Dreamers of the Day - Book One - Part Two - The Archer II
Yuuki Kyouko rose at exactly 6:00AM in the bedroom she shared with her husband, separate beds side by side. From 6:05 to 6:25 she took her morning exercise in their home gymnasium. 6:30, shower. 6:40, dressed and made up in clothes laid out to suit her schedule; fashionable business attire of a conservative yet perennial cut, burgundy, suitable for visiting the headquarters of RECT's corporate partner ARGUS.
By 6:45 she was seated at the breakfast table, a cod roe omelet, orange juice, and a steaming cup of imported organic coffee, black, served on fine porcelain, as she reviewed her morning correspondence on a tablet.
She had an interdepartmental meeting the next day and it fell to her to advocate for next year's changes and budget proposals to conform to the national education standards. Kyouko wasn't too concerned, she did nothing without first guaranteeing success, and had been maneuvering to bring senior faculty around to her position for months, but the meeting was hardly a formality either, the presentation needed to be impeccable to lock in her gains.
"Good morning, mother." A soft melodic voice greeted cordially. It was a Sunday, so Yuuki Asuna was not dressed in the immaculate uniform of her prestigious preparatory high school, but rather in a cream blouse and dark women's slacks in a demure style, wholly appropriate to her daughter's station, that had cost more than an entire wardrobe of the sort of tacky trash worn by lesser girls.
"Asuna." Kyouko acknowledged as her daughter seated herself and was efficiently served by a member of the staff.
"Thank you, Kobayashi-san. This looks delicious." Asuna complimented courteously.
The maid moved to quickly refill Kyouko's coffee. "Thank you, Kobayashi." Kyouko acknowledged the maid servant curtly.
Mother and daughter took breakfast together in prolonged silence as the light of the golden hour spilled in through tall windows. "So you'll be visiting my brother's work today, is that right?"
Kyouko paused as she began to cut into her omelet. "It is a minor social function on behalf of our family's business interests."
"Meeting with board members, or something like that?" Asuna smiled.
"Something like that, yes." In fact, Kyouko didn't much see the point of this preposterous thing. An inauguration ceremony for a place that didn't really exist. But it was expected that members of the Yuuki family would participate, a show of faith in their company's product, and Shou had always been passionate about his business endeavors.
He'd even had Kouichirou show him how to use one of those accursed things so he could see what all the fuss was about for himself. Thereafter, whenever her husband and son had discussed the business partnership with ARGUS they'd practically spoken in a foreign language.
"In any case, I expect to be back no later than 6:00PM." Kyouko said. "If I'm kept late, please eat without me, I will get something on my way home."
"Yes, mother." Asuna answered dutifully, seeming suddenly more subdued then when she had entered the room.
Kyouko regarded her daughter. Asuna's latest national test results had been exemplary, there was still room for improvement, but if she maintained her current performance her admittance to the Tokyo University economics program would be a near certainty.
A prestigious education from a prestigious school would ensure her lifelong success, that would only leave . . . "Next Sunday we will start on the marriage interviews." Kyouko reminded calmly, it had been three months since she and Shouzou had sought their daughter's consent to begin the process.
Of course this was simply the preliminary stages, it could be more than a year before an acceptable suitor was selected. The engagement would go on while Asuna completed her undergraduate courses. But her daughter's prospects were as good as her grades, several promising young men from within the Yuuki family's close circle of associates were being considered, including Shouzou's own protege, as well as the possibility of a favorable marriage into a certain respectable business dynasty whose holdings naturally complimented those of the Yuuki family.
"It will be a Lunch meeting. I've already booked a table at Esterre." Asuna liked the food there, and the idyllic location, overlooking the national gardens, would be an auspicious location to start the matchmaking process. "Mrs Oshida and I will be chaperones." The Oshida matriarch's middle son was scarcely older than Asuna, and also, while Asuna's academics were impeccable, the same could not quite be said for her behavior.
They were small things, adolescent outbursts, to be expected at Asuna's age. Her teachers had been almost embarrassed to mention them for how minor they were really. But Kyouko had no intention of leaving anything to chance. She would do nothing without ensuring success.
