Monochrome Duet

by Solid Shark

After the brutal 25th Floor Boss Raid, Asuna has left Kirito's side to join the Knights of Blood. With his partner gone, Kirito resigns himself to returning to the life of a solo player-until a familiar face from the lower floors unexpectedly reenters his life. The strangely-human NPC Kizmel, despite her quest being over, has returned to his side... Kirito/Kizmel.

18. Chapter XVIII: Elegaia

Over a year it had been, since she first met her partner. Nine months since she joined him as a constant companion, sharing danger and loss, friends and enemies, meals and lodgings. In that time, she'd almost forgotten the dreams that first brought her to wonder about her partner's world and driven her to seek him out again. Adventure in the waking world had pushed aside the mysteries of sleep.

More, she had believed the mystery solved, that somehow she'd visited another world in her dreams. That what she had seen was merely an echo of the spell that had shown her partner her world before they had ever met. In that light, she could only be thankful for those dreams: though he had never said, she suspected they were what had guided her partner to their true meeting.

Time had turned those dreams from twisted mockeries of their meeting to an all-too-real retelling of the terrible battle that had nearly been their last together—and later still, to more pleasant fancies of what might yet be.

She had no more need of dreams to drive her quest. Her goals had changed from deciphering nightmares; the future had become what truly mattered to her, and finding a way to the future she'd come to desire so strongly.

Only in the back of her mind did she still recall the dreams—dreams of her own death, of her life slipping away under his sad gaze, snuffing out everything that could have come after. Naught but a nightmare born of another world, no longer of any meaning.

So she had believed.

---

March 6th, 2024

---

"Run! It's comin' back!"

"Holy—nothing that big should be that fast! It's—yikes!"

Boots pounding down the dusty canyon floor in what could be considered more a series of leaps than a true run, Kizmel chanced a brief glance over her shoulder at the creature pursuing them. "I believe luring it with meat has failed, Klein!"

"Hey, it was worth a try!" The red samurai of Fuurinkazan shot her an indignant look—one somewhat marred by his subsequent yelp and awkward diagonal leap to dodge their pursuer's huge, armored claw. "Not like anything else we've tried has done any good!"

She didn't particularly want to concede the point. Attempting to distract a Field Boss with food was, as she'd dryly remarked before the battle, something more apt to succeed against Kirito; hardly what she would've considered a legitimate battle tactic.

Yet Klein was right: after three days, nothing else had worked, either. This was only the latest failure to send the raid group taking flight from their attempt at conquering the canyon leading to the Fifty-Sixth Floor's labyrinth tower, barely a meter ahead of the boss' claws.

"Less talking, more running!" Kirito advised, his black coat billowing behind him in a way that threatened to blind Lind, racing just behind. "We're almost—there!"

Ahead of them, the wooden gate of Dollarah was open, just a little. Just enough for the small party that had made the latest attempt on the Field Boss to slip through. "Over here!" the young girl holding it open called, waving to them. "Quick!"

The clearers hardly needed to be told twice. Kirito and Klein were the first through, followed closely by Kizmel; Lind and his contingent of Dragon Knights were scarcely a breath behind. The moment they were all safely within Dollarah's walls, they turned as one to help the girl slam the gate shut.

With a massive, reverberating thud, the Field Boss crashed head-first into the gate, only to rebound. In that clash, the gate proved an immovable object, the monster not quite an unstoppable force.

Falling back from the gate with a sigh, Kizmel could only shake her head wearily. Would that we could turn the town's wall into a weapon. Certainly it seems to be the only thing capable of stopping that creature in its tracks.

Turning to the girl who'd aided their escape, Kizmel favored her with a smile. "Many thanks, young one," she said. "We are in your debt."

The girl giggled, waving it off. "It's nothing, really! So long as the Swordmasters are trying to get rid of the monster, it's the least we can do!"

Would that we had some success in that endeavor, the elf thought sourly, as she and the other clearers dropped to the dusty ground to rest. Their bodies knew no fatigue, but their minds certainly did. I've never seen such a foe, in all the years I've fought this Castle's evil.

