Castle Carnation
~Chapter 5~
"It is forbidden to kill... therefore all murderers are punished, unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
-Voltaire
The blue-haired player pulled back his hand, and circles of light filled in the space under the nondescript archway of stone.
"«Teleport Gate» linked," Diabel read off the pop-up window. "«Gate» aligned to Alpha... Kirito, that's just like what the message for the «Relay» said, right?"
"That's right."
"Hmm." He looked over the group of assembled players. "Well. Beaters, I suppose this is where we part, to go our own ways once more. It was a pleasure fighting alongside all of you. May we meet again when the next boss requires our efforts!"
With that, the forty four players dispersed into the sparse streets of «Urbus», the main settlement of the second floor. They'd come there together, following a sort of tradition that had been established during the beta test: the victorious trek of the boss's conquerors to activate the floor's main Teleport Gate. With the gate active, players in possession of rare one-use «Nano Translocation Beacon» items, or standing at any other town gate, could travel there with a simple voice command.
Players began to stream in through the gate now, eager to explore the untouched realms of the second floor.
Kirito crossed his arms, waiting patiently for one particular player to make an appearance.
"Can I ask you something?"
The question came from Asuna, standing slightly behind him in her «Coat of Midnight». Kirito still wasn't quite used to seeing her in it. "Oh, Asuna. Sure, what is it?"
She frowned. "That! How do you know that? You said it during the boss fight, too!"
"Wait, what?"
"My name!" she clarified. "How do you know my name? I never..."
Kirito smiled. "Heh... We're still partied, right? Look at the top left of your view, where your health bar is. There's another one under it, right? And it's got a name on it?"
Her eyes flicked upwards. "Ki..ri...to. You're Kirito?"
"All this time, you haven't noticed the other bar up there?"
She placed a hand on her forehead. "Hah... I feel silly now. This whole time... and here I thought you were some kind of creepy stalker, finding out my name without even asking me..."
The teleport gate emitted a high ring. When the noise and accompanying light effects faded, a short player stood before them.
"Hey, Ki-bou," Argo greeted. "And you... oh, you must be Asuna! «Girl of the Eagle Eyes», vanquisher of the great Kobold Lord! Name's Argo. You may know of me as «The Rat». Pleasure to meet you!"
Asuna's jaw hung open. "Uh... hello. How do you... «Girl of the Eagle Eyes»? Where did that come from?"
"Word travels fast, I guess," Kirito suggested.
"Yep. The boss died, what, twenty minutes ago? Around the same time I started getting info on what happened. Something about a girl with vision like an eagle's who saved everyone, and some crazy idiot who ran in and got his dumb butt knocked out... sound familiar?"
Kirito grunted in protest. "Hmph. Look, my strategy was perfectly sound! It was a good distraction. Anyway... Asuna, this is Argo. She's the one who put together the boss guide."
Asuna bowed slightly. "Ah... Nice to meet you, Argo-san."
"Not just the boss guide! «Preliminary 2nd Floor Area Guide» available now from most vendors, just a hundred col." She winked.
"Argo, I'd like to see you try and not advertise anything of yours for just five minutes."
"...I'll do it for fifty col."
"I'm tempted."
"Uh, Argo-san?" Asuna said. "What's with the «Girl of the Eagle Eyes»? That can't be... me?"
"'Course it is," Argo replied. "It's hot news right now. People are saying Miss «Eagle Eyes» pretty much single-handedly defeated the boss, and the raid leader gave her the «Last Attack» bonus item for it. See any other girls here with light brown hair and wearing black long coats?"
"See any other girls here, period?" Kirito revised for her.
Asuna cast her attention around and became aware of more than one person looking in her direction, pointing, talking... It's like I'm in high school again. I just received the highest score possible on a big exam, and everyone knows. It feels familiar...
She feels like she's a machine.
She wakes, exactly on time. She's experienced waking later, experienced the resulting scolding, and resolved to never do so again.
