We dismissed for a ten-minute break at eleven pm, just moments after Kirito and Lux revealed the truth. I was honestly expecting more verbal action, but as I promised, I deflected all blame away from Lux while Argo managed to keep me and Argo spared from the recurring lecture of us not trusting them with vital information. The conversation turned to how to dispel the curse, but that's when Kirito proposed a short break.
"We're so gonna get it," I mutter to myself. Otherwise, I'm thankful Kirito announced this; it gives me some time to think about what to do to defend our town. My experience defending the SBC Glocken last year, a massive invasion that took GGO's best against an onslaught from then-enemy Lievre's army, is the biggest pool of plans in my cranium, but none really translate to fighting Mutasina. For one, we defended the Glocken twice against her, and the first round was barely enough to repel Lievre.
I fear we won't get preparations done in time, not before I log off to get enough sleep to carry myself through school. As a third-year, I have a little more freedom than Kirito, so if need be, I can leave class, escape to the clubroom, and log in from there. Kirito and Asuna might do the same. At the very least, Kureha and Zeliska can join me, for Kureha will be at Rath, and Zeliska has taken her work from Zaskar home.
"Oh well, I better-Guaaah!" A sudden weight plants itself on my lower abdomen. I grimace like I'm suffering a horrible stomachache, and I wish that were the case. I figure it's a human being, so I immediately shout, "What the hell, Mo-"
Don't take this the wrong way, but I wish it was Momiji on top of me; that is an easier rage to manage. Much, much easier than the burning green fire that is Koharu Honda. Before I can correct my question, the black-haired demon pins me underneath her. I have no choice but to either look away to my left or right, look down and anger her even more for staring at the hanging contents of a loose-fitting white t-shirt, or meet her eye to eye.
"H-How did you get here so fast?"
"I logged off before you did and ran. Before I even got to the door, Momiji let me in, and I came here."
Ladies and gentlemen, Momiji Takemine is dead to me. Take note; this is why childhood friends worldwide consistently lose in romance. Meddling and betraying those who they've known longest. And it sucks it must be that way. Momiji served her role all too well.
"But furthermore...yesterday, today, tonight, you've avoided me! You didn't tell me how you met with Kikuoka or that you and the others went into the Underworld! You didn't say anything about Kirito and Lux to me! I don't understand why, but if you're trying to protect me or something, I don't need your protection anymore, Joshua."
"I'm not protecting you, or anyone, at all this time," I state that calmly, then gently push Koharu off so both of us can sit on the bed. She hurries to the long side, keeping her back to me. She's...really angry with me, but I do deserve it. I expected it, but not for her to storm my house in the middle of the night. Yet I've given her no choice because all she's said, besides me protecting her, is undeniable.
"Explain."
"...I can't talk to you about the Underworld. That's personal."
"Kazuto, Asuna, Alice, Argo, and Momiji aren't 'personal.'"
"Aside from Alice and Momiji, the only reason the other three know is because of Kikuoka. You know why Alice and Momiji know. And being mad about it is unjustified because of no one else... Oh, Kotone knows too, b-but that's...no excuse." Kotone knows everything because she was with us last night, and she confronted me before our fight with the Life Harvester.
Koharu glares at me over my shoulder. "Does Rika know too? You two have been quite chummy since Sunday."
Somehow, that finally sparks a bit of anger in me. Enough to be annoyed with Koharu, not enough to explode. "That's a different matter, but I haven't spoken to her about it. But being mad about being left out will not change my mind, okay? The Underworld is one of the things I can not have known beyond who I tell, you know. Kazuto, Asuna, Alice, Momiji, they're involved one way or another; you are not one single bit. And the Noose thing, not one hundred percent my call."
"Because you don't trust me."
"W-what?"
"Like you do Kotone. Like you do Rika. Like you do Asuna, Kazuto, or Momiji." Koharu returns her glare at me, this time with water seeping within her eyelids. "You're still coddling me like I'm weak. I'm not that poor pathetic girl you found in Sword Art Online. I surpassed her long ago! So stop treating me like I'm insignificant to you-Wah!"
This time, Koharu is pinned underneath me, our respective anger at each other equal in intensity. If I were the Crimson Emperor, this would be the point that my eyes would switch from brown to red, as I'm told. "I...am trying to think of ways to save our base. The cabin that you and I celebrated your fifteenth birthday inside. The one that Kirito and Asuna spent their marriage within. The place all of us hang out in. That stresses me out alone. At the same time, I have a witch who can put my best friend and another friend of ours in a chokehold, and all I could do was protect myself from her spell. I watched Lux and Kazuto struggle for air for half a minute, Koharu, while I did nothing. That reminded me of what...of what happened to you. At the same time, there's a threat to the Underworld, and I don't know if it's connected to Unital Ring. Then there's Mutasina herself, and there's Kamura, and so much shit over the last couple of days! Imagine how I feel with all this in my head!"
