Chapter 13: Diving In

Sachi stumbled out of the restaurant and ran blindly down the sidewalk. Somehow she turned into a side alley where she finally lost her balance. She careened blindly into a stack of empty cardboard boxes next to a garbage dumpster, causing her body to rebound against the dirty brick wall like a rag doll.

She flopped backwards and slid slowly down the brick wall with her back against it, eventually dropping to the floor of the alley.

She clutched her stomach in great pain as she doubled over. She felt like she had been shot. Physiologically it wasn't far from the truth in terms of her bodily reaction to what had just happened. She ended up in a fetal position laying on her side, her eyes staring at nothing.

Suguha was running down the sidewalk from the cafe, having been told that Sachi had fled from there only a few moments earlier. As Suguha ran she glanced down the side streets and alleys on both sides of the main street. After a couple blocks she reversed direction and ran the other way, her eyes sweeping everywhere. She soon ran past an alley where she noticed what looked like a clump of dirty discarded clothes piled next to a garbage dumpster.

With a foot poking out.

Suguha peered. It looked as if a body was simply tossed against the brick wall next to the garbage dumpster. She ran towards the faux clothes pile and skidded to a stop next to the body underneath.

Sachi was curled up on her side. She looked dead.

Suguha dived down and cradled Sachi's head.

No.. no..

"Sachi?"

The petite girl was staring at nothing, eyes wide, catatonic.

"Sachi!"

Suguha dropped down and sat next to her in the dirty alley, cross-legged, with Sachi's head cradled in her lap. She gently wiped the matted hair out of her eyes.

"It's me, Sugu. I'm here. You're going to be okay."

Sachi was frozen and still looked dead.

"Just breathe, will you? Please? Breathe!"

Sachi suddenly heaved in a gasp of air.

She's alive, thank heavens.

The psychologically gunshot girl stared into space, her breathing shallow and rapid.

Suguha spoke quickly, "I'm here. It's me, Sugu. Just stay on the ground. Don't get up."

Sachi struggled weakly. "No.."

"I know, I know. Me too. I'll kill him. For both of us."

"Not what I mean.. shock.. don't raise my head.."

"Sachi?"

"Blood draining.. lower my head, raise legs..."

Suguha suddenly realized that Sachi was giving her life saving medical instructions. She immediately complied with Sachi's LPN training and carefully shifted her head off her own lap and laid it back down on the alley floor. Then she removed her sweater and tucked it under Sachi's head as a thin pillow to protect against the dirt. Next, she ran to the pile of cardboard boxes, picking a small sturdy one, inserting the box under Sachi's calves, elevating her legs.

Suguha then ran back to Sachi's prostrate head and sat cross-legged.

"Did I do it right?"

"Uh, yeah.."

Suguha waited for the shock to subside.

After a minute Sachi said softly. "Sugu, thank you."

Why am I even here?

Why am I even alive?

By now Suguha's anger was rising. "I'll kill him. I will absolutely kill him."

Sachi spoke, whisper soft. "No, don't..."

"And why not?"

"Because it's me. I know it."

"No it's him. That selfish jerk. It was two months ago!"

Sachi grabbed one of the cuffs on Suguha's sleeve with both hands, pulling her head closer. "No, It's me. I'm certain of it."

"Sachi.."

"Just tell me, somebody, anybody, please tell me..."

"Tell you what?"

"Sugu, tell me, what is wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you! I told you, it's him!"

"Then why does my stomach hurt so much?"

Suguha looked up at the darkening sky, her anger rising even more. As she did so she whispered up at the sky, "How could he do that?"

She pounded the pavement with her fist while still looking up. "That bastard. How..? It was two months!"

Sachi clutched her stomach again. "Sugu, tell me, why do I hurt so bad?"

Suguha looked back down and touched the prostrate girl's cheek.

"Sugu, I know I'm crazy. I really am. There's no way I could feel like this about Kirito and not know it. How could I not know this about myself?"

Suguha's anger flashed again. "You're not crazy!"

Sachi said with resignation, "Of course I am."

"No you are not!"

"But, Sugu, how do you know that?"

Suguha knew the answer. She closed her eyes to build her courage. Then she opened them again. "You love him, right? More than anything, right?"

"Yes. Yes. I love him more than anything. But how could I not know? It means I'm crazy, right? I just had a VRDP psychotic break. It's textbook."

"No, you're not crazy. You wanna know why?"

Suguha was resolute. She stood up. She then looked down at Sachi with her both fists clenched tightly. "Because I know exactly how you feel. You want to know why that pain in your belly is there..

"Sugu?"

".. it's because I have it too!"

"What..?"

She took a deep breath and roared, "I LOVE HIM TOO! THAT'S WHY I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!"

Suguha collapsed to her knees, wiping the tears away. "I sat there at his bedside for years, same as you. I daydreamed about him, same as you. I wanted him, same as you. All while suppressing my feelings, same as you."

"Sugu, that can happen between siblings sometimes. You just have to.."