[The Geocrawler], it was called. A huge, snakelike monstrosity with an armored back and head, armed with a pair of fearsome claws, guarding the only path from Dollarah to the labyrinth tower. By conventional wisdom, it ought to have been at worst a moderately difficult foe, requiring nothing more complicated than getting around to where its soft underbelly might be reached.

Conventional clearer tactics had so far proven to fall short in such a confined space. With so little room to maneuver in the canyon, efforts to reach The Geocrawler's stomach had met with nothing but failure for three days straight. Even Klein's latest notion, luring the beast with a fine cut of meat, hadn't succeeded in giving them an opening.

"Well," Lind said at length, dragging himself back to his feet, "unless anyone has any more… unconventional ideas, for now I'd suggest we report to Vice-Commander Asuna. Maybe she'll have a new strategy waiting for us."

Watching the DDA guildmaster brush dust off his dragonscale cape and head off toward the log building currently being used as clearing headquarters, Kizmel found his attitude mildly amusing. He actually sounded sincere in his hope that his primary rival for leader of the clearers would have a viable suggestion If he sounded at all weary, she judged it was frustration with the boss, not Swordmaster politics.

"…Guy's got a point," Klein agreed, sighing. "I'll go round up Fuurinkazan. You two go fetch Rain and Philia, and I'll see you at the meeting." Exchanging a halfhearted fist-bump with Kirito, he plodded away in the direction of his own guild's temporary lodgings. "Damn, can't believe I wasted an A-class ingredient for nothing…"

"They're going to say, 'I told you so', y'know," Kirito said with a tired chuckle. Flipping upright with a flair that did nothing to hide how weary he actually was, he extended a hand to Kizmel. "They were right to just wait and see this time, though, just like Fuurinkazan… Come to think of it, I'm surprised you came along for this wild goose chase, Kizmel."

Smiling, the elf girl let him pull her to her feet. "Please, my friend. Would I let you rush into battle without a keeper, fool's errand or no? I thought you knew me better by now. Where you go, so also shall I."

She meant it as lighthearted reassurance, and he did make a token grimace at her jibe. She didn't miss, though, the shadow that flickered through his eyes at the unintended reminder that one day, he would be going very far indeed.

Not today, however, Kizmel reminded herself, pausing to smile at the local human girl again as they headed off together in Lind's wake. We both have much yet to do in this world. The Swordmasters' escape is not the only cause for which we fight, after all. Thirty floors and more remain to be cleansed of evil before they're freed, for their own sake and for the Steel Castle's people.

If we can only slay this irritating beast!

"Come, Kirito," she said aloud, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Let's set about scheming The Geocrawler's downfall once more, and then find what our companions were up to while we toiled in vain. I believe Rain said something about more 'house-hunting' before we left?"

To Kizmel's satisfaction, that put a lighter spring back in her partner's step. "She did, yeah. Philia told me yesterday they'd found something promising, but they didn't want to say what until they had a few more details. With those girls, that could be good or bad…"

---

There were fewer Swordmasters attending the strategy meeting than Kizmel was accustomed to. Indeed, the last time she could recall so few faces gathered around the table had been during preparations for the battle with Vemacitrin, when only the bravest had stayed the course.

The empty places around the rough-hewn table serving them this day, at least, were for a less dire reason. Those seats would be filled, Kizmel was sure, when a viable strategy was finally devised; until then, she knew, many simply saw no point.

For this meeting, the only notable faces she saw were Lind and Schmidt of the Divine Dragons, Klein's Fuurinkazan, and the leaders of the Knights of Blood. The most diligent of the clearers, willing to strive even against boredom.

Or rather, those who know that someone has to keep scheming, or The Geocrawler will never be vanquished, Kizmel thought as Kirito and Klein reported to Asuna the day's results, or lack thereof. I'm surprised Rain and Philia bothered to come, honestly.

Sitting with her and Kirito in the unofficial "nonaligned" section of the table, the other girls did have the appearance of those barely containing a pleasant surprise. From the smile Philia wore, the one which normally suggested she'd just stumbled on a particularly valuable treasure, Kizmel assumed it was not because they'd stumbled on a secret about the boss.