Yes, aside from small inconveniences like today, the cost of tranquility, everything was proceeding as it should, Kyouko thought, sipping her coffee and allowing herself to bask, for a moment, in the results of her life's work. At forty nine years of age, she was a woman still in her prime and still ascending in her chosen career. Her family was prosperous, and her efforts to ensure that prosperity for another generation were bearing fruit. Everything was as it should be.
"But mother, how will you make it?" Asuna asked, a strange note entering her daughter's soft voice.
"What do you mean?" Kyouko had asked, distracted as she read an email from the department head, her eyes widened as she sipped her coffee and the rich brew tasted suddenly cold and rancid. The warm light of the golden hour cooled to the fading red of a dying dusk.
The television had come to life on the far wall, showing the national news. "The twenty five thousand day one players of Sword Art Online remain trapped at this time. An emergency session of the National Diet has been called in response . . . R-A representatives have declined to speak to the media at this time . . . Board members calling for the resignation of CEO Yuuki Shouzou . . . Criminal liability being considered . . . "
Rather than a depiction of a press conference, a newsroom, or even stock footage of the Headquarters of RECT or Argus, the screen depicted a tall lean man, sunken to his knees in the middle of a town square that seemed almost medieval. Achilles? No, Kouichirou!
"How will you make it," Asuna asked, "When you're trapped?"
Kyouko's head spun, but the person on the other side of the table was not her daughter, it was . . . that young woman . . . the one who worked with Koichirou . . . Yui, her skin cracking as she broke apart like a neglected doll, dissolving into brilliant shards.
The porcelain on the table rattled as it began to do the same, the coffee cup breaking in her hand, the dregs turning to tacky blood on her fingertips. The manicured gardens outside the high windows turned to deep gnarled forest in the twilight, moving as if the entire Yuuki house was racing along, swaying branches clawing against the walls. The window glass broke.
Kyouko was standing, she was pulling, she was being pulled, as she, as they, ran through the darkness and the biting cold of a night wind. Strange noises surrounded them and stranger shapes were glimpsed in the shadows, not all of them simply figments of her imagination for all that she was sure they belonged in a child's nightmares.
She wanted to stuff them back where they belonged, but she couldn't. She could only run, run blind, where was she running to? Holding the hand of a stranger and the grip of a strange bow, who was this girl and what was happening?
As shadows closed in, as the wind howled like familiar voices begging to be freed, the words of Kayaba Akihiko boomed in the night sky.
"Players . . . No Outlanders . . . Newcomers to this fallen Castle. I wish you all the best of luck, and pray for your success. Farewell . . ."
Yuuki Kyouko's eyes snapped open. She had no idea where she was. She had no idea what time it was. She was being watched. She knew she was being watched because she was watching her watcher, two pairs of brown eyes, set to either side of short, sharp beaks, stared at her with benign curiosity.
"Hugh?" Kyouko blinked slowly as the image percolated through her sluggish brain.
"Bwok?" One of the pairs of eyes quarried.
"Uh . . ." Then very suddenly Kyouko launched to her feet, spitting straw from her mouth and wiping at her face, pulse racing as she let out a startled shout. "Wugh . . . Aaaah!"
The chickens didn't like that. "Bwok Bwok Bwok!" They jumped, flapping their wings and puffing their plumage, making themselves as big as they could. Kyouko stumbled backwards blindly, her heel caught on something buried in the hay and her shout turned into a cry of surprise as she started to totter backwards.
The world spun away from her, she saw rafters, back arching, and a gray morning sky, hand shooting out by instinct, the floor rushing up to meet her, palm striking the packed dirt floor, momentum carrying her over as she tucked in, disorienting . . . the balls of her feet struck the ground, legs absorbing the impact like springs as she settled into a crouch.
Kyouko blinked owlishly as she tried to comprehend what had just happened.
