Chapter 16: The Three Angels
Something was wrong. Instead of being gently deposited at the Spriggan capital of Zigurrat, Kirito found himself tumbling wildly. He felt a surge of electricity course through his body as his viewing frustum continued to glitch in front of him with bursts of random pixels. After a few seconds the image stabilized and he saw that he was falling right out of the sky. His height was tremendous. As he fell he saw no sign of the great step pyramid of the Spriggan capital city, nor did he see any other artificial structures anywhere on the horizon. Instead he was falling towards what looked like random countryside.
He tried to stabilize himself. As the ground rushed up he caught glimpses of great trees, and a large conifer loomed up at him. He tightly closed his eyes and shielded his head with his arms just before impact.
His body glanced off one of the larger branches, then another, then another. His final velocity was sufficiently low to avoid serious injury, and he ended up rolling off the last branch into tall soft grass, face first. Even though he had lost only a handful of hit points the crash had still stung his face, neck, and shoulders even with the pain absorbers running at max.
Ouch!
His head had gone all the way into the soft dirt. After a moment of him doing a humorous impression of a headless upside-down statue with his arms and legs akimbo at odd angles in a completely ridiculous pose, he finally began to move and managed to pull his head out and sit up.
He spat out a tuft of grass that had entered his mouth. "Bleh."
He started cleaning his teeth and gums with his finger. He was more than a little appreciative that none of this was real. After spitting out the last bits of dirt and grass he finally stood up and looked around to see where he was.
He saw that he was standing in what what arborologists called a climax forest: The trees looked ancient, covered with moss, mistletoe, vines, tendrils, and other parasitic plants that had smothered the tree trunks and wrapped the branches in tight strangleholds. The soil was rich and deep, filled with centuries of decayed organic matter that had fallen to the forest floor.
The woods had a mysterious and dark sense of beauty to it. He could hear the faint calls and hoots of strange birds and other wild creatures high up in the trees. He saw golden drops of honeydew falling from the branches of the great old trees, shimmering, dripping onto the vines that drank up the liquid thirstily, in a place where everything was alive and was either competing furiously to grab the sunlight or to feed upon those that did.
Where the heck am I?
He decided to check his map. He lifted his right hand and made a swiping motion in the air with his index and middle fingers to bring up the menu. Nothing happened. He tried it again. Then he tried swiping with his left hand and it worked.
He tapped on the menu: Info - Map. A colored map of Alfheim appeared in the air before him.
Hmm, the map looks pretty simple. Nine race capitals in a circle on the periphery, the World Tree in the middle. Easy to remember. I see my locus symbol on the map. Oh, that's just great. I'm in the middle of nowhere.
Yep, the World Tree is right in the center as expected. Wait, how far away is it? Let's see here..
Huh? This map doesn't have a distance scale? Seriously? Argh!
Without a scale of distance this stupid map is totally useless! How can you plan a quest, count the travel days, or allocate supplies and stuff if you don't know how far away your objective is? Who designed this stupid map anyway?
He gave up on the map. Instead he tapped Info - Skills.
Lookie that. My skill proficiency values really did carry over from SAO just like the promo said they would: Sword Skill=1000, Martial Arts=991, Fishing=643.. That'll help a lot.
Hmm, Dual Sword Wielding is missing. A few other skills also. Oh well, maybe they just aren't applicable in this game.
He tapped on Inventory and started to scroll down what he saw was a rather short list.
Looks like I have basic starter items: A beginner's sword, a couple low-level healing potions, some rations, not much else.
He scanned the inventory list again, half hoping that his most cherished inventory item from SAO, Yui's Heart, was still with him. He flicked to the bottom of the list again. Nothing. He tried scrolling down again, this time firmly pressing his finger on the list and dragging it up hard.
There was a stutter, then something jerked up from the bottom edge of the display and appeared at the very bottom of the inventory list:
MHCP001 ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Yes! She's here!
Back in SAO, Kirito had briefly grabbed GM access to the Cardinal System just before Yui's deletion, where he had commanded the admin hub to download Yui's data into a deactivated and compressed game object called "Yui's Heart", a small blue crystal teardrop*. He then transferred the object into the local cache memory of his NerveGear helmet.
He was immensely relieved that Yui had survived the destruction of Aincrad. But what were those question marks? He tapped on the object to open it.
An error message popped up.
System Error: Cached link points to missing system storage. Link deletion required. Tap Ok to continue.
No! What happened?
Was she damaged?
Wait, it's a dangling pointer. She's just missing.**
Kirito nodded to himself. He should have realized. Even when stored in compressed form the amount of data that was required to encapsulate the world's first self-aware A.I. must have been truly enormous. When counting all of the thousands of synaptic connections of each of the trillions of axonal neurons in the human brain and their possible targets to other axons, the human brain itself contained over a petabyte of information. Yui was smarter than any human, so her uncompressed data must have been even larger than that. Even in highly compressed form it was still enormous [100 TB], far too large to fit in the local cached memory of a NerveGear helmet. When Kirito had stored her game object in the local cache memory of his helmet he did not realize that he had stored only a pointer to the static memory address of the game object that was still inside SAO.
He sighed. He had hoped that Yui could join him on his quest to find Asuna.
But alas, it was not to be.
Was she still alive? Midori's interview had revealed that the auto-deletion of Aincrad had mysteriously halted about halfway through so there was a good chance that Yui was still in there somewhere. The game-clearing program would have unpacked her data so that it could be inspected for proper sorting before the deletion phase had begun. She might have escaped.
But if she did manage to escape somehow, where was she?
He sighed again and looked up at the dim sky that peeked through the dense canopy.
Yui? Hello? Can you see me? Daddy's here.
Mommy is here too.
If you can't help me, at least I hope you are watching.
I am going try to find Mommy now.
I miss you so much. I miss Mommy too.
He tapped on 'Ok' to delete the broken link, then he looked in direction that the map told him to go. He took a deep breath as he prepared to start on his journey.
Yui, did you send me to this spot to help me find Mommy? If so, thank you.
I'm going now. Please join us if you can. And if you can't reach us, Mommy and I will go find you.
We'll all find each other so that we'll all be together again.
I promise.
He knew that the edge of the forest was close by, perhaps only a couple hundred meters north of his current location. He ran down a slope toward the brightening sunlight.
A minute later he was through. Before him he saw an endless grassy plain that stretched far off into the distance. Nearby a foot path connected to a simple rutted dirt road that meandered down toward the foothills beneath the World Tree.
The World Tree.
He saw it, arching up, up, and up, in whorls of pearl and white, rising literally out of sight into a swirl of billowy clouds.
But how far was it? The map did not say.