Suguha shouted her down. "No! No, you idiot! I love him! Yes, like that!"

"But I don't understand...?"

"Don't you see? Kazuto is not my brother!"

Sachi was stunned speechless.

Finally she whispered, "Sugu?"

"Look, Mom told me just after Kazuto got trapped in SAO. Mom's sister died when Kazuto was one year old and so Mom and Dad legally adopted him. They didn't tell anyone. He later figured it out on his own when he was 10. That's when he withdrew from me and from everybody else."

"Oh Sugu, I'm so sorry.."

"Don't you see?", she sniffled, "We really are rivals. We both want him. And the same way. It's not a VRDP thing. It's us. We want him. We were just both in denial."

Suguha grimaced, "Sachi, my stomach hurts too. It hurts so bad. I can't stand it."

Sachi forced herself to sit up. "Come here."

Suguha complied. The two girls embraced each other on the floor of the alley.

Then they both began to cry, rocking back and forth on the ground, consoling each other as much as they could.

"Sugu?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's be real sisters."

"Sachi..?"

"I'm going to ask Midori and Minetaka to adopt me."

Suguha pulled away, "But you'll lose your bank annuity..."

"I don't care. I don't need that kind of independence. Not anymore."

The clouds had parted and a faint moonbeam now shined into the alley, bathing them both in a subtle turquoise light.

"Okay. Let's be sisters."

Sachi sniffled and smiled. "Imouto*, I love you."

Suguha did the same. "Onee-chan**, I love you too."

Suguha snorted a ball of mucus up her nose. She clamped onto Sachi and they began to bawl together.

And so there on the floor of that dirty side alley in the Okachimachi shopping district, with absolutely no one else watching except for the moonbeam shining upon them, the two sisters of the Kirigaya family sat and cried, loud and long, in each other's arms, well into the night.

Next day. Dojo.

Kazuto was lying prostrate on one of the padded exercise mats in the dojo, staring up at the rafters of the wooden ceiling. The early morning sun rose over the adjacent rooftops and peeked through a window and illuminated the rafters. He was wearing his gym clothes.

Sachi silently walked in wearing her usual gym outfit. She laid down on the mat close to his side. She did not look at him nor did she say a word.

He finally spoke as if to himself, still staring up. "I should have told you. I have no excuse for.."

While also looking up at the rafters she interrupted him. "No, stop. It's me. I'm the idiot."

"Sachi.."

"You were just trying to figure me out. You were worried that I'd totally flip out, that I'd go crazy and have a psychotic break if you told me. Well, I did. You were just trying to protect me."

She smiled to herself as she studied the knot holes on the wood ceiling. "That was why. It's who you are."

"Sachi, you're not crazy."

She sighed, "I know that now. I was just deluded. I had fooled myself into thinking that I would feel happy for you if you happened to find another girl. Well, you did. And that's wonderful. I had promised myself right at the start that I'd follow your path wherever it went, go along with whatever you decided, whatever choice you made, and that I'd accept it, and that it would make me happy.

"I had decided that if you had chosen someone else I would accept it. And if you had chosen me? I would have loved you with everything I had, with as much passion as much as I could.

"It's why I never gave you a hint about my feelings for you. Not once. I'm not sure why I had originally decided that, really, but now I think it was maybe because you were always such a gentleman to me. You never took advantage of that scared young girl sharing your bed, looking at you, gazing into your eyes under the covers. Not a single touch. If you never gave in to temptation, then how could I do any less?

"Because of that I had completely suppressed my feelings for you. I had even hid them from myself. Oh, I knew that 14 year old girl had puppy eyes for you, and I knew that some small part of me had still had those childish feelings inside, but my mature self had dismissed those feelings.

"I knew you would never make a move on me. But that was okay. I was prepared to wait. It was one of the reasons I loved you, I think, because I knew you would never cross the line with me, or with any other girl, at least not until you were an adult. Or so I thought.

"That was my grand plan: 1) Mental rehab, 2) Physical rehab, 3) Private sharing, and 4) Wait.

"You were so broken in SAO that I was certain you would never fall in love with anyone in the game, nor after that, probably not for years, maybe never. And so for that last step in my plan I would wait as long as I could. Years if needed. I had refused to let myself be adopted by your parents so it would not become a barrier between us. My plan was to enroll with you in the SAO Returnees School even though I knew that almost no other VRDPs would attend. And then for the next three years we would share high school together. I would walk with you to school every day, sit in class with you, each lunch together, go home together, do homework together, and always stay by your side. Eventually you would decide and I would be happy.

"But then you did something that wasn't in my plan. Somehow in SAO you overcame your brokenness. You fell in love inside the game.

"And I should have been okay with that, you know? I had convinced myself all I wanted was for you to be happy, no matter what choice you ultimately made, and that I had wanted nothing more.

Her eyes teared up. "I was soooo wrong about myself. I had thought I had promised myself that I would be okay with whatever choice you made, but honestly, I didn't know.."