She stood up quickly, and regretted it at once as her vision went white, accompanied by a -clonk- as something hard and heavy was dislodged from the wall behind her and -clanked- to the ground. "Ahtatata!" A horseshoe? Who in their right mind would leave that there?! Kyouko glared at the offending object, grabbing at the back of her head, her eyes growing wide.
Her hair . . . Her fingers combed through long dense locks.
Yuuki Kyouko prided herself on her appearance. Every six weeks, like clockwork, for years, she had visited the same exclusive Tokyo salon. Her hair hadn't been this long since she'd been in highschool. And she'd certainly never dyed it anything but its natural color! But there it was, green bangs hanging over her eyes, and the rest of it fading from a tawny blond to near platinum as it spilled down nearly to her waist.
"My god, it looks like some attention seeking schoolgirl's!" A disquietingly unfamiliar mezzo said what Kyouko was thinking. Then she let go of the lock of hair she was examining, she looked at the backs of hands that she should have known like, well, the backs of her hands. She turned them over, examining the fingers,the palms, the strangely narrow and sharp nails . . . She rubbed at her throat, she licked her lips, she noticed something waving in the corner of her vision and turned to meet the tip of a tail. She rubbed her eyes before looking again. The tail continued to wave. It was like it was saying hello.
Kyouko turned in circles, trying to see the cat it was attached to until slowly it dawned that it was attached to her. It was her tail . . . Her heart crawled up into her throat and then plummeted through her stomach as the events of the past day replayed themselves in her mind.
That ridiculous inauguration ceremony. That ridiculous tournament. And the not at all ridiculous words of Kayaba Akihiko, spoken with the serene confidence of a reigning Emperor for all that they had been utterly insane.
Which meant . . .
Quickly, she looked around for something, anything, that she could use for a mirror, before settling on a bucket of what appeared to be clear and clean water. Kyouko gazed down into the pool of ink dark until she began to discern the reflection in its placid surface and hissed as she was met by the face of a stranger who could, cat ears and tail aside, and hair that would have had her instantly expelled from any respectable private school, very nearly have been a classmate of her own daughter.
"This isn't happening." Kyouko pulled at her bangs before making the menu gesture to flip through the unfamiliar tabs and pages. She knew it was futile, she'd accepted that, at least unconsciously, even before she had remembered. Her frantic swiping stopped as her ears twitched and pivoted, zeroing in on a noise.
Kyouko wasn't alone, that was, aside from the chickens clucking softly to themselves, she wasn't alone. Curled up in a drift of hay was the girl she had encountered the day before as she fled the Town of Beginnings.
In the dim morning light, in her simply novice clothes, green pleated shorts and vest over white blouse and leggings, she was a lithe and beautiful thing, fair nordic features and long golden hair far more lustrous than the straw around her, rubbing at one tired emerald eye with a balled fist, while at the same time, clutching the scabbard of her sword tightly to her chest, like it was a talisman against all the horrible things that had happened.
Ridiculous, Kyouko thought, as her palms itched for the comfort of the bow Nishida had given her, ridiculous . . .
"You're awake." Kyouko heard her own strange voice say, a little gruffly. She didn't know how else to start, given the situation.
"Un." The girl nodded slowly. Kyouko rubbed at her forehead, she didn't recall much of the night before, but what she could was harrowing enough. Running through the darkness as strange shapes had watched them, crossing over from the fields and climbing up into the hills following a narrow and treacherous path. They'd taken shelter in this barn when the weather had turned, burying themselves in the hay for warmth.
"Leafa." The girl looked up. "Your name is . . . Leafa, isn't it?" Kyouko received another small nod.
If nothing else, she still had her knack for remembering names. It was a talent she'd honed while accompanying Shou to more social events than she could count. As an outsider, she'd had to familiarize herself quickly and never forget a face.
"Are you alright?" Kyouko continued to say, "I mean, you're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm okay." Leafa said curtly, hugging her sword a little tighter. "What about you?"
"Oh well . . ." Kyouko winced as she touched the bump forming on the back of her head, and the place hidden in her hair where a clot of dried blood had formed, "I'm fine."