He squinted at the Tree and the clouds near the top, trying to figure out how to tell how tall the whole thing actually was. If there are regular clouds forming at that altitude it couldn't be that tall, could it? He knew that, except for the whispy faint horsetails that sometimes appeared in Earth's stratosphere (20,000 meters), all of the clouds on Earth topped out at around 7000 meters. Only the great dark thunderhead of a furious cumulonimbus storm cloud rose higher, and the sedate pillowy clouds surrounding the Tree's apex looked nothing like that.
The Tree dominated the skyline. He used his fingers like a protractor with his index finger pointed forward and thumb pointed up to measure the angle. He figured the top of the Tree was at about 15 degrees elevation by his reckoning.
He bought up his menu and tapped on Other - Tools - Calculator.
Assume the Tree is about 7000 meters high. Tan(15 degrees) is about 0.27, so the distance is about 26 kilometers.
Hey whaddya know, I finally used my high school math trig for something useful.
Hmm, 26 kilometers, I can make that in a day even on foot if I walk fast. Easy.
Unfortunately for Kirito he had made several key mistakes:
First, he did not realize that large objects often appear deceptively close, particularly when there is no sense of scale for comparison.
Second, ALO's computer generated clouds were not like Earth's clouds. They were programmed to appear at that height.
Third, ALO cheated and made the Tree look at least 15 degrees tall from any vantage point in Alfheim regardless of distance. Kirito did not know that the map was actually much larger, where a central object even 7 kilometers high located in, say, the English Midlands, would appear only as a small dot on the horizon from the vantage point of Wales or the cliffs of Dover. And that was assuming Alfheim was laid out perfectly flat and not on a globe in which case it would be below the horizon and not visible at all.
Yep, this is easy.
Kirito did not just start walking, however. He knew that he was supposed to fly to get there, not walk. It was the whole point of ALO.
Those hills will prevent me from walking there. Gotta fly to get over them.
Again he was wrong. He did not know that the Highlands rose higher than the maximum flight ceiling, forcing players crawl underneath them through the Lugru Corridor.
Well I guess I need to start flying then. It will be much faster anyway.
Now, how do I do this..
He opened his menu and looked for a 'Fly' button. There wasn't any.
Must be a command phrase.
He stood up tall and straight facing the tree. He raised his right fist skyward and yelled, "Fly!"
Nothing.
"Flight!"
"Go!"
"Soar!"
"Up!"
"Up, up and away!"
"Wings!"
"Air!"
"Shazam!"
Still nothing.
It was because in his mad rush to save Asuna he had skipped over the 30 minute flight tutorial, and so he did not know how to summon the flight controller into his hand [make a gripping motion].
He tried flapping his arms up and down like a bird.
He bent his elbows and tried flapping like a chicken.
He jumped as he flapped like a chicken, yelling all the phrases again.
He tried laying on his stomach, arms and legs extended like Superman, and repeated all the phrases yet again.
Nothing was working.
Aw crap. I gotta log out and do the fly tutorial.
He opened his menu and tapped on Logout. When he did so a message appeared:
Warning: You are not in Spriggan territory, in a safe inn, nor in a safe campsite. Logging out will cause your avatar to remain behind and be vulnerable to attack. Are you sure (Yes/No)?
Kirito groaned.
Crap! If I log out now my avatar will be a sitting duck!
If I die here I'll lose my super-high skill proficiencies. I'll also be booted all the way back to the Spriggan capital and according to the map the capital is at least twice as far away from the Tree as I am from here.
Double crap!
Then he remembered that the SAO/ALO promo was a one-shot deal. If he rolled another new character it would just be a regular one with none of his special skill stats.
I can't re-roll either. Triple crap!
He sighed.
Oh well, I better start walking then.
And so he started trudging down the hill towards the World Tree, on foot.
Sachi and Leafa materialized in the the main square of Swilvane. Recon ran up to meet them. He was panting hard. "Leafa, what's the big emergency?"
Leafa said testily, "My lovesick brother. He decided to go charging off to the World Tree all by himself."
Recon was surprised. "Huh? He did? But that's the final quest. You need an army of top-level players to even have a chance. How many game hours does he have?"
"Zero."
"What?"
"I know, I know. I think I'm going to start calling him Kirito-baka."
"Right... Anyway, you want me to find him using my tracking skills?"
"Yeah. As much as I hate to admit it, we could really use your search ability here."
"Glad to help! Okay, uh, so where do I start?"
Leafa and Sachi looked at each other. They had no idea where to even begin.
Recon asked, "Do you two even know his game handle?"
Sachi brought up her menu. "Good question. Let me guess.." She rapidly scrolled down the game roster. "Yep, he is using 'Kirito' again. Oh look, he's a Spriggan."
Leafa made a face. "What? A Spriggan? That's a terrible choice. They're worthless except as treasure hunters. Spriggans are just a bunch of thieves, tomb raiders, and pirates. Mediocre fighters too. Kirito should have picked a Sylph for speed and agility, or maybe a Salamander for raw power. Why did he do that?"
"Black coat. Duh."
Leafa smacked her forehead. "Of course. He wants to look cool. What a doofus. I'm calling him Kirito-baka-double-baka."
Sachi checked her map of Alfheim on her menu. "Aw crudbuckets. Look at this. The Spriggan capital, Ziggurat, is on the opposite side of the World Tree."
Leafa and Recon looked over Sachi's shoulder at the map.
"She's right." Recon pointed, "It's on the far side of the continent."
Leafa yelled, "Idiot! That's about as far away as you can get from here!"
Sachi turned to face her. "Hoo boy, what do we do?"
Recon asked, "Is there any way to contact the Spriggan capital from here?"
Leafa thought hard. "Hmm, Lady Sakuya's Moon Mirror should do the trick. She could contact their leader, Blackbeard, and ask if he's over there. And if not, as the race leader his roster should tell him which territory Kirito is currently in."
"Should we go find Lady Sakuya now?"
"Boy, I hate asking her. If she calls him then she will owe that fat smelly pirate a favor, and she won't like that one bit."
Sachi asked, "Any way we can we PM him directly?"
"Nope. Only if you are already on his Friend List. Otherwise, no way."
Leafa made a sigh. "He's not contacting us. He's not friending us. That idiot. I think I'm going to start calling him Kirito-baka-triple-baka."
Sachi tried to think.
"Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we send a friend request to him?"
Leafa's beamed at her. "Yes! Why didn't I think of that?"
Sachi replied, "Don't get too excited. It's not that simple. Remember, PMs are restricted. They only work when both parties are not in certain places: Not in dungeons, not during quests, not during combat, and other restrictions that I don't remember."
"He's probably at the capital so it shouldn't be a problem, right? I think neutral territory is okay too if he's not fighting or anything. Try it."
"Okay."