She goes to school. She takes meticulous notes. She comes home, and she studies them, intently. Each semester, she brings back a report card, lined with A after A after A. Her parents don't congratulate, don't say a thing. They expect this of her. They explain this sometimes. She's going to take this class and that class next year. That'll set up prerequisites. That'll make colleges take notice, if they hadn't already from the donations.
She feels inorganic. She feels rigid. She feels as though her life is pre-programmed.
She's stressed. She's nervous. But she's accepting, of a future chosen for her, of a present less personalized than an assembly line.
Today will change that.
The professor glances down at her. "Ah, Miss Yuuki? Do you need something?"
"Ah, yes, Sensei. I was looking at the mock exam results... and... Are you certain those results are correct?"
"Quite sure, Miss Yuuki. Is something the matter?"
"It's just... my scores... they aren't what I expected."
As she leaves the room, she hears her classmates whispering in the halls.
"I heard that Asuna did badly. Didn't even get in the top ten."
"Don't say things like that! Yuuki-senpai is-"
"No, I've seen the scores myself. She acts like she's so smart, tells us we shouldn't do this, do that, blah-blah, and then along comes the day of the test, and guess what happens? Who's smug and superior now? I'll bet she doesn't even study that hard herself."
"Yeah, she's probably an otaku..."
"Maybe she secretly plays games..."
She doesn't speak to anyone on the way home. She doesn't know what to think. She doesn't know what to say.
Her mother knows exactly what to say.
"I'm disappointed in you. All the time spent preparing, and you produce results like these on an assessment of such importance... Are you even really focusing? I'm hearing rumors that you're slacking. You know that games rot your brain, Asuna."
"I'm not-"
"And lying is even worse. Do you feel ashamed, Asuna? Because I feel ashamed of you."
She's left there, alone, almost in tears. But she doesn't cry. She won't cry. They are just words, words have no power, words cannot cut like a sword, pierce like a bullet, words are meaningless, words are just words...
But they aren't, not when they come from her. So she cries. She cries because of words that are more than words, words that cause deeper wounds than blades or bullets.
Her brother is there. He talks to her. But his words are just words. He has to leave. He has business. He leaves something, a solid state drive, on the table in front of her. He tells her the door to his room is unlocked.
She looks at the SSD, registers the stylized «CC» printed on it. And she picks it up. And she walks up the stairs, and through the open door to her brother's room. She picks up a quick-start manual and reads it through, with all the efficiency befitting of an honor roll student.
She rams the SSD into a port, and flips its cover closed.
She takes a strange device, one that she's never touched before, and places it on her head.
Her mother won't check on her. She never checks on her.
Words are just words.
She owns her future.
"Link Start."
«Girl of the Eagle Eyes»? That's... no.
I'm in over my head.
Kirito waved a hand in front of her eyes. "Asuna? You alright?"
Asuna shook off the twisted memory. "One moment. How do you give someone an item?"
"Uh, do a trade?"
She swiped open her inventory and unequipped the black coat. Kirito saw the trade offer appear before him: 1x «Coat of Midnight» in exchange for nothing.
"Huh? You're giving that to me? You just got it..."
"I don't care. It's yours. Nice meeting you." Without even waiting for him to accept the trade, she turned on her heels and walked off, her old red hood appearing around her.
"Wait..."
But she was gone, her footsteps fading around the street corner.
Kirito sighed. "I guess I'll have to catch up to her. I haven't dissolved the party yet."
"You can dissolve the party without her being there," Argo pointed out teasingly. "Are you sure that's your motive for wanting to..."
"Quiet. That'd be impolite."
They sat together on the short steps leading up to the teleport gate. "So," Kirito asked. "did you find it?"
"Nooope," she reported. "There was no K-L-E-I-N anywhere on that wall."
Kirito narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. "So... if he's not there, and only five thousand names are listed... half the players are actually missing?"
"I don't think it's as simple as that. I know a fair number of former beta testers. If half the players got randomly culled, some of them would be missing. They're not; everyone who said they'd be playing are playing. All the beta testers are with us."