"It's Atalanta, right?" Leafa asked then.
"O-Oh . . . Y-Yes." She had given that name, hadn't she? "It's from Greek mythology, something to do with the Argonauts, or so I've been told."
"A huntress of great renown." The girl recited confidently.
"Huh?"
"Atalanta was a huntress who worshiped the goddess Artemis."
"Y-yes, something like that." She thought back to what that girl, Argo, had told her.
Leafa smiled weakly, "The other game I play has a lot of mythology references."
"I see," Kyouko said, not really seeing at all, it wasn't like she knew this game, much less any of the others on the market. Was knowledge of mythology common among gamers? "So, do you play games a lot?"
Leafa's smile faded a little. "Not really, just ALfheim, with some school friends sometimes."
"Oh . . ." Kyouko shook her head, really, they were just talking about nothing now. But she had said something interesting.
School friends, she'd mentioned, so this girl probably really was just a girl, probably highschool, maybe college, but likely around the age portrayed by her avatar. That hadn't occurred to Kyouko until now. She'd known, intellectually, that people in the game didn't look like themselves, Kouichirou and Nishida, her eyes wandered back to her own reflection. She'd known, but it hadn't been relevant, so she hadn't thought what it could mean until now.
She looked at herself, and then she looked at Leafa, Kyouko shook herself. She was still the adult, appearances aside, and Leafa was clearly the child, there was an order here that she could comprehend at least. Or so she thought.
"Listen, it's . . ." going to be alright? Even saying it inside of her own head, it sounded ridiculous.
"Things aren't . . ." That bad? How did she know what things were or weren't? She'd barely understood this game when it had been functioning normally, much less now.
"I'll . . ." Look out for you? The events of the past day played out in her mind's eye. She hadn't even been able to look out for herself.
"We'll . . ." Kyouko groped for an end to that thought, something, anything, that she could say to settle things to her own satisfaction. But nothing was forthcoming as she stood, clenching and unclenching her hands, trying to come to grips with what had happened and was still happening all around her.
". . . Stick together." A pressure was suddenly relieved in Kyouko's brow, she nodded, only realizing belatedly that Leafa was the one who had spoken. "We'll stick together." The girl pronounced as she stood, dusting herself off.
"R-Right." Kyouko agreed, Leafa clearly needed looking after while they were here. Wherever 'here' was. Her gaze tilted to the barn doors, lips pressing thin and eyes narrowing, there was only one way to find out.
The door was heavy, and had sagged on its hinges with age, it took a good deal of Kyouko's strength and the help of Leafa, to get it dislodged. As it scraped and creaked open, their eyes were first dazzled by unfiltered morning light, and then slowly adjusted.
'Idyllic'. That was the word for it. Like some sort of marketing promotion. They looked out upon terraced fields and farmsteads nestled among the slopes of rocky hills. Cottage roofs and what seemed to be a church steeple peeked from among the trees of the valley floor. The overall picture was quite lovely, in the deceptive way that country living always was . . .
"Atalanta?"
"Y-Yes?" Kyouko met Leafa's inquisitive gaze. "Do you think this is the place your friend told you about?"
"I . . . Don't really know." Kyouko admitted, chewing at her lip, "We followed his directions," or they had tried in the dark, "So I suppose it must be. What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Leafa frowned, "So what next?"
It was a good question, all things considered. Nishida had selected this place because it was known to Kouichirou, and easily overlooked by others. Or so Kyouko had gathered. The path had been surprisingly obscure, they had almost missed it in the evening light while looking for it, so it would possibly be some time before anyone else wondered this way. It also meant it would possibly be some time before it occurred to Kouichirou to check this place.
What Kyouko wanted to do was propose returning to town. They'd managed to hike here in the dark, it certainly couldn't be any worse to return in broad daylight. But was that really wise? Would things have calmed enough by now to be safe?
And what about the guards? It dawned on Kyouko that, in the heat of the moment, she'd drawn a weapon on members of the local law enforcement. Didn't that make her a criminal?!