Kazuto turned and said softly, "Sachi, I don't know what to say. I hurt you so badly. I should have told you sooner. I am so, so, sorry.."

Sachi sat up. "I knew you'd say that. And yes, you owe me an apology."

He looked down. "I do. I really do."

She leaned over. "Yes, you do. So I am going to collect on it..."

"Sachi?"

"...right now."

Without warning, Sachi suddenly rolled herself on top of him, their bodies pressed together. She leaned in, grabbed both Kazuto's cheeks, and gave him a fierce kiss right on the lips. His eyes stayed opened wide. Then just as quickly she rolled off him again.

Before he could react she said, "Apology accepted."

She sat up. "I'm done now. From now on you're my onii-chan***."

"Wuh..?"

"Don't worry, Kazuto. I still love you, and I always will. But I will love you like a sister and not as your lover. Midori has already started the paperwork for my adoption. In a couple months my name will change from Sachi Watanabe to Sachi Kirigaya."

Kazuto was speechless.

There, I did it.

Because I love you so much.

I know the dreams will keep happening.

My stomach will still hurt.

And I know I can't control my feelings.

But what I want is not what you want.

That is why I am doing this.

Because I love you.

"Yes, I know your name is Kazuto, not Kirito - I've broken through that particular mental block. Don't worry, I plan to still call you 'Kirito', but now it will just be my pet nickname for you as your older younger sister."

Kazuto was still trying to reboot his brain when Sachi jumped up from the mat. She brushed herself off.

"Kirito, you still need to talk to Sugu. She is as mixed up as I am about you. Yes, she knows. She knows that you are not her brother, which is why for the past two years she was in the same state of denial as I was. Now, she sometimes doesn't express herself verbally very well, so please do me a favor and take everything I just said to you and explain it back to her, okay?"

Kazuto was still being overwhelmed. "Bwuh.."

She stood over him. Kazuto finally started to sit up.

"No, stay on your back." Sachi pushed him down so he was flat on his back again, looking up at the wood rafters.

Sachi turned and yelled in a loud voice towards main door of the dojo, "Sugu! It's your turn!"

Sugu peered cautiously inside, also wearing her gym clothes. Sachi walked over to meet her.

Sugu asked nervously, "Did you.."

Sachi gave her a gentle push. "Yep. Go on."

Suguha complied and started to slowly walk over to the mat to were Kazuto was.

Just before Sachi left the dojo she turned and said brightly to Kazuto, "Onii-chan, this is your lucky day. You're getting a twofer!"

Sugu stopped and whirled back, her face red. "Sachi, stop it!" Then she fidgeted, "I dunno if.."

"Sugu, go for it. He's ready."

Kazuto sat up again. Sugu still looked unsure of herself and was still fidgeting badly.

He understood. He quickly stood up and gently escorted Suguha to the mat where she sat cross-legged facing him. Meanwhile Kazuto laid back down on the mat again and looked up at the wood knots. He took a deep breath and started to explain. "Sugu, I have no excuse. Sachi told me what happened, how you feel. I am so, so, sorry..."

Sugu stared down at mat, still sitting. "No, it's my fault. I should have told you that I knew. I know what Sachi said about you and me, she explained it and everything, but I still know those feelings were wrong. I really should have told you..."

"No, Sugu, look..."

Sachi quietly closed the door to the dojo. She smiled to herself as she imagined in her mind's eye how that conversation was going to continue.

She knew that from now on she would need to share her inner feelings with Suguha, and Suguha with her. Each night they would sit in bed together and talk things out, sharing a bond that only real sisters could have.

While walking down the short path to the house she looked up at the beautiful sky.

It was because it was another glorious day in the land of the living.

Every day was a gift.

Sir, is it over now? Am I done?

As she entered the house Yaya gave her a cheerful meow. She bent over to pet the cat, then she realized something and did a mental facepalm.

Dang it, I forgot to clean the litter box!

She sighed and held her nose as she went downstairs to the basement. The litter box was a disgusting mess as expected, but this time it was far more messy than usual. It was because Yaya had earlier knocked Sachi's old NerveGear helmet off the shelf again, and this time it fell right into the litter box.

Ugh, you little stink butt!

She picked up her old helmet, her one and only souvenir of her time with Kirito in SAO, and started to clean off the clumps of litter and other unmentionable detritus as she glared at the happy cat, who walked away.

Monday, January 13, 2025.

Midori was standing next to her magazine's best photographer in the basement of the Argus building five levels below street level. The photographer was snapping pictures madly with his 35mm digital SLR, the camera making a fake whirring noise with each still photo taken.

Midori peered across the red velvet ropes that blocked access to the five Argus server computer cabinets. She noted the small LCD screen and USB service port on the front of each one. "Hmm. Those are Microware servers. Pretty old."

Doctor Nobuyki Sugou chuckled, "Well, yes, I suppose they are. As you know Microware went out of business last year. Even so, with their double redundant power supplies, triple error-correcting code [ECC] memory system, and array of code-synchronized Xeon processor pairs, they are still some of the most reliable servers in the world."