"…So, yeah," Klein finished, hanging his head. "Even the tastiest steak I ever saw wasn't enough to get the damn thing to turn its back long enough for us to hit it where it hurts."

Asuna huffed in annoyance. "Not like that's very surprising. I haven't heard of anything bigger than some tameable mobs being lured by food at all—and there's no way a Field Boss would be that easy. I know, I know," she added, raising a hand to silence the samurai's indignant protest. "By now we are down to the unlikely ideas. But you have to admit, Klein-san, that this one was really out there."

"Well, yeah," he muttered, looking away. "Not like any of you have had any better ideas, though…"

Too true. The confines of the canyon were simply too narrow to dodge past The Geocrawler in the middle of direct combat; that had been tried in the first three engagements, only for all those making the attempt to be smashed—almost fatally—into the canyon walls by its tail. One particularly unlucky tank had even been embedded in the ground, losing his high-quality armor in the process.

An ambush had also been attempted, by clearers with high-level Hiding. Kizmel and Sachi had both been part of that effort, and found out the hard way that even using their cloaks in the dead of night was not enough to hide them from The Geocrawler's other senses.

"Well," Kirito said after a long silence, adding his input with a frown, "I suppose we could try climbing the canyon walls, and getting around behind it that way…"

Asuna wasn't the only one shaking her head, before he'd even finished. "Without some kind of distraction—which we still haven't had any luck creating—you wouldn't get in more than a few hits before it turned around. I suppose we could try sandwiching it, but we don't have enough clearers with high enough AGI to pull off the back attack."

"Also," Heathcliff pointed out from behind her, making a rare contribution to the discussion, "The Geocrawler's aggro range is unusually long. It would very possibly knock ambushers down from the cliffs, and the fall damage would be all too likely to finish the job."

Folding his arms, Kirito leaned back in his chair with a grimace. He didn't disagree, however, and after that the meeting fell quiet once again.

There must be an answer, though, Kizmel thought, frowning down at the table's map of the region. One thing the Swordmasters have always been firm about is that, however monstrous he might be, Kayaba is consistently fair. We need only find whatever flaw he's left in this scenario.

…Of course, she realized with a sudden chill, the Steel Castle has flown for many centuries. Even if Kayaba is somehow still interfering in this place, it may well be that not everything still conforms to his original design…

Finally, Lind came to his feet. "If we're down to thinking completely outside the box, then there is one thing I can think of. A tactic we've never tried before." He planted one hand on the table, right where the map showed Dollarah. "We know The Geocrawler will come right to the town gate. We don't have enough room to maneuver in the canyon? Then let's open the gate, and let it in here. This town isn't considered a Safe Zone, after all."

That last was true enough, Kizmel knew. It had made many of the clearers, herself included, more than a little uneasy, before discovering the town's wall at least was fully as indestructible as most structures in Aincrad. Though there had still been some concern about orange-marked Swordmasters gaining entry…

Wait. Did he just say—?

Lind's tone had been so matter-of-fact that Kizmel wasn't the only one to not at first realize exactly what he'd suggested. It was about the moment she digested it that Klein bolted to his feet, wide-eyed. "Wait a second! You let that thing in here, and it'll be a massacre! The NPCs'll be sitting ducks!"

To Kizmel's utter disbelief, Lind only nodded. "Well, yes. That's part of the point, in fact. If The Geocrawler is distracted by the NPCs, we'll have plenty of opportunity to strike its weak points. I think it's a better plan than trying to bait it with a steak like it were a dog, don't you?"

Kizmel had always known the DDA guildmaster was a pragmatic man. Ruthless, even; she remembered their duel on Christmas Eve all too well. Yet for all his pragmatism, ruthlessness, and arrogance, she'd always believed he had honor. That a man so dedicated to saving even the most helpless of his own people would be so callous toward the humans of Aincrad…!

It was Kirito's turn to leap from his chair. "You can't be serious! Lind, you're not talking about playing matador with a few trees to take the hits, you're talking about lives! You can't just—!"