Argo took a deep breath and then grinned. "Ah. I really should be charging you for that, Ki-bou. Straight from the mind of «the Rat»... Maybe I could start advertising my analysis. How does «Col for my thoughts» sound? Too pretentious? Probably."
"Hey, I already paid you quite a fee for just teleporting to Alpha, looking at a wall, and then coming here. You didn't even have to leave a safe zone."
Argo held up a hand. "Oh, about that. I'm hearing something unexpected happened after the boss fight. There was some pillar thing? «Energy Relay»?" She swished open her menu and transferred 500 col to him, her standard offering for new information.
Kirito accepted the money, though he would have told her about it anyways. "Sound about right. My memory's not as good as yours, but the message window said something about aligning to Alpha, activating the safe zones... and unlocking that «Engineering» skill."
"Activating safe zones... Before, all safe zones were always active. Now they have to be turned on? You touched the light thing to activate it, right?"
"Yeah." Kirito gestured at the teleport gate behind them. "When Diabel turned on the gate, he got a similar message about the gate 'aligning to Alpha.'"
She tapped her chin. "Hmmm. 'Aligning to Alpha.' Align to alpha..."
"Trying to say something? Or am I going to have to subscribe to your new «Col for Argo's Thoughts» service?" Kirito jested.
"Nah. It's just... interesting." She stood. "Anyways, I'll be going. I've got something important to do on this floor."
"Important? Not your regular information gathering, then?"
"Well, no..."
Kirito rolled his eyes. "I swear, Argo, you're a real expensive person to be friends with. I'm curious. How much?"
"...I could put a price on it, but if you actually paid it, I'd worry for your mental health. Just know it's got something to do," she deftly pulled out a curved throwing knife, "with these."
Kirito stood up next to her. "Now I'm really curious. Don't tell me you found a «throwing knife» skill... wait, is this your legendary hundred-thousand col whisker-explaining quest?"
She shook her head, choosing not to answer. "Good luck with Asu-chan!" she called as she walked away.
"So does that mean... wait, luck? Why would I need luck?"
"Fifty thousand col question, right there!"
"Leader," Issin said as they walked along. "Something's happening."
"If you could be a bit more vague that'd help," Klein suggested sarcastically.
A crowd had amassed on the copper street: an angry crowd, of at least thirty players. They formed a semicircular mob around a small group of five against a building wall. Shouts rung out in rapid succession.
"What do you have to say for yourselves?"
"I knew they were suspicious!"
"What's going on?" Sinon asked quietly. "Are they criminals?"
Klein grimaced. "No... I don't think so. Let's not get involved, nothing good can come of this..."
"They're beaters! Dirty beaters!"
"Selfish hoarders!"
From somewhere in the crowd, a rock flew out, striking the wall next to the cornered group.
"Make 'em give up their items!"
That remark made Klein shiver. The hundredth floor had a significantly smaller radius than the first. It was small enough, in fact, that barely any of its area was outside of the warm-colored sprawl of City Rho. Perhaps because of this, Rho's safe zone did not cover the entirety of the city. City suburbs and outskirts were unprotected. Low-level monsters could spawn. More alarmingly, players could damage one another.
More stones were flung by the mob, some of them hitting the isolated five, pecking tiny slivers off of their health bars. One of the five raised his arms and shouted back. "I've told you already! You've made a mistake, we're not beta testers! Just-"
"You god damn beaters, making excuses!"
He tried to speak again, but was shouted down, his lone voice unable to overcome the anger of so many. He cast his eyes around, desperately looking for help, and made eye contact with Klein.
Fuurinkazan was past the mob, but the pleading desperation in the man's eyes made Klein halt. He grabbed the shoulder of the nearest dissident, pulling him back. "Hey, calm off it! You all are being too... too..."
The man who he'd turned was Kibaou. "You? Too what?" he snarled. "We've finally found the bastards that are responsible for our deaths! I believed you earlier... don't tell me you're one of them too!"
"I'm not!" Klein said, grabbing the shoulder of another man. "But it doesn't matter who they are. It's not directly their fault; they don't deserve this kind of treatment..."