"True. Expensive too."

"Yes, they were quite expensive for their day. But you have to understand that these servers have been running non-stop, 24/7, since 2022 and they now need significant maintenance and refurbishment. The Argus design was rather conservative in terms of its hardware configuration, and these servers were in fact already rather staid in lacking modern features when they were commissioned in 2022. I think this particular Microware model was chosen because of its conservative design and well-proven track record for robustness and non-stop reliability. Today they might fetch perhaps 10% of the original value on the aftermarket."

"But these machines are famous. Have you ever considered their value as collectables? Their historical value?"

Sugou smiled, "Oh yes. I am sure that if we put them up on eBay we could get a pretty penny for them. But alas, we cannot touch them until those poor children are finally freed."

Midori looked at the servers. She felt badly for the children still stuck inside. "It is so sad that 300 young minds are still trapped in there somewhere."

She returned to address her interview subject. "Doctor Sugou, let me ask you the one question that has been on everyone's mind in the IT world, in the government, and in the families of those still trapped inside: Given that you are the world's foremost expert on the Full Dive Environments, second only to Akihiko Kayaba himself, and given the fact that you probably know as much about these systems as anyone alive, can you please explain for our readers just what happened here?"

Sugou crossed his arms. "Well, to be honest we are still frankly in the dark. As you know, Kayaba had written a self-destruct routine that was inserted into the Cardinal System for the mainframes to erase their RAID storage arrays the moment the game was cleared, a process that takes only a few minutes. But for some reason the servers stopped running the erasure program about halfway through. Nobody knows why. And we don't know what data was deleted versus what data was left still running in there now."

"But why did they stop erasing themselves?"

"Well, I think it is obvious that Kayaba had something to do with it. He used those poor ten thousand souls as human guinea pigs for two years. Now there are only 300 left. Our best guess is that he has moved on to some smaller, more focused, phase in his human research testing where he needs only 300 research subjects instead of 10,000."

"Subjects for what?"

Sugou shrugged, "Nobody knows."

"So basically you think Kayaba is still up to his old tricks then?"

Sugou nodded. "Oh yes. That evil man needs to be caught and punished for his crimes, and those poor children need to be freed. That is why our company is working so closely with some of the best neurological researchers in the world at Tokorozawa Hospital. The hospital is located right next door to our RECT Progress main campus, which makes it convenient for us to closely collaborate and cooperate with the research staff on a daily basis. We simply want to help these lost souls in every way we can."

"I see." Midori decided now was the best time to lay her scoop on him. "But Doctor Sugou, the latest reports have Kayaba hiding out somewhere in the jungles of Borneo, a region with no data access."

Sugou chortled. "Ah, never underestimate that bas- that man. He can find a way."

"Well, sir, with respect, I have received a highly reliable report from an anonymous source that Kayaba did not in fact know that the remaining 6149 players were not all released from his control on S-F day. He had no idea that 300 were left behind."

That statement threw Sugou badly off his stride.

"W-What? Excuse me?"

"Akihiko Kayaba did not know about the SAO Glitch."

"Wait, how can you possibly know that? Who told you that?"

"All I can say is that the report came from an impeccable source."

"Who!?"

"I'm sorry, but I have to preserve my sources. Rest assured the report is 100% accurate."

Sugou was starting to lose his cool. "That's absurd! Of course Kayaba knew! How couldn't he? He knows everything! He always does!"

Midori tilted her head.

Just look at him. The man is losing it.

Sugou realized what was happening and quickly recomposed himself. He adjusted his eyeglasses. Meanwhile, Midori tried to get the interview back on track. "Well, I admit that your rather energetic reaction is understandable given the fact that you had worked so closely with Doctor Kayaba in the past as one of his main research assistants. That means that you probably knew him as well as anyone did, yes?"

"Oh yes, I did. That is why our new Full Dive Environment has such comprehensive new security and safety features. Not just in the halos themselves but in also in the game code."

"Your advertisements claim that ALO is completely unhackable. Is this true?"

"It is. Even Kayaba himself can't breach our new TCB Orange Book Class A Type Enforced basal software layer. The security reference monitor [SRM] is beyond the state of the art. In addition we've run AI scans, done formal proofs on the source code, it's unbeatable. I can tell you with 100% confidence that nobody is going to ever cheat their way into beating our game."

"But isn't all this extra security rather expensive?"

"Oh, most definitely."

"But why spend so much money on it? Why are you applying all of these hard-core security measures just to protect a game?"

Sugou smiled, "Well, we just want to give our players the best gaming experience possible. We do that by creating a VRMMO that is guaranteed to be both fair to play and safe to play. In our system no player can hack their stats, guaranteed. And there are no possible exploits to defeat quests unfairly. Also, the neurological safeguards in our AmuSphere halos will absolutely ensure - unlike the old NerveGear helmets - that no one can possibly be harmed mentally or physically while playing our game. For example, we have special pain absorber circuits with fail-safes built right into the halos that prevent a player from experiencing any sort of actual debilitating pain no matter how much damage their avatar receives."