"Enough." Lind didn't raise his voice, but the sharp crack in his tone still stopped her partner mid-sentence. "This isn't some sidequest, Kirito, where we can trust you to do things your way. This is a Field Boss, it's in our way, and this is no time for role-playing. Don't you agree, Vice-Commander?"

Kizmel's gaze snapped to Asuna. She expected the chestnut-haired girl to rebuke Lind, as she often had in meetings over the past year. To point out that what he was suggesting was nothing less than sacrificing the lives of the very people the Swordmasters had been summoned to Aincrad to protect.

Instead, for a very long moment, Asuna only stared down at the table, biting her lip. Then, at last, she said slowly, "Yes, Lind-san. Though I hate to admit it, you're right. This is the closest to a viable plan we've had for this boss."

"What?!"

It took Kizmel a moment to realize the outburst had been her own. In her shock, she'd come to her feet so quickly her chair had toppled over, and she was left staring at Asuna with wide eyes. She couldn't believe she'd actually heard those words from Asuna, one of her two stalwart companions in the quest to save Dark Elf and Forest alike from the machinations of the Fallen.

"What are you saying, Asuna?!" she demanded, when she'd regained the ability to speak. "You—of all people, I can't imagine that you would honestly say—"

"Kizmel-san." Speaking softly now, formally, Lind looked her straight in the eye. "I'm sorry. I've respected Kirito and the Vice-Commander's wishes up to now, but for the sake of those counting on us, I cannot cater to that any longer."

"Lind," Kirito began, voice a low growl—one laced with fear, Kizmel thought. Sparing a glance at her partner, she saw that his face had turned deathly pale. "You can't—"

"I must, Kirito. The situation demands it—and quite honestly, I respect your companion too much to lie to her now." Lind turned a hard look on Fuurinkazan, shutting Klein's mouth with a snap by his expression alone.

Kizmel thought she heard a squeak from behind her, either Rain or Philia, but the DDA guildmaster's glare silenced them just as well.

"I'm sorry, Kizmel-san," he said again, gaze soft again as it met hers once more. "But I must tell you the truth. That this world is nothing but an illusion—and of everyone I've ever met here, you alone could be considered a person. The other NPCs, human, dwarf, or elf… they're nothing but automatons made to populate a game." He hesitated. "Although, for what it's worth… that does mean the NPCs of this village will merely respawn, hours after The Geocrawler is through with them."

Claims Kizmel had heard before, in the long months she'd lived among the Swordmasters. She had known for a long time that many of them believed Aincrad to be only a deadly dream, and that only they were "real". She had known just as long that even Kirito and Asuna held the world to be "constructed", even as they held some within to be as much people as themselves.

She should have been able to shrug off Lind's words. Yet Lind, for all his faults, had never struck her as a charlatan, nor had he ever before suggested feeding humans to a monster. Since the night they had crossed swords, he had even treated Kizmel herself with respect.

And never had Asuna accepted such a proposal, as cold and pragmatic as she'd grown as vice-commander of the Knights of Blood.

Heartbeat pounding in her ears, blood turning to ice in her veins, Kizmel turned to Kirito. To her partner, to the companion who had never lied to her, even if it had meant outright admitting he was too afraid to answer a question.

Who had warned her, the day she became a Swordmaster herself, that a truth awaited her for which he was afraid he would never forgive him.

"Tell me," Kizmel begged. "Kirito. Please. This can't be…"

I am real. My world is real. Twisted by Kayaba's sorcery, perhaps, but this is real!No illusion could be so grand as the Steel Castle, as all the people living in it! My life, my sister, my people…

Her vision narrowed to Kirito's face. Bone-white, that face was, with tears beginning to gather in his eyes. But his voice, when he spoke, was flat, unfaltering. "Aincrad is an illusion," he said evenly. "This castle exists only as recorded information housed within a machine, projected into the sleeping minds of human players as the game Sword Art Online. It was activated for a test on August First, 2022. Nineteen months ago. It's only existed in its current form since November Sixth of the same year.