Kibaou abruptly yanked his arm, sending him to the ground. Fuurinkazan saw it happen and rushed to Klein's aid, leaving Sinon standing alone a short ways down the street, extremely confused.
"This guy giving you a problem, Leader?" Dynamm asked as he helped Klein back to his feet.
"Look, Lea-der," Kibaou growled mockingly. "Here's the rundown. There's that big honking wall in the center of this city. You wanna know how many names are crossed out on it? Five. hundred. Probably more than five hundred by now. Then these five pig beaters come waltzing out of the floor dungeon, flaunting all they've gotten, at the expense of everyone else's lives. You don't tell me who's in the right and who's in the wrong here!"
"You've got to be kidding me," Klein said. "Do you realize what you're doing? Have you read any history books at all?"
"This isn't about history. It's about now. And right now, these killers need to pay." With that, Kibaou went to rejoin the mob.
"They're not just hoarders! Have you heard of all the deaths? It's your fault!"
"My brother! My brother is dead because of you!"
"They're not just beaters. They're murderers!"
"You're criminals! You deserve to be punished!"
"There's only one punishment that murderers deserve!"
The frequency of the thrown projectiles increased. Player cursors among the crowd began to turn orange as the system registered purposeful attacks.
The man who had tried to speak took a stance and unholstered his pistol. The mob collectively quieted and took a step back. He spoke again, his voice clear but trembling slightly.
"L-Listen carefully! We are the Moonlit Black Cats! We are not beaters! If you would like us to share our items, we will gladly do so! But we will not allow t-this unprovoked assault t-to continue!"
The other four cornered players pulled out their sidearms as well, looking from side to side.
"Liars... They drew their guns!"
"Outside of the safe zone?"
"First the beaters make us die to mobs, now they're gonna try and kill us directly?"
Guns appeared in the hands of the mob members, until nearly everyone in the street had weapons held ready. Tense seconds passed as the group of five faced down the mass. One side's faces were painted with acute fear. The other's, with suspicion, hatred, rage.
Sinon locked eyes with one of the five, a small girl about her age, of black hair, wearing sky blue clothes and light metal chest armor. The girl's hands shook around her gun. The emotion transmitted through her eyes could only be described as absolute fear.
"Stop it!" Klein shouted. "Everyone calm down and put your guns away! No need to-"
A brave, terribly brave but misguided soul among the crowd tossed a single pebble. It struck the forehead of the girl in blue. Though it only scratched her health, it prompted the other four to lift their pistols, the open ends of the barrels pointed outwards...
And the first shot rang out as a member of the crowd, whose trigger finger was looser than perhaps it should have been, let fear for his own life be the final straw.
The shot was followed shortly by another. And then another. And then the air was filled with the deadly racket of a firefight: A firefight so imbalanced it might as well have been a firing squad.
"Fuck," Klein cursed. "We. Are. Leaving. Right the fuck now."
The six members of Fuurinkazan made haste away down the road. But Sinon remained, her eyes still locked with the trapped girl in blue. The girl stared back at her, and Sinon became aware that the fear was gone from her eyes now. Instead, there was an odd tranquility in her gaze. The girl was hit in the chest by a bullet, and the force of the hit knocked her back, but did nothing to divert her eyes or erase her expression. She saw the girl's hand open, letting her pistol fall to the ground, and saw the girl's mouth move as if she were going to speak, speak to her-
"Sinon!" Klein called. "Let's go!"
Sinon forced herself to look away. This is the harsh truth of reality. Live with it, Sinon. Accept it. Or will you remain forever weak? Will Asada Shino remain forever broken?
No. Sinon will be strong. I will be strong.
She scrambled after the members of Fuurinkazan, but couldn't help closing her eyes as she ran, couldn't hold back tears at the sound of the next gunshot, the sound of a body collapsing into particles, at first sound of the first person dying —dying in the name of justice.
Unbeknownst to her, an infinitesimal yet insurmountable gulf away, in a realm of absolute black yet absolute power, the morning dew girl pulled her legs close to her chest and cried along with her.
"Asuna?"