Sachi brought up her menu and pulled up her player roster. She scrolled down to Kirito and tapped it. Minimal information appeared: Name, race, and a small picture of the avatar. She tapped on the name and a popup submenu appeared. She tapped on 'Send Friend Request' and confirmed it.
"There it's done."
"Hope he sees it."
Kirito was panting hard as he ran. The Tree wasn't getting any closer even though the edge of the forest was now receding well into the distance.
Suddenly his menu popped up on its own.
Friend Request: Sachi. Do you accept (Yes/No)?
He stopped running and bent over wheezing. He tapped Yes.
{ Sachi: Kirito? You there? }
He tapped out a reply.
{ Kirito: Yep }
Friend Request: Leafa. Do you accept (Yes/No)?
Again he tapped Yes.
{ Leafa: KIRITO YOU IDIOT! WAIT FOR US! }
Leafa was tapping furiously on her air keyboard, uttering vile curses as she did so.
{ Kirito: Sorry, I gotta get to Asuna as soon as possible. I'll just walk until you catch up. }
{ Leafa: NO! STOP! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE DOING! }
Recon was incredulous. "He's walking? Really?"
Sachi sighed, "It's like he has tunnel vision or something."
Leafa was still muttering curses as Sachi remembered Midori's words.
Kazuto is in love, dear, and love can make us do foolish things without thinking. That's particularly true in his current condition.
Sachi knew that without Leafa or herself to guide him that he would inevitably fail in a mad suicidal rush that would almost certainly kill him before he got anywhere near Asuna.
Kirito needs me. I have to stay by his side or he will never get there.
{ Sachi: Pay attention. You need to stop and meet up with us so we can give you flight training. Then you can get going a lot faster. }
There was a pause as Kirito considered the logic of Sachi's proposal.
{ Kirito: All right. Fine. But like I said I'll just walk for now. You catch up. }
{ Sachi: Kirito, just stop. Where are you anyway? }
{ Kirito: Not at Ziggurat. Middle of nowhere. Just trees and grass. }
Leafa was incredulous. "Huh? How did that happen? He's supposed to start at the race capital."
Sachi thought a moment.
{ Sachi: Describe your location as precisely as you can. }
{ Kirito: I just exited a big forest and am now in a grass plain. I see the World Tree straight ahead. }
"Hmm, Ancient Forest?"
"Probably, but we need to be sure."
{ Sachi: Kirito, face the World Tree. Now imagine a clock face on the ground around you with you standing at the center. The little hand is pointing at the sun and the big hand is pointing at the World Tree. What time is it? }
{ Kirito: About 8 o'clock. }
Leafa glanced at the setting sun going behind the Amethyst Tower just outside of the main square.
She nodded, "Same here."
Sachi agreed. "Same azimuth. That clinches it. He just left the northern edge of the Ancient Forest."
The senior Sylph sighed in relief. "Good. He's not very far away from us."
Sachi continued to look up at the sun. "Leafa, we are going to be losing sunlight soon." The faint glow of the Blue Moon could be seen in the early twilight. "From the looks of it the moon will set in about three hours after sunset. It will be too dark to fly after that."
"Okay, the northern edge is about three and a half hours from here. We'll fly until moonset and then camp until sunrise. Our downtime shouldn't be more than an hour." It was because nights in Alfheim were only four hours long.
{ Leafa: Kirito, we should reach your position in about four and a half hours. You are in neutral territory so you can't log out safely, so just sit tight. Use your Spriggan illusion spells to hide yourself if you have to until we get there. }
{ Kirito: But I can't just sit here! }
{ Leafa: Suck it up buttercup. Just hide and wait. }
{ Kirito: I want to keep going. Don't worry, I'll be careful. Signing out. }
Leafa furiously typed out 'WAIT!' but it was too late. Kirito had closed the connection before Leafa could finish the response.
Leafa shook her fists up at the heavens. "Kirito, you are so baka! Baka, baka, baka!"
Sachi calmed her down. "C'mon, forget it. We need to get going." She noticed that Recon was leaning against a pole, half asleep. "And don't forget Recon."
"Oh just ignore him. He'll only slow us down. We already got Kirto's location."
"No, we still need him. Alfheim is a big place and we only have a general idea where Kirito is. We will need Recon's tracking skills to pinpoint him, especially if he's using illusion magic to hide from a monster or something."
"Okay, okay, fine." Leafa gave Recon a kick in the butt. "Hey, sleepyhead, let's go!"
The sun had long since set and the Blue Moon was rapidly dropping out of the sky. Leafa and Sachi were now sitting together at a campfire, a designated safe spot. Recon said he was tired and had already logged out. He said he would return at sunrise, about an hour from now.
The two sisters were camped inside a large round wooded clearing. They were sitting on a fallen log, one of hundreds that had fallen in a circular pattern during one of their earlier kinetic dives on the Salamanders.
That was four months ago. To Sachi it seemed like an eternity now.
The two fairies continued to watch the flames dance before them as they sat.
Sachi huddled down, wrapping her arms around herself.
Leafa asked, "You cold?"
"No, not really." If anything the night was on the warm side. "It's just that I.. I don't like this. This place."
Leafa asked, "The forest or the game?"
"Both."
Leafa understood. "Bad memories huh?"
They were camped not far from the location of Sachi's second death. After that experience she had vowed that she would never wear a halo ever again.
Sachi pulled her arms tighter together and huddled down even more. She could almost feel the monsters surrounding her, watching her, from the tree line. It was a feeling she had not had since Kirito protected her from the monsters in SAO.
Leafa moved herself closer, encircling Sachi's shoulders in her arm. "Don't worry, I'll protect you from any monsters. You won't die again in here. I promise."
Sachi turned and made small smile. "Thank you."
Leafa hesitated. "Still, if something should happen, do you think you can handle it? Otherwise maybe you shouldn't have dived..."
Sachi interrupted, "No, I have to be here." She sat up straight. "I can handle it. Kirito needs me."
Leafa understood Sachi's determination all too well. She knew that whenever Sachi had made up her mind about something like this that she could be just as committed and obsessive as Kazuto.
Hmm, if those two ever went at loggerheads against each other I wonder which one would blink first?
Leafa dropped the suggestion and sighed, "You're right. He needs me too. Both of us. He's a babe in the woods right now."
"Totally."
Leafa picked up a stick and poked the fire.
The fire dance continued as the fairies gazed into it.
Finally Leafa asked quietly, "How's your stomach?"
Sachi touched her midsection gently. "Still hurts."
"Me too."
Sachi lowered her head.
Leafa studied her. "Anything else?"
Sachi looked up again at the campfire.
There was a pause.
Sachi finally admitted, "Leafa, I am so messed up."
"Wanna talk about it?"