"In the sixteen months since then, Kizmel, I've only met one person in Aincrad who's 'real'." A short pause, that felt endless. "And when the final boss is defeated, this world will end."

Those words, from her most trusted friend, from the one for whom she cared more than anyone or anything, reverberated in Kizmel's mind. For an instant, for an eternity, she could only stare into his onyx eyes, eyes that burned with ashamed sincerity.

"Aincrad is an illusion… I've only met one person in Aincrad who's 'real'..."

"...This world will end…"

Wrenching her gaze from his, Kizmel turned, stumbled over her fallen chair, and fled from the building.

"Kizmel—Kizmel, wait!"

"Kizmel-chan!"

The elf girl paid the calls no heed. Tears filling her eyes as shock gave way to a confused tumult of emotions, she dragged the Cloak of Illusion close around her and blindly ran for Dollarah's Teleport Plaza.

Kizmel didn't know where she was going. She didn't know where she could go, fleeing a truth that could not be escaped. She could do nothing else, though, as her world collapsed around her. She could only run, as if her cloak could hide her from reality itself.

---

Kirito wasn't sure exactly how he felt, after Kizmel fled the meeting. Furious at Lind and Asuna both, definitely. Terrified of what would happen between them, now that the truth had finally come out. Hideously guilty about her entire worldview being ripped to shreds.

Even, deep down, maybe a little relieved. At last, the elephant in the room that had plagued him all the months they'd fought together, the more so since he'd realized just how deeply he truly cared for her, was out in the open. Come what may, there would be no more secrets.

Amid that tumult of emotion, Kirito didn't realize he'd taken the back of his discarded chair in a death grip until a notice popped up with an indignant beep, proclaiming [Immortal Object]. At the same moment, one of the HP bars on his HUD abruptly winked out.

He wasn't the only one to notice that. Like it was a signal, Philia finally broke the silence that had fallen on the meeting. "What are you waiting for, Kirito?!" she demanded. "Go after her!"

Very slowly, eyes falling closed, he shook his head. "No."

"No?!" she repeated incredulously. "What do you mean, 'no'?! You can't just let Kizmel run off like that! You have to—!"

"No," Kirito said again, more forcefully. "I'm the last one she'll want to see right now." If she did want to see me, she wouldn't have left the party. Between that and her cloak, there's no way I could find her now, anyway.

"How can you say that?" Philia grabbed his shoulder, trying to pull him to face her. "You've known her longer than any of us! How can you stand there and tell me you shouldn't be the one to see her?!"

"Because I know what she's going through!" he snapped, opening his eyes to turn a glare on the treasure hunter. "I know what it's like to have your entire world turned upside-down! I know exactly how she's feeling right now!"

Betrayed. Confused. Like every step she took was on quicksand, threatening to swallow her up. Terrified to see anyone close to her, as if at any moment they might turn into someone—something—else before her very eyes. Daylight turned to shadows, the familiar roads swallowed in fog.

Oh, yes. Kirito remembered the day he'd found that damned file. Remembered the shaking of his world, the hope that he was wrong before he tricked his parents—Suguha's parents—into confirming it. He'd hardly come out of his room for a week after that.

And I didn't have to face the idea that no one else around me was real—or that my entire world was doomed to literally be destroyed. What I went through, Kizmel must be feeling a thousand times worse.

He forced himself to take a deep, calming breath, realizing from Philia's wide eyes that he'd shocked her. Though beyond her, Rain only bit her lip, sadness in her eyes. Of course there would be; she'd had her world upturned once, too.

"Philia," he said, when he was sure his voice wouldn't come out tight and angry. "There's nothing I can do for Kizmel right now. When your entire world has been turned upside-down, the last person you want to see is someone you trusted, and broke that trust. I know."

"Think I know what he's talkin' about, Philia-chan." Klein, of all people, stepped up and laid a hand on Philia's shoulder. "It's probably better if you guys gave her some space, at least for a day or two."

"But… we can't just leave her alone," she protested, head drooping. "Klein, she… I mean…"

"I know. But you guys aren't what she needs right now." The samurai flashed her a gentle grin. "So how 'bout you leave this one to me? I know a little something about helping people."