"Yes?" The girl quickly identified the person before her. "You-Kirito? How did you get here?" She stiffened. "Wait, are you stalking me or something!?"
She sat at a small table, in an unremarkable NPC-owned café of «Urbus». Kirito quickly tried to calm her suspicions. "No, of course not! The party menu gave me your general position. We haven't dissolved the squad yet."
She continued to wear a frown from under her red hood. "Dissolve the party?"
"Yeah," Kirito said, sliding into the seat across from her. "Squad members don't just ditch each other. Notice my name still at the top left of your screen? We've got to have a proper send-off." He gestured to pull over an NPC waiter. "Glass of water, please."
"Is there not just a 'dissolve' button in the party menu?"
"A party isn't just about what the system considers a party." Kirito explained. "We fought together. We're partners, no? We ought to share a drink and see each other off. It's tradition, I guess."
The red hood tilted lower. "Not my tradition." Kirito wasn't sure how to take that.
The NPC returned with Kirito's water. He nodded thanks, picked it up in both hands and lifted it to his lips. "Where do you plan on going from here?" he asked, and then took a sip.
"We're idiots."
"Huh?"
"I was thinking about this, and I've realized it doesn't make sense," she said. "Being here on the second floor already makes no sense. It's stupid. Clearing the game will take years anyways, and if I die, all of it will have been in vain. The most logical thing to do would be to stay where it's safe, stay in areas where the toughest enemies can't overcome passive health regeneration... gain levels, and never attempt an area until absolutely prepared, overleveled for it."
"Hmm. Well, when you put it that way..." He sipped again at his water. "That's not what you were telling me yesterday. What happened to 'stagnation being the same as death?'"
"What I mean isn't stagnation, it's being safe. I'm not a gamer like you."
She raised her head, meeting his eyes.
"I am a grade-A student. I'm heading back to Alpha. I'm not being an idiot. I'm going to live through this, and then I'm going to continue with my life."
She stared him down, daring him to argue. Kirito averted his eyes and swished about a mouthful of water, contemplating her words. When he finally thought of an answer, he gulped it down.
"Maybe people on the front lines are just being foolish. Maybe. But I think more than anything we're just afraid."
"Afraid? Wouldn't that be more reason to stay back?"
He swirled the remaining water in the glass around. "It's not a fear of mobs, or even fear of death. It's a fear of falling behind, of being left out."
"Falling behind..."
He set down the glass. "We're all working together to clear the game, but we're in competition. In games like these, there's always certain questions thrown around. Who's the best player? Who has the strongest guild? Who's good enough to fight on the front? Most people on the front aren't there because they really want to clear the game. They're there because the others are there, and it's just human nature to try and be among the best. Players struggle against each other, maybe even more than they struggle against the world. It's a contest. And yes, you're right, it's illogical, it's silly. But it makes sense."
"Is that why you're on the front?" she asked. "Fear of being left out?"
Kirito grinned. "Me? I'm a gamer. Some game isn't going to beat me. I'm going to beat it." He tossed back the rest of his drink and slammed the empty glass down onto the table. "I'm the kind of person who's willing to attempt red-con areas alone. I'm just the kind of stupid you're talking about, I guess. But look at it this way. If you spend all your time in easy areas, grinding and waiting for repops, what are you doing with your life? When the game is finally beaten, it'll be those on the front who'll have done all the work, and your effort will have gone to waste.
"Who lives in the real world without taking risks? Every second spent standing on the side of a street is a second a driver could veer off and hit you. But for your life to get anywhere, you need to be on that sidewalk sometimes. Sometimes you might need to get on a train, even though a fault in any one of thousands of parts could cause a derailment, cause your life to end..."
He straightened his back. "So, Asuna. I can't blame you if you want to head back to Alpha and take it slow. But you were great in the boss fight we just had. In a way, we have more control over our mortality in this world than we do the real one. No train here we be derailed due to circumstances we can't foresee... If you keep going strong, join up with a guild, I don't think you'll die. No—someone as good as you, there's no chance you'll die. Well, you've at least got far less a chance of dying than me. And with enough of us beaters really trying at it, maybe this game can be cleared faster than we can predict."