The smaller Sylph sighed, "I dunno.."
Leafa leaned in. "Hey, we share everything now, right? No secrets. Something is bugging you. I can tell."
Should I tell Sugu?
No secrets. We did promise.
"Sugu, you have to swear never to tell anyone. Especially not Kirito."
"Okay, I won't. I promise hope to die. What is it?"
"Well, uh.. well.. uhm.. oh, this is hard.."
"Go on."
"Well, you see I had a dream."
"A dream?"
"A dream about Kirito."
"What kind of dream?"
"A bad one."
"How bad?"
"Really bad."
The petite Sylph's eyes fell in shame.
Leafa pulled back in surprise. She turned on the log to face away from her.
Sachi saw her sister's emotional withdrawal from herself. She jumped up. "Sugu, I'm sorry!"
Leafa was now facing the opposite direction away from the campfire.
Sachi went on, "I try, I really do. But I can't help it!"
Sachi sat back down next to her facing the same direction. "Sugu? Please don't hate me."
Leafa made a wan smile. "It's okay. If you say you can't help it I believe you. It's probably just your VRDP thing, right?"
"Maybe? I dunno.. I'm still sorry."
"Hey, I understand."
They both continued to watch the campfire. The embers danced in Leafa's eyes.
No, Sachi, it is not your VRDP thing.
And I know why.
Unlike Sachi, Suguha wasn't ready to confess just how deep her crush actually was.
You think you have dreams? So do I.
You feel guilty about it? Well, I've done worse than you.
Suguha remembered her times alone in her bedroom thinking of him. She was relieved that it hadn't happened in a while, not since their 3-way confession in the dojo. She was not sure why it stopped, but maybe it was because she had confessed her feelings, and in his gentle rejection of her she knew that he would never reciprocate that way, so the fantasy no longer matched reality.
Leafa decided to change the subject. She opened up her menu and looked at the real time clock that was embedded in the title bar on the right side.
"Mom should be coming home from work soon."
Sachi remembered that Midori had announced that she was going to do some investigating and report back. "Oh, that's right. I forgot. I should log out and touch base with her. See what she found."
"Good idea."
"It might be a while depending on what she dug up. Leafa, if I'm not back by sunrise go on ahead and I'll catch up."
"Right."
"And make sure you take Recon with you."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Sachi logged out.
When Sachi awoke from her dive her first real physical sensation was the touch of Suguha's hand, the same as always. She gently unclasped their interlocking fingers as Suguha continued to lay unconscious on her own futon, her AmuSphere's LED lights still blinking away.
They had always logged off together, but not this time. Sachi kneeled near Suguha's head and whispered some words.
Please find him. Protect him.
She got up and checked on Kazuto, then she went downstairs to the main level. She spotted Midori's coffee thermos in the kitchen sink.
Oh good, Mom is home.
Sachi ran down to Midori's basement office door. She saw that it was closed. A light was streaming out from under it.
She was just about to knock on the door when she heard two people talking in hushed tones. One was Midori, and the other was an older man whose voice she did not recognize.
"This is dangerous. They're both sociopaths. That man could kill you without batting an eye."
"But Reo-kun, what other choice do we have? We can't go to the police."
"No, you are right about that. But don't do this yourself. Let me do it."
"I can't possibly ask you to..."
"You have family, I don't. You're on his radar now along with your son. While your son is inside, that man could easily grab him as another hostage, do anything to him, use him as leverage against you. I'm just an old fisherman now. I don't care if they get me."
"No, Reo-kun, you don't have to do this. This isn't your battle."
"Ah, but it is. I had helped create and design that terrible prison, remember? I am as responsible as anyone. Doing this is the least that I can do to make amends."
"But.."
"No, it's settled then."
There was a pause.
"If I don't get the chance to ever see either of you again, please give Minetaka my regards."
She sighed, "You can do that yourself when he returns. Reo-kun, I can't in good conscience ask you to do this."
"It's already decided." Sachi heard a chuckle. "You know, sometimes I think Minetaka doesn't know how lucky he is..."
"Reo-kun just stop it, you old sweet talker you."
"Well it's true, isn't it? He won over the White Angel."
"Reo! I wish you white hats would stop calling me that. It's so embarrassing!"
He ignored her as he rambled on, reliving the past. "Oh, I remember how much competition he had. It was when I first saw you in that CS programming class that I was auditing when I was 35. You were the only young woman in a lecture hall with 180 other young male Computer Science students. I so enjoyed watching them dote attendance on you, hovering around you, flattering you like in a reverse harem anime show, heh. And then you blew them all off for an economics major at another university!*** Oh the heartbreak of so many young men.."
Sachi heard her mother's half-hearted plea to halt the flattery. "Just stop it, you silly old man."
"Hey, a man my age lives mostly in his memories. Anyway, like I said, I'll do it. No arguments. You just be careful. That man at RECT is another sociopath like Kayaba. He is probably watching the White Angel like a hawk right now."
Sachi decided that she had eavesdropped enough. She knocked on the door. "Mom?"
Midori recognized her voice. "Sachi! Come on in! You are just in time. I have an old friend here that I'd like you to meet."
Sachi slowly opened the door and peered in. She saw an old man sitting in a folding chair next to Midori. He appeared to be in his fifties, mostly bald, with gray tufts of hair around his ears. His square eyeglasses contrasted with his egg shaped head.
Midori spoke from her own office chair, "Sachi, let me introduce you to Reo Fujiwara, the senior telecommunications engineer for Tohto Broadband Connection Ltd."
Fujiwara immediately stood up and bowed as he smiled pleasantly at Sachi. "Semi-retired. Delighted to meet you."
As he rose back up he appraised the teenage girl. He grinned, then he turned to address his former classmate from decades ago. As he did so his eyes twinkled. "Midori-chan, you did not tell me that you were hiding another beautiful angel in your home!"
Midori waved him off. "Sachi, don't listen to him. He's a dirty old man."
He winked at the girl. "That's right, I am."
They were both joking of course. Sachi did her own appraisal of him in return. She was able to see past his scurrilous and playful banter, and in his placid gray-green eyes she saw a kind and gentle soul, a man who was at peace with himself and the world.
"My, my, three beautiful angels living under one roof..."
Despite all of his flummery Sachi immediately took a liking to him. She felt that she could implicitly trust him, the same way she had felt about Nurse Kurosawa.
Midori resumed the introductions. "Reo-kun, let me introduce you to my daughter-to-be, Sachi Kirigaya."
Sachi quickly corrected her. "My name is Sachi Watanabe. It won't change until the adoption paperwork is formalized. But please, just call me Sachi."
"Nice to meet you, Sachi. You can call me Reo, or call me Nishida, my SAO handle."