Times like this, Kirito was reminded of just why Fuurinkazan put up with Klein as their guildmaster. Goofy, hopeless with girls, looks like a bandit more than a samurai… and the most reliable guy I know. Not trusting himself to speak, he gave Klein a slow, grateful nod.

He got a thumbs-up in return. "All right, guys," Klein called to his guild. "I've got a mission. Sachi-chan, hold the fort while I'm gone, got it? Don't let the guys do anything crazy."

"We won't try to take on any bosses by ourselves," Sachi promised him, with an obviously-forced smile. "Go."

The red samurai flashed another grin and thumbs-up, and sauntered out of the building.

Philia drew in a breath then, as if about to say something else—but Kirito was already turning away, facing the rest of the gathered clearers again. Worry for his partner was pushed aside, her fate for now entrusted to Klein, giving full reign to anger instead.

A couple of the clearers, the ones who knew him least—and one or two of the Divine Dragons who remembered their past clashes—glared right back. Schmidt, surprisingly, wasn't one of them, the big tank shrinking back from Kirito's baleful gaze; a couple of the unaffiliated players started to push their chairs back along with him.

Lind grimaced, feeling the full force of that glare. "Kirito," he began, "I'm—"

"I don't want to hear it," Kirito cut him off. "Everyone but Asuna, get out."

To Schmidt's left, Orochi began to stand, leaning across the table with a glare of his own. "Now just a second here, Beater, you don't get to—"

"Out. Now. This meeting is over." Voice and gaze as cold as the ice in his veins, Kirito stared Orochi down. "If I have to, I'll go orange on every one of you. Get out."

Playing the "Beater" probably wouldn't have worked again. Even those who believed he really was that selfish probably knew by then that the outright villainy he'd occasionally implied was just an act, after all the times he'd come back and fought the bosses right along with them.

I hope they realize I'm not acting this time. For their sakes.

The DDA players stirred uneasily, and turned to Lind for his opinion. Lind and the solos looked to Asuna, and Heathcliff behind her.

Asuna bit her lip, face nearly as pale as Kirito's own. Tears lurked in the stern mask of the vice-commander she'd assumed more and more in recent months, and finally she turned to look back at her guildmaster. He stared back at her, as impassive as ever; what was going on behind those metallic gray eyes, Kirito couldn't guess.

Finally, Heathcliff shrugged minutely. "We will reconvene tomorrow afternoon," he announced calmly. "As things stand, the raid party is too unsettled for effective battle, anyway. I hope Kizmel-kun will be back by then; if not, we'll proceed as planned with those who do arrive."

The room emptied quickly, once the Paladin had given his blessing. If Kirito hadn't been so angry, he might've found it funny. Several of the solos practically scampered out, and Schmidt followed at a pace that couldn't quite be called fleeing.

Lind was one of the last out. Under other circumstances, Kirito would have given him credit for his slight bow. Just then, Kirito was not feeling so charitable as to give Diavel's would-be successor credit for anything.

After Heathcliff left, cool and calm, Philia and Rain were the very last to go. The treasure hunter looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words; the redhead only took the time to very gently squeeze Kirito on the shoulder, meeting his eyes with an expression he couldn't quite decipher.

Then it was just him and Asuna.

His old partner slumped in her chair. "All right, Kirito-kun," she said softly. "We're alone. What do you want me to say? I'm sorry? Because I am. I never wanted to hurt Kizmel-chan." Wearily, she raised her head to look at him. "But sooner or later, it had to be said. If anything, Lind was only doing what you should've done a long time ago. If she'd heard it from you, then maybe…"

"This isn't about Kizmel, Asuna."

She started. "What? Then what're you—?"

Deliberately, Kirito let go of the chair, finally allowing the [Immortal Object] message to vanish. "This isn't just about Kizmel," he clarified. "I'm angry about that, yeah. And Lind is going to pay for what he just did. But there's more to it than that." He placed one hand flat on the table. "You're treating this as a game, Asuna."