Asuna examined his expression carefully. He still wore a trace of that grin.
Maybe he's right. Maybe I can actually do this. When I first got here, I was so angry, angry at my family, angry at Kayaba Akihiko... I wasn't thinking. Now I've had a moment, and I've caught my breath. I didn't think I could do this. I didn't think I could play a game. But this isn't so different from what I'm used to: A struggle for the top. Like staying up late, studying, not to ace a test, but to do better than everyone else.
I'll become the strongest. I'll clear this game, and I'll go back to my life.
"Why aren't you wearing the coat?" she asked him.
"Oh, the «Coat of Midnight»? You left before I could do anything with the trade offer..."
"Take it," she insisted, pulling open her menu and re-offering the trade.
Kirito's hand hesitated over the trade accept button. "You're sure? It's got some good bonuses on it, probably better than that red cloak you're wearing..."
"You said yourself that you've got a higher chance of dying than me, so you probably need it more than I do. I don't like being indebted to people. And, honestly, it doesn't feel right. I think it fits you better than it fits me."
"If you say so," Kirito said, "eagle-san."
"Eagle-san?"
"Well, that's what everyone's calling you now..."
She glared at him. "Just Asuna. Please."
"...oh okay. I wouldn't want to invoke the wrath of the eagle..."
"Hey!"
Forty feet.
Argo's tongue stuck slightly out the side of her mouth as she concentrated.
The NPC curator of the quest stood behind her, in the form of an old man dressed as quite a stereotypical samurai, wearing a thick black-and-white kimono and sporting a katana tucked into the left side of his belt.
Her target was a rolled-up straw mat of the Japanese tatami style—a common target for katana practice—erected vertically at the other end of the flat, rocky area.
Her objective was simple: Cut the tatami.
It was complicated somewhat by the NPC's insistence that she stand forty feet away and not touch her firearms.
This quest had existed in beta, and had been dismissed as bugged, impossible to complete. She'd publicized that information herself.
Because the quest really was impossible to most. It'd absolutely been impossible to her, the first time she'd accepted it.
Until you succeed, you must always bear these marks...
She'd initially been very annoyed at the NPC for forcing her into the «Rat» identity. Now, she wouldn't throw it away for the world. Still, this quest had bugged her. The GM that'd replied to her bug report told her that the quest was in fact possible. That meant she was just missing information.
It wouldn't do for her to be missing information.
She took two rapid steps forwards, pitching her arm and letting fly the small object in her hand.
«CC» had no knife skills, but its engine accurately modeled air resistance, gravity, linear and rotational momentum of all physical objects. So, even without an explicit skill, with enough practice...
The throwing knife dug into the straw mat with a light shunk.
Argo blinked.
She'd actually done it.
The NPC behind her laughed, his deep voice booming. "Well done, adventurer! Well done. You have proven yourself an adaptable warrior, capable of finding solutions where there may seem to be none."
She quickly turned to him. "Cool! So you're going to teach me a skill now, right?"
"Hmm," the samurai said. "There is much I could teach. But I fear that what I know may no longer have a place in combat. Kenjutsu is obsolete, when a respectable gunman may focus his will and incapacitate you from a hundred meters away."
"There's still some skill you could teach me though, right? Maybe how to handle a knife? Or unarmed combat... tachi-dori? Aiki?"
The samurai master shook his head. "Neither of those things, I'm afraid, are relevant. Aincrad is no place for such ancient techniques. To succeed here, one must learn to trust the gun. Imbue your soul into your gun, and it will take you forwards."
The statement sounded conclusive, but there was no «Quest Complete» notification. Argo tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the man to continue.
"There is one thing, though. A secret that I alone have kept in this world. A final surprise for those who wield guns without realizing the power of the ki, the power of the «focus»."
"What is it?" she asked. She tossed in a little extra politeness, just in case the NPC could detect it. "May I ask what it is, samurai-sama?"