Sachi pulled out a second folding chair for herself and everyone sat down. The fit was tight so they kept the door open.
Midori went on to explain, "Reo-kun's telecommunications company was the primary subcontractor that implemented SAO's WAN network for Argus. He was one of the senior engineers who designed the network and its security infrastructure before he was trapped in the game."
Fujiwara explained briefly about what he had done, and how he was rather proud of the fact that his triple-redundant WAN network design had stayed up running non-stop for two years without a losing single minute of downtime. Midori chimed in that it was because of his efforts, in part, that nobody had died in the game.
Sachi was impressed. "Thank you so much, sir. I'm sure all of us who played SAO are in your debt."
He looked down. "All I did was unwittingly help to entrap you poor children. Once we were all locked in together I knew there was no way of getting out again."
Midori tried to console him, "Reo-kun, stop blaming yourself. You didn't know."
Sachi changed the subject. "Sir, did we ever meet in SAO? I don't recall."
"No. I never left floor 22 once I found that great fishing lake. Took up fishing there, favorite hobby, not much else. Played out my Old Man and the Sea fantasy, heh. I knew your step-brother pretty well."
Sachi leaned forward with interest. "You did?"
"Oh yes. He actually caught that dang fish. Dunno how he did that."
He sat back in his chair and reminisced, "I think he was retired himself at that point. He moved in with his family. Great guy, great wife - she was gorgeous, just gorgeous. Kid was cute as a button. They bought this nice little wooden cabin down the road from me and settled down.."
He stopped when he noticed that Midori's eyes were shouting at him to stop talking.
He sat up again, a bit confused. "Oh, uh, sorry?"
Sachi said softly, "No, it's quite all right."
Sachi's hand unconsciously moved itself to her stomach.
My plan.
I was going to wait.
I was going to stay at his side forever.
He'd become an adult with me. Then he'd realize his feelings, and then I would have joyfully given myself to him.
Home, family, children..
Living in our home together, walking together in the sunlight, hand in hand, our child riding on his shoulders, laughing. Making love in the moonlight..
Growing old together.
And now that will never be.
Midori correctly guessed Sachi's thoughts and quickly spoke.
"Oh honey, I'm so sorry. I knew that Nishida had fished with Kirito, but I didn't realize he and Asuna were staying at that cabin in the same place."
"It's all right.."
It was now Midori's turn to quickly change the subject. "Sachi, dear, I'm glad you are here to meet Reo-kun. He and I have been talking and we think we might have a plan to rescue Asuna. Well, part of one anyway."
Rescue Asuna?
Sachi nodded as she waited to hear the start of their plan.
They both explained that, although their plan was still very much in its early stages, and even with the computer hacking part already fully fleshed out (and with Nishida confident that it could be done), that much more information still needed to be gathered before they could try to save Asuna. They told her that her own part might be the key to rescuing her.
Rescue Asuna.
And then, as she absorbed the information..
She hated herself for her next thought.
What if I failed?
No one would know..
She bitterly hated herself even more for the awful, awful, thought that came next.
Asuna could die. Or she might never wake up..
The awful, terrible, thoughts kept coming into her head, unbidden.
They were like her other thoughts, the ones in her impure dreams with Kirito. No matter how hard she tried the bad thoughts kept coming, and they simply would not go away.
Stop it! Stop it!
Get out of my head! Get out!
Please, just get out!
Someone gently touched her shoulder. Sachi was jolted back to reality.
She saw that Midori was now standing over her as she sat in her folding chair. They were alone now. Apparently Fujiwara had already gone home.
"Sachi? Dear? Wake up."
Sachi looked up at her. "Mom?"
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine now."
Sachi closed her eyes. She prepared to put on a false mask for her mother. When she was ready she opened them again. "I must have triggered. Silly me. It's just that VRDP thing. Don't worry about it."
"Oh Sachi, I feel so terrible. Please, my darling, please forgive me.."
"Mom, you didn't know." Then she added, "Sorry for spacing out like that. Uh, maybe you can explain again to me what I need to do?"
"All right."
Midori sat back down again. "As we explained, right now we need to gather more information. Thanks to Tomoya's close-up photos of the Argus servers, and with Reo filling in the details on how the network operates, I think we have the computer part pretty much nailed down at this point. The problem now is that we need more information on the hospital side. And for that we need an insider."
"Me."
"I won't lie to you, honey. It could be dangerous."
"I know. I'm ready."
"Even so, let's be sure about this, make sure you understand the risks. I want to go over it all with you carefully.."
Midori then proceeded to give her detailed instructions over the next several minutes.
".. don't do anything on your own. Go directly to your boss.. "
".. remember, RECT owns the hospital. Their campus is right next door.."
".. watch out for bugs.."
".. and try to find out how Asuna's father is involved in this. That part doesn't make sense.. "
After Midori had finished giving her daughter her instructions she went on to discuss other things, work out ideas, and ponder on the unanswered questions regarding Asuna's fate. Mostly she was talking to herself at this point. Sachi continued to listen intently.
After an hour Midori was done. Both of them yawned. Midori checked the time. "Oh my, sunrise already? Well, no rest for the weary."
She yawned again. "I'll have to go back to work in an hour. Sachi, why don't you take a bath? You should be able to take one and still get to the hospital before Kurosawa comes in."
"But then you won't get one. Let's do a bath together, save time."
"You sure?"
"Of course. You're my Mom."
Midori hugged her. "Okay."
Sachi was originally planning to rejoin Leafa at the campsite, but that opportunity had long since passed.
Well, Leafa, I guess you get to train Kirito-baka-triple-baka on your own. Good luck. I'll join you as soon as I can.
Leafa yelled at Kirito again. "No! You're over-throttling the controller!"
"Look, can we just drop the controller already? It's not working."
She summarily yanked him up from the ground again by his armpits. This time she didn't bother to wait for him to brush off the dirt from his coat. "Now pay attention this time."
Kirito had watched closely when Leafa had first picked him up and carried him into the air to show him how it was done. She had flown with him like Christopher Reeves holding Lois Lane next to him in Superman (1979) as they soared together in the most romantic part of the film.
Leafa took Kirito up into the air again. Recon followed behind, his breath taken away.
Normally Leafa was haughty, and even rude, with everyone around her. Particularly with him. But when she was in the air like this? She changed.
When she flew she was different. She became one with the wind, soaring magnificently, effortlessly graceful, like the greatest of eagles.
Recon watched her dreamily from behind as she gracefully held Kirito aloft.
She's my angel.
Leafa was holding Kirito's right arm as they gained altitude.
He said, "Look, I think I got it now. Let's forget the controller."
She continued to hold him up. "Kirito, you'll need it until you are proficient. Just keep watching me."
"I said forget it."
"Kirito, don't be so stubborn."