"I see. Interesting. And your efforts appear to be paying off. You must be happy that ALO is now the number one ranked VRMMO in the Japanese market."

"Oh yes, all our efforts are indeed paying off. SAO has been a great boon to us as well in terms of giving us publicity for our new system."

"It certainly has. I see that in some of your literature you are using the term 'SAO/ALO' for your FDE. Is this an attempt to leverage the immense and almost mythical popularity of SAO inside the gaming community?"

Sugou chuckled again. "Well, that term is coming from the marketing department, not me, so you will need to ask them. It is true that ALO had started off using SAO's base Cardinal System, but we have since re-written and/or re-inspected every single byte of code and have reworked it so carefully that it might as well be an entirely new design."

"Fascinating."

Sugou checked his watch. "Oh I'm sorry, our time is up. My, how time flies. If you will excuse me I will need to attend to my next appointment."

Midori glanced over at the photographer. "Tomoya-kun, did you take all the pics you need?"

The photographer nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Got some great shots."

Midori bowed to her interviewee. "Thank you, sir, for taking so much time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today."

Sugou was magnanimous. "Oh not at all, and you are very welcome. In fact the honor is mine. I am a big fan of yours, Ms. Kirigaya."

Midori blushed a bit. "You are? Oh, thank you so much."

"Come, let me escort you out."

As she walked out with the tall thin man in the white lab coat, Midori was secretly ecstatic.

What an exclusive! This cover article will be our biggest one yet!

ALO's security is ridiculously tight, even more than compartmented military. Talk about overkill.

The security budget has to be crazy high. Kayaba has certainly made the man paranoid. He seems to be a control freak too.

Midori shook her head.

I didn't get much info on the SAO Glitch. My son's scoop shook him pretty badly, though. There is something definitely not right about that man.

Friday, January 18, 2025. 7:15 p.m.

A week had gone by since the incident at the Dicey Café. As the days passed the hole in Sachi's heart was gradually being filled. Mostly it was due to her living her daily life in the Kirigaya family household - for it was there that, for the very first time in her otherwise sad life, she had felt a real sense of belonging on an emotional level, of closeness, of being a part of something greater than herself. The pain in her chest was still there, only diminished, for she knew that her heart was covered by emotional scar tissue that would never fully heal.

She had resolved to continue serving Kazuto in whatever role he wanted for her, for she knew that her love for him would never change. However, there was one other aspect of her feelings toward him that did change: It was that she would not hide her love for him anymore. But she had resolved that it would be a platonic love, a brother-sisterly love, not unlike what she had experienced with him in her days in SAO.

Or so she thought.

—

Kazuto was sitting on the couch with Sachi and Suguha close on either side of him. Each held a video game controller. It was because, at Midori's request, Sachi had taken the evening off from working at the hospital for what Midori called "Family Night". Midori had her own controller and was sitting on the floor to the side.

The four family members were playing Mario Ultra Karts, and the competition was fast and furious with all four of them wildly mashing buttons and rotating air wheels in making mad drifting turns around a track made of pink marshmallows.

Sachi picked up a boomerang flower and chucked it at Sugu's kart, causing it to spin out of control.

"You fink!" Sugu retaliated by flinging a piranha plant back at Sachi's motorcycle. It missed and hit Kazuto's truck instead.

"Gah! Sugu you hit me!"

Meanwhile Sachi hollered back at Sugu, "Blue shell in your face!"

Midori lowered her controller and smiled at her three children as they continued to play together. Sachi's adoption paperwork was now well underway, and soon 'Sachi Kirigaya' would be enrolled in the SAO Returnee School along with Kazuto.

Yes, we really are a family.

"Sugu, stop pigging the stars!"

"Mom, move! Get out of the way!"

Midori continued to lovingly watch her children as the highway mayhem rolled on.

—

The next day Kazuto would ask Sachi if he could visit Asuna in the hospital again.

What he did not know was that it would be for the very last time.

Saturday, January 19, 2025. 1:45 p.m. Tokorozawa Private Hospital.

Sachi escorted Kazuto into the main lobby of the hospital. He was now walking unassisted except for the use of a wooden cane that he held in his right hand, something that he only resorted to using when walking long distances.

Sachi and Kazuto approached a pair of greeters who were standing behind the visitors' desk in the main lobby. The two young female staffers were both wearing green ID badges. Because of Nurse Kurosawa's standing order Sachi did not call ahead to say they were coming.

The greeters immediately recognized Kazuto. As he approached with his cane they whispered excitedly to each other. The first girl, an attractive brunette, quickly adjusted her hair clip. The second, a tall blonde, pulled her uniform taut across her front. Both stood ramrod straight.

The first girl said brightly, "Good morning, Mr. Kirigaya!" The blonde chimed in, "Good morning!"

Sachi replied politely, "Good morning." Kazuto said nothing.