"Then talk to me!"
"I can't! I don't want you...to be involved in my troubles. And... I don't, no, I can't hurt you." Either too tired to too grieved to hold my weight up, I drop down lightly on top of Koharu. My arms snake around her as best as they can, embracing her in the most uncomfortable hug ever. But it's the only thing I can do as my head rests underneath her chin. I try to speak while not being distracted by the faint spring-like smell, remnants of a shower. "I swear I'm not keeping secrets to protect you. If anything, I'm doing it for myself. What happened in Unital Ring yesterday, we decided to keep the Noose a secret until we could find a way to get rid of it. We knew it was wrong, but...yeah there's no excuse for it. So I'm sorry for not telling you."
"...I accept your apology." Koharu places her hands in my hair, brushing it. "I'm sorry for barging into your house to yell at you, but...you deserve it."
"I know. You've earned every right to be mad at me... As for the Underworld, once it is over, no, once I have answers, I'll tell you... I'll tell you everything. Not just why we're there but...everything I've learned from my Fluctlight. That...might be too much to bear, but I...have to come to terms with things I've done in that place first, okay? So I can't bring you with me, and for that, I'm sorry I can't fulfill my promise in that regard."
"Okay... Just don't give Momiji a headache, okay?"
"No promises."
"Anyway... You said something earlier about Kamura." I lift my head off her upper torso, perplexed by the item she is speaking on. "I met her yesterday when Asuna and I left school together. It was...pleasant yet not pleasant. She was weird. But why are you thinking about her?"
I shake my head. "Not her specifically, but her father's company of the same name. Yet...if she spoke to you, then..." I glance over to the clock on my nightstand, seeing that our ten-minute break is two-thirds up. I glance down at Koharu, fighting the urge to keep silent once again and say, "Koharu... I might be wrong, but history has repeated itself time and time again that our enemy is someone closer than we've realized. Heathcliff, Oberon, Eiji and Yuuna's father, Itsuki...and I believe, with no evidence, I know who Mutasina is."
She downcasts her eyes momentarily, thinking silently on the matter, then back up to me. "What makes you think you know her real-life identity?"
"I only know one group of people who know 'Kirito the Black Swordsman.' All of them are SAO survivors. And as Momiji said earlier, if they know Kirito, they know Asuna and me. I disregarded them knowing about you, but then you said what you said. And if I'm right, we're in bigger trouble than we realize."
"Why?"
"Kirito the Black Swordsman, Asuna the Lightning Flash, Jaymes the Crimson Warrior, Koharu the Kindred Assassin. Those four were regarded as Sword Art Online's strongest players. And the four of them in one spot, who wouldn't take that opportunity to wipe them out? Especially if you can monitor them at school?"
After sharing my theory with Koharu, she logged back into Unital Ring. Koharu brought over her Amusphere, so her body rests alongside mine. Guess she planned on spending the night regardless of the outcome of our argument. Thankfully her little brother is old enough to fend for himself.
I take a quick trip downstairs to grab a glass of water, not seeing Momiji anywhere in my path to give her a piece of my mind. In the meantime, I lean against the counter, enjoying my peace of quiet.
"Master," Rei calls out, appearing at human height on the counter to my right. She comes from a projector in the kitchen, one of several in the house. They're an upgrade of the Bidirectional Communication Probe, a device that Kirito created that allowed Yui to experience the real world. I took advantage of it for Rei's benefit, so I don't need the Augma to project my Arfa-Sys whenever I want to talk to her.
"What's up, Rei?"
"I received some information from Yui. It's about Kirito." If it's from Yui, I bet she's informed Kazuto of whatever information she's sharing. If she's sending it to me through Rei, it's something she doesn't want others to know of yet.
"Go ahead."
She projects three graphs, a line graph of what looks to be temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate. Having seen these graphs before, I know them to be from the microsensor chip implanted in Kazuto and me as part of our full-dive trials with Rath before his encounter with Johnny Black. Asuna has an app that connects to his, and I have long forgotten her reason for doing so. He could have removed the chip by now if he wanted to, but he has his reasons not to do so. I plan on returning to the Underworld beyond what Kikuoka asks of us, so I maintain my implant.
Both Momiji and Koharu have the app herself now. Those two girls are weird whenever they're on the same wavelength.