"I don't need it. I want to try flying without it."
"You don't need it? Okay, fine, show me!"
Leafa dropped him without warning. He rapidly plummeted out of the sky.
"Gaah!"
Kirito spun around crazily, then he righted himself like a parachutist, falling flat into the wind, his arms and legs splayed out wide.
He closed his eyes and concentrated.
Wings...
Then he opened his eyes again and dived.
Recon was aghast, thinking that Kirito was going to crash into the ground hard again, but this time he didn't. Just before impact he pulled up with a beautiful rising curve, twisting gracefully, with tiny sparkles of light trailing from his broad black-gray wings.
"Yee hah! I got it!"
He spun and twirled in the air. Leafa whooped and joined him, spiralling around him, twisting and intersecting, their paths traced with gossamer trails of light. "Yes! Woo whee!"
Kirito did the same as they both shouted with laughter and joy. Then Leafa captured him. Together they oriented themselves upright in mid air, facing each other, holding each other by the arm and waist as if they were two elegant ballroom dancers rotating gracefully on an invisible ballroom floor. Leafa smiled at her dear brother as they slowly revolved around each other, and he did the same. Suguha was inwardly glad that Sachi was not here to see it.
Recon sighed again as the pair slowly drifted to earth in their mutual embrace.
So beautiful..
They landed.
"Kirito, you're ready."
"Yeah. Let's go."
"Want a break?"
"No. Asuna is waiting for me."
"Right. Lugru Corridor then."
The pair took off at high speed. Recon yelled, "Hey, wait for me!"
And so, the Fairie Dance had begun.
It was 8:00 a.m. Sachi was just about to knock on Nurse Kurosawa's office door when it opened unexpectedly.
Kurosawa said, "Oh, hello Sachi. My, you are early today."
"Hello. Uh, yes, I am."
"So, what brings you to my office so early in the morning?"
Sachi remembered what Midori had said about bugs. She thought quickly. "I want to discuss changing my work hours."
"You do?"
"Uh, yes. Working evenings means I spend too little time with my new family now, particularly my Mom and sister. I want to change that."
"I see. Well, I came in pretty early myself. Haven't had breakfast yet. I was just going to the hospital cafe to get a nice omelette. Would you like to join me?"
"I'd be delighted."
Sachi was sitting on a small park bench with her bento box in the hospital garden. The garden was located in the back of the main building, a quiet and serene place for contemplation and for privacy.
Nurse Kurosawa unfolded her napkin, then picked up the chopsticks that were on her lap breakfast tray. She joked, "If if I nod off just poke me. I'm afraid I did not get much sleep last night."
Sachi looked down, "I didn't get any sleep either."
"Oh?"
"Had some things on my mind."
"I see."
Kurosawa took a chance. "It must be hard with him so close, sleeping next to you just a few doors away."
Sachi's head snapped up. Apparently Kurosawa knew. She decided to be honest. "Yes, it is."
Kurosawa realized that other matters were pressing. However, she also knew that this might be her only opportunity to help the poor girl with her personal struggles, so she decided to continue.
"You love him, yes?"
Sachi confessed, "Yes, I do."
"I see. And how exactly do you love him?"
"How?"
"Is it storge, philia, eros, or agape?"
"I am afraid that I don't understand those foreign words."
"I'm sorry, I thought you knew about The Four Loves*4, the greek words for the different kinds of love found in the New Testament."
"I'm sorry, I don't."
"Well these are the four greek words for love that appear in the original text of the NT. They are usually translated as 'love' in English, or 'koi' or 'ai' in Japanese. Briefly, storge is the innate familial love between parent and child or other direct biological family members. It is the lowest form of love. Animals have this, and it is instinctive for them.
"The next level is called philia, the love shared between close friends in a shared bond based on common values or interests. Unlike storge it is voluntary, not biological. Philia can run deep, for example in the close friendship between David and Jonathan in the Bible, or between Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings. The city of Philadelphia in the United States is named after it, 'The City of Brotherly Love'.
"The third kind of love is called eros, which means intimate or romantic love. It is not necessarily sexual, though it often is.
"The fourth and highest kind of love is agape [ah-gah-pay], which refers to a kind of selfless or self-sacrificing love that exists regardless of changing circumstances. It is the kind of self-sacrificial love that Jesus gave us on the Cross, and it is the kind He expects us to give each other and to Him in return.
"Now, there is actually an even higher kind, a fifth kind, called in greek [redacted].*5 As far as I know it was first described in detail by a 21st century monk named R.W. Kropf who lived in the Stella Maris Hermitage in rural Michigan. His treatise, The Five Loves, was posted at StellaMar dot net back in 2002 but is no longer available on-line.
"I was only able to contact Kropf a couple times by e-mail. Since then I suspect that he has moved on to glory, which is a pity because his writings on the Bible at StellarMar dot net were some of the most incredibly deep and profound commentaries on His Word that I had ever seen, and they all seem to be gone now.
"Anyway, I suspect that you have loves number 2 [philia] and number 4 [agape] for Kirito. Am I correct?"
Sachi said that she was indeed correct. She loved him like a brother, and she would do anything to save or protect him.
"And what about number 3 [eros]?"
Sachi looked down again. Then she looked up. "I know, I know. It's awful. It happens in my dreams. I can't help it. I try, I really do. I feel so terrible."
"I see. And with Kirito sleeping right next door to you the physical temptation must be quite strong."
"I know, it must be. Why else do I keep having these awful dreams?"
"Have you acted on those feelings?"
"No, of course not."
"Then don't feel guilty about it."
"Huh?"
"You are just resisting temptation. Sachi, it is okay. What you are feeling is perfectly normal."
"I don't understand."
"We are all tempted by something at one time or another. Even Jesus was tempted.*6"
"Really?"
"Yes. He was fasting in the desert for 40 days and nights. He was literally starving. You see, temptation is an objective force that acts upon our inherent weaknesses and vulnerabilities. It's an external force. So when Satan tried to coax Jesus into turning stone into bread, it said nothing bad about Jesus nor His character. He was simply exposed to that particular temptation at that particular time.
"It is how we react to our temptations that matters. An alcoholic should be neither criticized nor punished for the urge to take a drink. On the contrary, he should be supported and lauded for fighting it successfully. What matters is whether he actually takes that drink, whether we give in to our temptations.
"The best way to defend yourself is to call upon Him for support."
"I see. Thank you. That makes me feel better."
Kurosawa picked up her chopsticks and starting eating her food again. "So, why did you come to my office, Sachi? I know it wasn't just to change your hours."
Sachi glanced around furtively to make sure no one was watching, then she pulled out the screen shot of Asuna from her pocket. She unfolded it and showed it to Kurosawa.