He produced a scroll from behind its back, unrolling it and presenting it to her. Written on it in beautiful calligraphy was a set of kanji characters. «襲雷苦無術».
"Shuuraikunaijutsu," the samurai read, and offered her a small item.
«Quest Complete» was suspended in the air before her, and a small window appeared displaying the quest rewards: A small amount of experience, a trifling amount of col... and an «extra skill» that she doubted anyone besides the game developers had seen before.
Argo read its skill description, and its far less obscure actual skill name, and grinned.
The sky was blank.
Kirito realized where he was. He stood again within the small field of flowers planted on the white plane floor. The «Coat of Midnight» hung around his shoulders, draping down to just above the bed of flowers.
Back here again.
Is this a dream? Or is this really happening, in the game? I can't even tell anymore...
"Kirito."
He whirled around, and there stood Kayaba, hands stuffed in the pockets of his lab coat.
"Kayaba." Kirito took a step towards him. "This is actually in-game, isn't it? You want to think you're god. You get some sick pleasure from playing with our lives, don't you!?"
"No," Kayaba said. "I am not enjoying this in the slightest. I did not want this. Argus made this happen. The old me made this happen."
"The old you?" Kirito asked angrily. "There's no 'old you' and 'new you.' You are Kayaba Akihiko. You're in control of this death game. If you don't like it, then end it! Set us free!"
"I can't do that. I do not like this, but I understand it. Kayaba created a world here. You call this a death game, but I find that misleading. Isn't real life full of death as well? The real world sees poverty, disease, famine, genocides. This is Kayaba's world. I live here. I could never destroy this."
Kayaba gave him a pointed look. "And, Kirito, I don't think you could, either. You say these things, but you yourself don't even consider this a death game anymore, do you? You've accepted this world. You've found your place in it. You're living in it."
Kirito processed the accusation. "I... gah, no! It doesn't matter how you try and justify this, Kayaba. You're directly responsible for the deaths of so many... No one has the right to take away someone's life and force them into a new one. You have to answer for this."
"Absolutely correct," Kayaba said. "Kayaba... I had no right. But... is it possible for a dead man to answer for anything?"
"You are not dead," Kirito hissed.
Kayaba looked away from him, up into the sky. "... is that so?"
"Of course! How can you be dead if I'm talking to you right now?!"
There was no answer. From nowhere, the mists boiled down, just like they had before. Kayaba was gone, obscured by them in an instant. But a new voice spoke from behind him.
"Ki... ri... to?"
A high-pitched female voice. Kirito didn't recognize it.
"Hello?" he called into the fog. "Who is that?"
"Remnants," Kayaba's voice answered into his ear, though the man himself was nowhere to be seen. "I tried, but all that's left are fragments. Petals of the flower. I'm trying, trying to replicate what he did, but I need more time, I need more samples..."
"What the hell do you mean?" he shouted at the air. "Replicate what? Samples of what?"
"Don't... shout so loud, Ki...ri...to," the female voice said.
He was taken aback. "Uh, sorry." He squinted into the fog, trying to make out the voice's owner. "Who are you? How did you get here?"
The mists cleared slightly, revealing the speaker. A girl, no older than fifteen, with smooth black hair, wearing a light blue tunic and skirt. "I... I think... Sachi died."
"Sachi? Who's Sachi?"
"Me... I was Sachi..."
"Eh? You?" Kirito said. "That's nonsense. Like I told Kayaba... How can you be dead when you're obviously talking to me?"
The girl smiled. "That's good. I'm... happy. I think you're wrong. Sachi died. But thank you anyways, Ki-ri-to."
And before he could respond, the girl burst, splitting into millions of blue shards, which were rapidly lost in the mist.
"I need to keep trying," the air said to him, in Kayaba's voice. "More time, time to process, time to scan... more trials, and maybe it can be done again... maybe I won't be... so..."
The mist thickened, making all of Kirito's vision go to white. He barely heard Kayaba's last word as the ethereal realm faded away.
"alone..."
And Kirito's eyes shot open, leaving him staring, in total confusion, at the ceiling of his «Urbus» inn room.