"Are you alright, Atalanta?" Leafa asked, "You look a little sick."
"What? No, I'm fine." Kyouko dismissed quickly, but maybe it was best if they didn't go back to the town right away. Besides, if they stayed put they were more likely to be found. Wasn't that the advice given when people got lost hiking? "We should . . ."
-gggrrrllllll-
Kyouko stared at the source of the offending noise, Leafa, or rather, Leafa's stomach. The girl's cheeks lit up as she patted her belly. Kyouko was about to speak when a little shiver invaded her own stomach.
-gggrrrllllll-
As if the noise was tugging for her attention, Kyouko was surprised to realize she was . . . hungry. Really really hungry! "I haven't eaten since . . ." She started, she wanted to say the strawberry cake at the restaurant the day before, but there had been no evidence of the desert when she'd wretched up, and she wasn't going to mention that! "I just haven't eaten," She decided to say, tactfully. In fact, "Ah, Leafa-san . . ." The girl nodded, Kyouko was almost embarrassed to ask but, "Do you have to eat in these sorts of games?"
"Huh?" Leafa's brow crept up. "You mean, this was your first time playing a Full Dive game?"
"My . . . Family Member asked me to join them." She said carefully, frowning as she noted an unreadable expression flashing across the nordic girl's elfish features. "I'm afraid I don't know much about them myself."
She expected to receive an earful from this girl, an outsider invading her area of expertise. Instead, Leafa gave a thoughtful look before answering carefully. "It's true that some games include a hunger mechanic. Especially survival games, I heard from a friend that it's a core mechanic in Abyss Raiders, unless you equip a rare relic that negates the hunger status. But even in games that don't have that sort of status effect, you'll start to feel hungry almost by habit."
"By . . . habit?"
"Un," Leafa wore a look of grave concentration, she obviously wasn't entirely used to being the 'teacher' of this topic, "You might be isolated from your body's own senses, but your brain has a lifetime of experience growing hungry after so much time without eating. And of course, things like your blood sugar directly affect the brain in a way that Full Dive technology can't suppress. But I've done some long game sessions before, and this doesn't feel like that."
Kyouko grimaced, "Don't tell me you believe what that lunatic in the sky said yesterday?" Of course a child's mind might be more pliable to such flights of fancy.
Hesitantly, Leafa shook her head, "I don't know. This can't be real, can it?"
"Of course it isn't real." Kyouko sighed, pausing for a moment as she brushed at her clotted hair and the tender spot beside her temple, she added, "That doesn't mean it isn't dangerous though. We don't know what is actually going on. So we should still exercise caution."
"Right," Leafa nodded, giving no argument.
"It's probably prudent we find something to eat, then," Kyouko decided, whether they actually required sustenance or not, nothing good would come of being distracted by hunger. "Now how do we go about doing that?"
-Bwok bwokbwokbwok?-
Leafa and Kyouko both turned and eyed the small flock of chickens that had shared the barn with them, now mincing their way curiously out into the morning yard and beginning to pick at the ground for insects and seeds.
"Where there's chickens, there's eggs." Leafa suggested, bending down to pet a particularly docile brown hen.
Kyouko's grimace returned, "Those things carry salmonella." And she was just touching them, with no place to wash her hands . . . "Besides, do you see anything to cook them on?"
"Well, it's a farm, right?" Leafa reasoned.
"Yes, so?" Kyoko nodded, looking around at their surroundings, which was the easy part, the hard part was concentrating on any one thing for long. Her ears kept twitching and pivoting, tracking and interrogating any unusual noise she happened to hear, which happened to be everything. And then there were the smells. She'd forgotten the smells. She'd made herself forget the smells!
"Where there's a farm, there must be farmers so . . ." Before Leafa could finish that sentence there came a harsh clatter from the side of the barn, much louder than any noise the chickens could possibly make.
A man, a stout, ruddy faced man, perhaps aged in his fifties, thinning white hair and a thick white mustache, was watching them with a dumbstruck expression. At his feet was a pitchfork, seemingly dropped from his open hand. Mouth agape, he stared at the two of them exactly like they were, well, a cat girl and an elf.
