasional glimpse of his grey-haired character in reflections. In GGO he was about the same build as outside, his hair was the same length and he had the same piercing eyes. However, in the game, unlike in the real world, the eyes suited him, he didn't feel the need to hide them behind his hair.

He continued walking, not particularly looking for anything. He casually put his hands into the pockets of his black combat jacket. He was stopped in his tracks by a female voice calling his character name.

"Ryuji-san!" A short girl with short blue hair was running towards him. She had a green combat vest over a red dress, her combat boots covered half of her black thigh high socks, the hem of her dress hovered a little above where the socks ended. The outfit was designed to put special emphasis on her curves and (without the combat vest) her cleavage, the outfit also drew Ryuji's eyes to the exposed skin between her socks and the dress, the Absolute Territory.

She finally reached Ryuji, the top of her head halfway up his chest. "Man, you're a hard guy to find." She said, her voice was what Ryuji would describe as 'annoyingly cutesy'.

"Sorry, I'm busy." He spun on his heels to walk away from the child-like avatar. The only hint she was an adult being her generous breasts.

The girl jumped in front of him. "Sorry, Ryuji-san but I kinda need to talk to you."

"I have no interest in talking to you, later perhaps. Another day even, but not now." His voice was starting to show how irritating this was becoming to him.

"Ryuji-san, how cold of you. An adorable girl wants to talk to you and you just blow her off. Man, maybe I should try calling you Virgin-kun if you treat all girls like this." She sounded legitimately disheartened.

"Virgin-kun?!" This stung him particularly, she wasn't wrong but still, she didn't need to be so direct. "Look here, what does my attitude towards you have to do with my success with the ladies?!" He yelled at her finally letting how annoying she was being get the better of him.

"That got your attention, huh? Virgin-kun." She smirked. "Anyway, I'm Mina, cutest player in GGO!" She declared putting her hands on her hips and puffing out her chest.

"Man, you're shallow." Ryuji was about done with Mina. He wanted no further interaction with her. He opened his menu concluding that he wasn't going to get any closer to Death Gun with Mina around.

She noticed him opening his menu, and just as he was about to confirm his log out, with a smirk she said something she knew would stop him: "Would you prefer me to call you Tachibana-kun...?"

Authors Note: Good Jesus this one was hard to write, I'm aware some of you are waiting for Kirito to get there, don't worry he's coming. Probably chapter 6. Big ups to my Editor who has really been a huge help for this so far, I might have to pay him at this rate.

Editors Note: Nah.