The first girl read her computer panel. She looked sad. "Oh, I am so sorry, but Asuna Yuuki's family are currently visiting with her now. If you could please wait in our lobby..."

She paused as the information on her screen spontaneously changed. Her face brightened again. "Oh, nevermind. It says you can go right up now."

Sachi wondered about the sudden change.

I bet the parents want to meet Kirito. It would probably be good for him.

Sachi said, "Thank you."

Both girls' eyes briefly met the others', with the second girl fidgeting. The first whispered to the second, "Come on, just ask him."

Kazuto and Sachi began to turn to leave when the blonde mustered her courage and spoke up. "Uh, Mr. Kirigaya, sir?"

Kazuto turned back and spoke for the first time. He said wearily, "Yes?"

The second girl hesitated. The first girl silently egged her on again. Finally the second girl said nervously, "Uh, may I ask you a question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Sachi pushed the button inside the elevator to go up to floor 18. She was a bit piqued. "That was against the rules."

It was because both greeters had been excitedly shouting "Thank you!" while clutching their freshly signed autograph pads.

Kazuto looked up at the elevator floor numbers incrementing slowly.

He grumbled, "They totally ignored you."

Moments earlier they had walked away from the desk, and Sachi could feel the greeters' disapproving looks behind her back, their eyes asking each other how in the world could the famous Kazuto Kirigaya, aka Kirito, the heroic game clearer of SAO, could possibly consort with such a lowly specimen of the fairer sex - and a VRDP no less - particularly when so many better specimens were readily available like themselves.

Kazuto had already torn up the small slip of paper with the blonde's cellphone number written on it. Sachi sighed, "I'm used to it."

Kazuto growled again, "Well I'm not. And frankly, I am getting sick and tired of this snubfest all the time. You deserve a lot more respect around here."

"It's okay."

"No it isn't." He turned to face her. "Honestly, Sachi, I think you are the best girl in this whole hospital."

No, I am not. Besides, there is...

He caught himself. "Uh, I mean the best staffer of course. Asuna is.. Wait, that did not come out right. I just mean.."

Sachi interrupted him. "I understand." She decided to change the topic. "Asuna's family is upstairs, and it looks they know we are coming. I think they want to meet you."

"I guess so. Ugh, I'm a little nervous now."

Sachi reassured him. "It'll be okay. Just be honest with them about your feelings for her, and tell them her feelings for you. Do those two things and I'm sure you'll be fine."

He looked at her guiltily. "Even tell them about, you know, the cabin?"

"Yes, if you want. They probably know something about it already if they are expecting you."

"Okay..."

She grinned, "And if that doesn't work you can always just brag to her parents what a great catch you are, that you are the famous Kirito, the Black Swordsman of SAO, defeater of Akihiko Kayaba, the guy who has fangirls throwing themselves at him everywhere, and that their daughter should be thankful just to be breathing the same air as you, and.."

He interrupted. "Har dee har har."

They reached the green door. Sachi swiped her green keycard and the door to Asuna's room opened. Inside she saw an older man who was probably Asuna's father. He was talking to a younger man who was facing the window. From Sachi's angle his face was not visible.

Wait, does Asuna have an older brother? I never checked.

As usual Kazuto went inside alone, leaving Sachi behind. She walked back to the elevator to wait.

25 minutes later

"Kirito! Kirito! Can you hear me?"

"Uh.."

"You're still in the hospital. You passed out in the hallway. Are you all right?"

"Asuna.."

"Kirito, what happened in there?"

Then he remembered.

A leer.

Sniffing of hair.

We will be married in a week.

Never see her again.

Monday, January 20, 2025. 1:45 p.m.

Kazuto was still upstairs in his black depression. Like before when he first discovered Asuna's condition, Sachi had decided it was best to simply wait a few days until Kazuto was ready to come out again. Meanwhile she decided to catch up on some badly overdue schoolwork in her Independent Study class and was sitting at the breakfast nook doing homework.

Sachi knew that Kazuto's first meeting with the Yuuki family yesterday had obviously gone very badly for some unknown reason. At the front desk the greeters confirmed that Nurse Kurosawa's standing orders allowing visitation had been revoked. The greeters both looked like whipped puppies. Sachi later learned it was because some senior administrator had caught the pair on camera asking for Kirito's autograph and the administrator was very unhappy about it. Nurse Kurosawa was busy and unavailable.

Sachi was tapping digits on her data tablet to finish a math assignment on the binomial theorem. Her smartphone chimed.

She stood. "Hello?"

"Sachi-chan? Hi, it's me Agil. From the Dicey Café. You remember?"

Sachi back sat down. "Oh yes. Andrew Gilbert Mills, isn't it?"

"My friends call me Agil. And you're definitely a friend of mine. A friend of all of us here, actually."

Sachi smiled to herself. "Yes, I have a lot of friends now thanks to you."

"Think nothin' of it. You're officially part of the gang."

"Thank you so much. So, Mr. Agil, what can I do for you this afternoon?"

"Well, uhm, you see.."