My eyes quickly scan them, seeing no irregularities with Kazuto's temperature and blood pressure. However, his heart rate has irregular graphing. No, irregular is an understatement; based on the numbers, Kazuto's heart rate skyrocketed past his heart's maximum physiological threshold of two hundred and three beats per minute twice in a twenty-second timeframe. "Rei, what am I looking at here? When was this?"
"Last night between 10:18 and 10:19 pm."
"...Oh. This must be when he was under the effects of the Noose. That is concerning."
"Not as concerning as the amount of time his heart was above the threshold," Rei points out. She points to the first rise in heart rate, which reached two hundred and five. "Master, the Amusphere monitors each player's physiology while they play, including heart rate. From what I understand, they're automatically logged out if that surpasses the maximum threshold for more than five seconds."
"Understandably so. That prevents them from having a heart attack while playing a game. But you mention that time is more concerning. How so?"
Rei zooms in on the graph to the two spikes, which occur between 10;18;40 and 10:19:00. "Kirito's heart rate rises to two hundred and three beats per minute between 41 seconds and 45 seconds, drops, then spikes again at 48 seconds and drops at 52 seconds. At 55 seconds, it returns to normal."
"In other words, Kirito's heart rate never lasts more than four seconds at each extreme," says an appearing Momiji, who grabs my glass of water and downs it herself. Ignoring my pissed glance, she sets the cup down and points at my neck. "You say that's the timing that Kirito and Lux were under the control of the Noose? We know it can't stop physiological breathing, but the cerebral cortex doesn't know that. To the cortex, the player is being choked out, and the appropriate signals to the body are released. A spiking heart rate."
"...Then that's weird." I'm not a cardiologist, but anyone can see where there's an issue with this graph. Rei spoke of the timing as a concern, and now I see it. "Rei, you didn't mean the timing that the rate exceeds the threshold, but the timing of the drops, right? If the body is going to be stressed enough to raise one's heart rate, shouldn't that rise...be consistent for as long as the stressor is there? There shouldn't have been a dip...and they should've been logged out."
"I think so. This means the Amusphere did not log anyone out that night. In turn...Mutasina's spell is something special."
"Indeed." Momiji swipes her dark hair back and heads for the stairs. "To think you didn't want to tell us about it. A thousand curses on you, your family, and your future family. Except for your mom, she loves me like a daughter."
Nodding to Rei, I place the cup in the sink and trail after Momiji. "Hmph... To think, at one point in my life, you could have been just that to her."
"...What?"
"...What?" I realize what I had just said to her and her delayed response. I did not mean to say it; it was a natural response to her because, at one point, it was true. I halt on the first step, glancing up at Momiji at the top of the stairs. She stares back down at me, frowning like I've done something to make her mad. "Momiji..."
"Rika and Koharu can fight for the number one spot for the end of time, and as far as things are, it will go that way. But now, you have a new contender in the mix-Sylvie, your daughter. That girl is the future of the Underworld, the first child between man and AI. Between Eydis and you, Joshua. That's the truth, no matter how you wish to spin it to the rest of the world. And when the time comes that you reveal that truth, remember your father's words more than your personal feelings. You no longer have the privilege of being either girl's Crimson Warrior, you're now the man who has begun his legacy. Project ALICE is yours. Your daughter and her world is your destiny. That is what comes first."
She has a point, and my father's words continuously ring in my head every day, to select who'll walk alongside me. I thought the answer was easy and simple, but then Rika threw her curveball. I thought I momentarily mended the split in my heart by not making a solid decision, but if Momiji can see through me, she knows that I'm still split between Koharu and Rika. A distraction I do not need right now.
"You're right. Sorry I said something like that."
She looks away to her hand lingering on the railing. She frowns as she searches for words or the will to speak. After a silent ten seconds, I started to open my mouth, but she beats me to the punch. "I hadn't changed since that day when we were six. Since I met you that afternoon after you stood up to those bullies, I haven't changed. I may have said things this summer and a while ago in Kyoto because I thought it was the right thing to do at the time, but that doesn't mean I wanted it to be like that. Nothing has changed for me...even now, I'll admit it."
"You were right back then. It was complicated then, and it's even more complicated now. But...part of me has never changed. If... If what my father says is true, and I do believe him, then-"
"Get back online. We have a town to save." Momiji cuts me off, snapping her head away and suddenly walking away from the stairs. I linger there momentarily, letting Momiji's lasting words simmer in my head. Indirect as her words were, I know what she meant, I know what I implied and was going to say, but...no, I can't do that right now. I cannot think about what Rika, Koharu, and Momiji want. What she said before that is right; I have my issues that take precedence.
The next night, I have a town to save. In a few more, I have a daughter and a world to take some responsibility for.