A brief stalemate ensued, broken as Kyouko cleared her throat, "G-Good morning." She raised her hand awkwardly.
"Mornin'" The man grunted, clearly a farmer as Leafa had suggested, dressed in homespun clothes, light blouse, dark trousers, and a wool vest, he lifted his flat cap and scratched his bald pate. "Not often we see Fairy folk round these parts."
"Fairy . . ." Kyouko touched her ears, hadn't Nishida described her character as something like that? "Ah yes, that's right. We're sorry to intrude, we made use of your barn without permission and . . ." The man stared blankly forward, as if she had suddenly started to speak in a foreign language.
"I don't think he understands." Leafa intervened.
"What?" Kyouko frowned, looking between the farmer and Leafa.
"He's an NPC." The Si girl explained with a sympathetic smile. "A non player character," looking thoughtful she added, "I think."
"I knew that." Kyouko answered quickly, Leafa looked unconvinced. She had in fact, the NPCs the day before had behaved amply lifelike for all that they'd been trying to capture them. What was wrong with thinking this one would be the same?
"Do you mind if I try?" Leafa asked. Kyouko opened her mouth, then closed it again, she didn't really have any reason to say no, it just didn't sit right with her as she stepped aside. "Good morning, Farmer-san!" Leafa greeted politely.
"Mornin'" the man repeated the same greeting with the same tone, Kyouko's eyes narrowed. He lifted his flat cap and scratched his bald pate. "Not often we see Fairy folk round these parts."
"That's right, we are Fairies, my name is Leafa and this is Atalana-san."
"Lea-fa? Ata-lanta?" The man repeated, looking them both over with a thoughtful light in eyes beneath heavy white brows like snowdrifts. "Not often we hear names like those round these parts."
Kyouko snorted to herself. 'Of course not you silly computer program.' He was probably going to be as infuriating as that miserable paper clip.
But Leafa kept at it with a pleasant smile and patient demeanor. She spoke carefully, as if by rote, in simple and direct sentences. She avoided compound sentences whenever possible and spoke with a formal grammatical structure. The intention, Kyouko quickly gathered, was to eliminate any ambiguity from her questions and save time that might be wasted with backtracking and repeating herself.
In short order, Leafa had gleaned that the farmer's name was Fostier and that he lived on this farmstead with his wife Elaine, irrelevant, and that they were currently in the outskirts of the small village of Champar, or fully Champar Dans Less Collines.
"Champar in the hills?" Kyouko frowned as she pondered a name that seemed to be partly French. At least she could swear that was what she'd heard, but Fostier's lips hadn't quite seemed to . . . move right . . . when he'd said it. But the name alone was strong evidence this was the right place.
Leafa's next question captured Kyouko's attention, ears perking. "We were wondering if there was a place where we could get something to eat." Leafa said carefully, "We don't have much money, but if there's someone who needs help or . . ." She stopped mid sentence as Fostier lifted his hat and scratched his head again.
"Hungry eh? Well, my wife is cookin up breakfast." He hooked a thumb back towards a small timber house nestled up higher on the hill, a homey curl of white smoke drifted from its chimney. If yer willin to listen to a request you can have a bite and maybe more, supposin' yer interested in some honest work."
Leafa brightened, clapping her hands together, "Yes, that sounds wonderful. Thank you!"
"Leafa, what are you doing!" Kyouko stepped forward, touching the girl lightly on the shoulder.
"We need something to eat." Leafa answered, "And it can't hurt to hear him out. This close to the starting town it's probably just a basic fetch quest, or something like that." She lowered her voice, adding, "And depending on how things go, we could probably use the reward."
Reward? Kyouko shook her head, she was about to decline, this seemed like a bad idea, but her stomach spoke up first.
-gggrrrllll-
The Si girl didn't say a word, but there was a smile in her emerald eyes. The vote, it seemed, was two to one in Leafa's favor. Looking to Fostier, Kyouko reluctantly asked the farmer to lead the way.