Kurosawa put down her chopsticks and put on her reading glasses. She studied the image closely. "Explain this to me."
Sachi did so in detail, including much of what Midori had told her.
Kurosawa removed her reading glasses and looked down for a moment. Then she looked back up and sighed, "I knew that something fishy was going on right from day 1. The permanent staff were acting oddly. Many of them have terrible bedside manners, haughty, lording over my own staff. They kept taking the children over to the red side, ostensibly to do research on their mental health or to find ways to release the helmets. But whenever I asked to escort one of the them over there I was summarily and rudely denied access. Here I am, the third highest ranking administrator in this hospital, and they were deliberately keeping me out of the loop!"
"Have you tried contacting the Ministry of Health? MINFO? Mr. Kikuoka?"
"I made some discreet inquiries, called in some favors. Unfortunately my step-brother is out of the country right now and isn't reachable. What I did find out was that some faction of the government seems to be involved, but I'm not sure which one.
"What worries me the most is that the permanent staff are acting like they are untouchable. It is as if they know that they have some kind of trump card. It is not hard to guess what that might be."
"The 300."
"Right."
"Hostages."
"Probably."
"My Mom suspects that too. It's why she wanted me to contact you."
"Smart woman. I'd like to meet her and compare notes, but not here."
Kurosawa's face showed grim determination. "One way or another we will get to the bottom of this."
"Ma'am, please, be careful. I overheard Mom. She said they might kill anyone who got in their way."
"Hmm. I found a bug in my office, removed it, and it reappeared again the next day. It was as if they were challenging me to do something about it." Kurosawa sat up straight with resolve, "Well, I don't care. They can't harm me, no matter how hard they try to intimidate me."
"But ma'am.."
"No, let me show you why." Kurosawa then raised her hand and grabbed a fistful of hair on the top of her head. She pulled and her wig came off.
She was bald.
She smiled at Sachi, "You see, in my own way I am untouchable too. Stage 4 myeloproliferative neoplasmosis." She put her wig back on. "It's why I retired as soon as I could after S-F day. I came back only because these children have about 6-18 months left, same as me, and I had promised myself that I would never let any of them die before I do, not even one."
Sachi was shocked into silence.
"It's all right, my dear. I'll be going Home soon. At my age I'm looking forward to it actually."
"Home?"
"Heaven, my dear."
"Heaven.."
Kurosawa looked wistful. "Yes, I try to imagine it sometimes...*7"
Sachi was curious. "What is it like? Do you know?"
Kurosawa was indulgent with the inquisitive girl. "Let me ask you a question first. Tell me, what do you think Heaven is like?"
Sachi thought a moment. "Well, I know that on TV cartoons they show everyone laying around on fluffly white clouds, doing nothing but relaxing all day, maybe strumming a harp or something?"
Kurosawa laughed long and loud. "Haha! They couldn't be more wrong."
"They are?"
"Oh yes. Go read Revelation 5. Everybody is doing something. Everybody is active. It's a busy place. In Heaven you get put to work. I admit that some of it might seem a bit cliche, like singing hymns in the heavenly choir, but it will still be really interesting. Some people will go to work in other mansions, maybe get assigned roles in physical worlds, perhaps as spirits, perhaps as something else. Some of the roles will be quite powerful. Take Revelation 2 for example. It describes the saints helping Christ to rule 'with a rod of iron'. The greek word is poimanei, which is derived from the word for a shepherd, poimen. Paul uses the same word in Acts 20:28 to describe overseers. So apparently some people in Heaven will be given positions of considerable authority and power."
"Wow."
"Well, like I said I am looking forward to it, to finally be able to see Him face to face. That's why it doesn't matter what they do to me now because they can't hurt me.
"The problem right now is that I'm under constant electronic surveillance, so I can't sneak around or do anything on the computer to find out what they are up to. You see, they are screen-scraping and keylogging my computer too."
"Ma'am, I can do it for you. Nobody is watching me."
"True. They only monitor you when you are with Kirito. Still, there is no way I could possibly ask you.."
"Ma'am, I said I'd do it."
"But Sachi, is your mother okay with.."
Sachi interrupted, "She said she would put it in your hands. She is in their crosshairs too. Look, we need to save Asuna, those 300 children. And we are the only ones who can do it."
Kurosawa sighed again. "You are so brave. Your mother is too." She looked down in apparent silence for a minute, then she nodded to herself and came to a decision.
"We'll take the chance together. If they catch you maybe you can bluff them. Wait an hour, then go to your shoe locker."
"Got it."
"Sachi, we can never meet again like this, not at the hospital. It will be too dangerous for you."
"I understand."
"We will need to arrange for a new meeting location. Your mother too, and everyone else involved in our little conspiracy."
Sachi though a moment. Agil.
"I know the perfect place."
An hour later, Sachi opened the door to the women's locker room, checked the hallway, and stepped out. She was wearing red scrubs. Around her neck was a red ID badge and a red keycard that she had found in her shoe locker. The ID badge was for one of the permanent staff who happened to not be on duty that day and whose face and hairstyle looked a bit similar to Sachi's.
She then walked out with purpose and headed for the elevator. She pressed the button to go up to one of the main wards on floor 4. She intended to loiter somewhere and wait for one of the orderlies to wheel a medical bed with an SAO patient down to the red doors that were near the loading dock in the back of the hospital. Sachi had seen it happen several times.
The elevator opened and Sachi started to enter it, but she was blocked by an orderly pushing out a medical bed. She quickly lowered her head and mumbled "Excuse me" and she stepped back to allow the orderly to exit the elevator.
The orderly gave her a quick frown, then he proceeded to push the medical bed down the hall.
Under the NerveGear helmet she saw thick flowing red hair. Sachi suppressed a gasp.
The orderly continued to leisurely push Asuna's medical bed down the hall in the direction of the loading dock. Sachi pretended to enter the elevator, then as the door was closing she hit the Door Open button and she popped out again and started to follow from a discreet distance.
She turned the corner and saw the orderly swipe his red keycard to open the red doors, which then closed behind him. She counted to 20 and then walked to the red doors herself. She swiped her red keycard with the camera watching and went inside.
Inside was a small vestibule for a second elevator and stairway going down. The elevator doors were already closed. She took the stairs.
The stairs went down about 10 meters to a landing. She saw a fire door which was not locked. There was no other exit from the area so she went through the door. She was now standing at the start of a long lighted underground hallway that ran between the hospital and the RECT Progress campus that was on the other side of the highway. She could hear the faint muffled sounds of vehicle traffic overhead.
Far down the corridor she could see Asuna being wheeled along. She walked briskly down the tunnel to try to catch up. Another permanent staff member passed her in red scrubs, but he was so engrossed with playing Angry Birds on his smartphone that he did not even look up.