"Mr. Agil, sir, if you are apologizing to me yet again for what happened last week at the cafe, I can assure you.."

"Oh, no.. I mean yes! I mean, I do wanna apologize again, but that's not why I called you. Well, it's not the main reason, anyway."

Sachi tried not to sound testy but the man needed to get to the point. "Now Agil.."

"Okay, okay. I'm calling because I found something."

"You found 'something'?"

"Yeah, it's something you need to see."

"What did you find?"

"Uh, not sure yet. I'd rather not say on the phone. It has to do with Kirito and what happened with Asuna. Can you come to the cafe? Don't worry, I'll feed you right."

"I suppose I can come over. But why not invite Kirito to come too?" She knew that Kazuto was in no condition to go anywhere at the moment, but she still felt obligated to ask on his behalf.

"Because I'm still so mad at him doggin' you that night that I'd probably punch him before I could stop myself. Don't worry, I'll get over it. Say, did you know he still hasn't apologized to anybody here yet?"

"No, I didn't."

"Anyway, what with Kirito's bad leg and all, I figure it's too far for him to try to walk here from the train station on his own, so I thought I'd call you first."

"About what?"

"I think I found somethin', maybe somethin' big. You need to see it."

Sachi was now interested. "I'll be right over."

Midori came home from work around midnight. She was more than a little tired. She slowly trundled down the steps with her laptop case to her basement office and closed the door behind her.

Shortly afterward she heard a knock.

"Mom? Can I come in?" It was Sachi.

Midori opened the door and gave her daughter-to-be a wan smile. "Certainly." Sachi sat next to her.

"My, what brings you down here tonight? I'm afraid I'm not doing anything interesting for you to watch on the computer."

"Mom, I have a puzzle for you."

"A puzzle?"

"Here." She handed Midori the USB stick.

"Hmm?" Midori plugged the stick into her PC and brought up an Explorer window. "It's just a single data file, one big static 2-D TIFF image. Ugh, it's terribly blurred."

"I know. Can you fix it? Make it sharp?"

Midori sighed, "Oh honey. You've watched too many CSI shows. Or is it Star Trek TNG? I forget."

Sachi didn't catch the reference. "Are you saying you can't sharpen it?"

"No, I can't, not the way you mean. Sachi, my dear, you can't simply 'enhance' a blurred digital image and expect to magically make it crystal sharp. Oh, you can mess with it a bit, do some edge enhancement, contrast enhancement, rotate the color palette, and maybe highlight some particular feature or other, but you can't create information that is not there to begin with."

Sachi looked dejected. "Oh.."

Midori panned the image around. "What am I looking at?"

"It's an in-game snapshot from Alfheim Online. The image is of the Top of the World Tree."

"Alfheim Online? Isn't that the VRMMO that you and Sugu played so much last year?"

"Yep."

"But I thought you didn't play it anymore?"

"I don't. This is a blow up of a large HD in-game print-screen image that was taken by some other player who did a multi-stage rocket boost to get up high enough to grab this one blurry snapshot. I really need you to enhance it, right here." She pointed.

Midori panned the mouse to the area that Sachi was pointing at and zoomed in. On the screen she saw what looked like a big blurry birdcage shaped object. Midori peered closely at the screen. The birdcage seemed to contain a standing winged bird. Or was it a person with wings..?

"Hmm."

Midori's fingers flew on her keyboard at high speed. "A lot of times we get a snapshot photo from a paparazzi with bad motion blur that we want to publish in our magazine. Sometimes we can fix it, sometimes we can't. It all depends on the motion vectors integrated over the time domain. If the smear is linear enough. Let me see.."

Midori's macro keystrokes had activated some rather expensive Photoshop modules that she used in advanced imaging work. A dozen different menus and windows started to pop up everywhere on the screen. Sachi was fascinated at the complexity.

She leaned forward. "What are you doing?"

"Well, if the motion vectors are simple enough and if the speed of the blur is constant it just might be possible to do something with a de-gaussian filter. It's kind of tricky though. You have to keep guessing the matrix until it resolves. Takes a bit of an artists' touch to pick the right anchor area too."

"A de-gaussian filter?"

"It's a special type of Photoshop filter that uses something called a discrete cosine transformation [DCT] combined with a deconvolution filter. If the motion blur is linear you can sometimes work it backwards, reconstructing the original RGB pixel information along the smear path. In a special case like this, with a steady smear path, the information actually *is* there if you can input the correct direction and speed of the original smear. You just have to walk the path and assign a predicted pixel value to a particular anchor point, like this, then write a 3x3 matrix to deconvolve it, like this..."

More fast typing.

Please, let Mom figure this out.

Midori smiled. "Ah, there. Wait.. Oops, let me try again. Yes, there."

The subsection of the image was now crystal sharp. Midori sat back. "Now will you just look at that. I'm pretty good, eh?"

Sachi gasped.

It was her.

The girl in the image had long elvish ears and wings, and she wore some kind of a fairie costume, but it was definitely Asuna.