In the distance she saw the orderly stop with Asuna's medical bed at a pair of large red double doors at the end of the hall. He swiped his keycard and went inside. Meanwhile, Sachi turned and entered a women's restroom nearby and waited until she could hear the orderly walking back to the hospital. She peered out and saw him receding back to the elevator vestibule, then she turned and walked towards the double doors.
She took a deep breath, swiped her keycard, and went inside.
She was now in a large white room that sprawled away into the distance for at least 50 meters. She saw a dozen medical beds, each with an SAO victim, connected to a pylon that showed brain readouts, ECG charts, and other neurological information.
On a nearby workbench she saw several USB data sticks, each about an inch long. On a whim she grabbed one and stuffed it into one of the pockets of her scrubs.
The pylons were large enough for her to hide behind them, so she crept forward, moving from one pylon to the next, until she saw Asuna's bed only a few meters away. It was not yet connected up.
She saw two techs standing on either side of Asuna's bed. Both were corpulent and ugly, with each one wearing gaudy purple scrubs with smocks that covered their bloated bellies and lower halves.
The techs stood over Asuna's supine body as Sachi listened and watched from her nearby hiding place. They were facing away and did not see her peeking around the pylon in their direction.
The first tech said, "She's a nice one, ain't she?"
The second tech leered over her and stroked her hair with a gloved hand. "Oh yeah."
He then moved his hand down to Asuna's gown to pull it open.
Sachi almost jumped out at him right then. She had to use all of her willpower to hold herself back.
Fortunately before anything indecent was showing the first tech had pushed the hands of the second tech away from Asuna's front and closed her gown again. "No, don't. The boss said this one is special. He might walk in."
"Aw. Well, we got plenty of other ones we can play with, right?"
Sachi pulled out her smartphone and pressed the Record button.
The first tech chuckled, "Heh, yeah." Then he joked, "Hey, maybe we can program one just for you? A personal pet to cater to your every whim?"
The second tech raised his open hand. "Yeah! We should do that! High five!"
The first tech did not complete the high five and frowned at him. "I was just kidding you idiot. We both know it doesn't work that way. It's not hypnosis. Besides, even Krell the Magnificent himself couldn't hypnotize any girl enough to make her love your ugly mug."
"Feh."
"Remember, it's subtle. It has to be. We're gonna eventually be targeting world leaders, right? Those guys are surrounded by smart and loyal lackeys who've known them for years, so it has to be undetectable even to someone who knows the target really well. Even family. That's why all we do is insert one simple idea, a single suggestion, that's it.
"We do it like in the film Inception [2010]. Make the target think he thought of it himself." (In that film the brain hackers had inserted an idea into the head of a billionaire oil magnate in order to convince him to agree to sign an oil distribution contract with the businessman who paid for the brain hack.)
"That's why you can't just force a girl like her," he gestured at Asuna, "to suddenly fall in love with you. Love is complex emotion tied to thousands of memories and experiences, and there just ain't no way we can do all that. Even our new advanced memory edit ability - which Inception did not have by the way - can't do that. The best we can do is change one concrete memory or event. Just one. That's all."
"Bah."
The second tech then plugged Asuna into the pylon. It lit up with status displays and charts that included a rotating computer-generated image of her brain.
"The instructions say one hour of inception."
"Hmm. Just one? Pretty minimal. Wonder what he's feeding into her."
"Don't know and don't care. I'm hungry. Lunch?"
"Sure."
As the purple pair of techs waddled off together to the far exit door the first tech said, "Too bad I couldn't play with her."
The second tech slapped the back of the first, "Don't worry! I'm sure we can find somethin' else here for yah, all nice and tasty."
"Aw, I'm tired of dolls. I like 'em moving and feisty..." The doors closed behind them.
Sachi came out of her hiding place. She was so conflicted. She had wanted to just yank out the data cable right out of Asuna's pylon, but she knew that it might hurt her, and it might also set off a bunch of alarms. They had said 'pretty minimal' so maybe whatever they were doing wasn't that terrible? She wondered if she should instead just give her audio recording to Nurse Kurosawa and ask her what to do next.
While she was still pondering her next move, a strong arm suddenly grabbed her from behind.
She froze.
Slowly she turned and saw a big burly orderly gripping her upper arm.
The large hairy man growled, "What the hell are you doing here?"
With his arm extended she saw the tattoo peeking out from under his half-sleeved tunic. She recognized it. It was the orderly who had challenged Nurse Kurosawa regarding the permanent staff roster.
Sachi was now looking into the eyes of a member of the Laughing Coffin Guild, a man who in SAO had gleefully killed six young players without remorse..
"Well?"
.. and soon she might be number seven.
A/N:
* See episode 12.
** In the original version of this story, the reason Yui was missing was that Akihiko Kayaba had taken MHCP001 out of SAO just before Aincrad was destroyed. He had compressed her egg of data down to a small 100 TB M.2 NVMe SSD (about the size of a cigarette lighter) and smuggled it with him to Borneo in order to further study her, the world's first self-aware A.I. He saw in her the culmination of all of his many years of research into emergent phenomena (cf Chapter 1). He brought with him enough processing power to activate Yui's Heart and had awakened her and put her in a standalone server in a jungle hut with a gas powered electric generator. There I had set up a series of 1-on-1 philosophical discussions between the childlike AI, who was more intelligent than any human, and the creator of SAO. However, after sketching out the first dialog I had become worried that the talks might become too digressive and would take too much time away from the main story, so the whole side plot was eventually dropped. Instead, Yui is simply missing for reasons as yet unexplained.
*** You think this is partly autobiographical because of my bio? Whatever gave you that idea?
*4 C.S. Lewis defines the four types of love at www dot cslewis dot com slash four-types-of-love.
*5 See The Fifth Kind of Love. To find it click on my handle at the top (HuuskerDu). If you don't want to read the whole thing you can just spoil yourself and jump to Chapter 27, The Heart of Sunshine, where I explain what [redacted] really is and describe it in detail.
*6 Mt 4-11, Mk 1:12-13, Lk 4:1-13
*7 Based on recent discoveries in cosmological physics and quantum mechanics I have written a technical description of how I think Heaven might work (a higher reality that is more 'real' than our own). It is a one-shot fic based on the SF film Interstellar (2014) called The Dying of the Light. (Warning: Heavy math/physics.)
H/T to PrincessArien, S10MC2015, AmethystPone, flo463, Chronostorm, The Wondering Soul of 1014, and SaintInfernalNeos for answering all my techy questions about ALO game mechanics. Thank you so much!
The hospital has referred me to a sleep clinic for apnea. I'll probaby be hooked up to a CPAP soon. More fun!
As always, thank you for reading.
-HuuskerDu