"Let's confirm." Midori's fingers flew again and a set of web browser windows came up. She focused on an image of Asuna that was in the public records. She lined up the two faces.

Sachi gasped again.

Midori pushed her chair back in astonishment. "The ears, adornment, and clothing are different, so is the lighting angle, but.. oh yes."

It was true. Other than for the various fairie accoutrements the girl in the birdcage was a dead ringer for Asuna.

"My word. But Sachi, how do we know it's really her in that cage?"

"Well, we know that Kayaba had modified SAO on Day 1 so that everybody looked the same as they did in real life. And right now ALO has a big promotion going on to attract SAO players, where ALO will copy over your SAO skill stats and you get to keep your avatar's appearance except for the race-based changes."

"So you think.."

"Yeah. It's definitely her."

Sachi turned. "But Mom, what does it mean?"

Midori shook her head in disbelief. Then she read the description under an old public news photo. It was about a charity event in Osaka that was held by RECT Ltd. In the photo was the president of RECT Ltd, Shouzou Yuuki, who was standing next to his daughter, Asuna Yuuki.

Midori whirled in her office chair to face Sachi. "Asuna's family surname is Yuuki? Are you sure?"

"Uh, yeah. Is it important?"

"Is it important? Don't you see? It means her father owns RECT Ltd, the parent company of RECT Progress, who are the publishers of ALO!" Her hands flew again and more search results popped up. "Yes, RECT Ltd owns the hospital too. Dear heavens. It's all connected."

Sachi asked again, "Mom, what does this mean?"

Midori frowned and looked down. "I don't know yet. But I can tell you that something is definitely very wrong here."

"Should we call the police? Or maybe should I try to contact Mr. Kikuoka at MINFO?"

"Hmm, no, not yet. I had so many hassles trying to get that interview that I'd bet money somebody in the government is involved with this so-called SAO Glitch. We don't want to tip them off about what we've found yet. Not until we know for sure who we can trust. For now we need to keep this to ourselves."

"Got it."

"Sachi, you told me about your hospital superior.. Kurosawa was it? About how much you liked her? Do you think you can trust her?"

Sachi nodded. "Yes. I do. I trust her."

Midori generated a printout of the sharpened image and handed it to Sachi. "Okay, let's take a chance. Go and show this pic to your boss. Warn her that the government is likely involved somehow. Then follow her instructions. Just keep me in the loop."

"Right."

"Meanwhile I am going to discreetly work on some contacts that I have. I'll try to get something by the end of tomorrow."

"Thanks, Mom. Should I tell Kazuto?"

"Hmm, not yet. If we tell him now I know that my boy will just go charging off to the hospital and raise a ruckus."

"You think he'll do that?"

"Oh yes." She went on to explain. "Kazuto is in love, dear, and love can make us do foolish things without thinking. That's particularly true given his current condition. No, let's just you and me get this figured out. Quietly. Then we'll have a family-wide meeting and decide what to do next."

"I want to tell Sugu too."

"Why, dear?"

"Because we promised each other. We're real sisters now so we won't hold secrets from each other."

"Fine then. Just make sure she keeps it to herself for now."

Early the next morning Sachi knocked on Kazuto's bedroom door with his breakfast tray. As expected he did not answer. She sighed and used her key to unlock the door.

When she entered she almost dropped the tray.

It was because Kazuto was laying peacefully on his bed, fully clothed, hands clasped together, with a NerveGear helmet on his head.

His PC was still turned on, with all three panels lit up brightly. Across the three panels she saw a copy of the same blurred image that she had given Midori the previous night. The image was zoomed in on the birdcage and the person inside. Agil had apparently e-mailed the image to him.

Sachi put down the tray. She hollered, "Sugu! I need help!"

Suguha ran up the stairs, still trying swallow a glob of oatmeal. "What's up?" Then she stopped and stared at Kazuto's prostrate form. Sachi pointed at the three panels. Suguha ran up and looked at them.

"Oh, no. Sachi, tell me he didn't.."

"He did."

Suguha did a facepalm. "Idiot."

Sachi sighed, "Me? You? Mom? The gang? No, he just goes charging off all by himself. Romantic? Yeah. Smart? No! Doesn't he realize this isn't SAO anymore? He's not stuck in there! There's a whole world covering his back!"

"Yep, he's an idiot. I'll PM Recon. We'll need his reconnaissance skills to find Kazuto in case he stupidly wandered off somewhere on his own. Say, do you know if he ever played it before?"

"Don't think so."

Suguha did her own sigh. "Figures. Men. Let's go."

Sachi and Suguha trotted next door into their shared bedroom. Suguha tossed an AmuSphere helmet at Sachi, who deftly caught it and put it on her head as Suguha did the same. Both girls quickly lied down on their respective side-by-side futons and clasped each other's fingers.

Simultaneously they both said, "Link start!"

And the world went away.

A/N:

* Translation: My younger sister.

** Translation: My older sister.

*** Translation: My older brother.