Weariness was replaced by confusion. "What? What's that supposed to mean?" Asuna shook her head. "Kirito-kun, you were the one who just told Kizmel-chan this world is fake! I know you're not one of those players who cracked under the stress. We both know this is a game, deadly or not!"

"I said it was an illusion. I didn't say it was fake." It was his turn to shake his head, as he opened his menu. "Asuna. There's something you used to know, that I think you've forgotten since you started just leading the clearing itself." With a few keystrokes, a sword materialized on his back. "I don't think you're going to understand if I just say it, either.

"So. Vice-Commander Asuna—I challenge you to a duel." Kirito's eyes were cold, glittering. "Let me remind you what the truth of this world is."

---

As she walked away from the temporary headquarters with Rain, Philia couldn't help but glance back over her shoulder. "What do you think they're talking about in there?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Rain said, shrugging. "We both joined the clearers long after those two split up. Who knows what's going to happen now." Though she guessed the vice-commander wasn't going to enjoy it very much. She'd never seen Kirito that angry, feigned or otherwise, but she'd heard stories from Argo the Rat.

Kirito playing the villain was frightening, if you didn't know what was really going on in his head. Kirito angry for real, supposedly, was enough to freak out Argo. The info broker hadn't sold that tale; although after what Kirito and Kizmel had privately disclosed when Rain and Philia had joined them long-term, she suspected she knew the general circumstances.

After leaving the meeting, the two of them wandered Dollarah aimlessly, no clear destination in mind. With the strategy meeting canceled, it wasn't like they had any plans for the day; and with the other members of the party missing…

"Do you think Kizmel will be okay?" Philia mumbled, kicking at a loose stone in the dusty road. "I mean, I always knew it would be rough when she did find out, but that…"

"I don't know," Rain said honestly. "I mean, I've heard that stupid 'simulation theory' about the real world, and I've never paid any attention to it. But how would I feel if somebody I trusted suddenly came out and told me it was true? If people I believed in did things that proved they believed it?"

"…I can't imagine it, either."

"Worse, Kizmel's been told she's been helping us end the world, and she's always known we don't have any idea how to bring her with us when we leave." Rain sighed, noticing absently that their wandering had taken them close to Dollarah's Teleport Plaza. "I'd like to think she'll come out of it. I know it'd kill Kirito if she didn't come back to us. But honestly, Philia, I don't know of anything we can do to help."

That hurt, just thinking about it. Rain had joined the clearers, right before the much-dreaded Fiftieth Floor Boss no less, because she wanted to be one of the people leading everyone out of SAO. Maybe it was because she couldn't help her own sister, maybe she just had some kind of subconscious hero complex, but that was what she wanted to do.

Now her own party was broken, and she didn't have any idea how to fix it. She could only hope Kirito's trust in Klein wasn't misplaced.

Speaking of… For whatever reason, Fuurinkazan was gathered around the Teleporter itself. Klein himself had already disappeared, but Sachi was still there, gesturing to something in her menu as she talked with her guildmates.

"…Maybe there is something we can do," Philia said slowly, giving Fuurinkazan a strange look. "I mean, maybe we can't help right now, but… Remember the place we were looking at this morning?"

Rain nodded, brow creasing in a puzzled frown. "Well, yeah, of course I do." Unlike Kirito and Kizmel, she and the treasure hunter had actually accomplished something, and had been eager to spring the surprise. Before everything went wrong, anyway. With what had gone wrong, though, she had no idea what Philia was getting at.

"Well," the blonde said, growing more animated, "I was thinking. We don't know how to bring Kizmel home with us when we leave, but, if Klein can help her—and Kirito can bring her back, we both know he's gonna have to go after her eventually—maybe… we can bring her 'home'? Though to have it ready in time, we'd need a little help…"

It took a second longer for it to click, and then Rain's eyes widened. "Oh!" It'd be kinda late, but—if it helped cheer her up—

"Sachi!" she called out, trotting over toward Fuurinkazan. "Hey! Could we ask you guys a favor?"

---

When the azure glow of the teleport faded, Kizmel found herself in the center of a huge square, surrounded by more humans than she'd ever seen in one place. Indeed, it was a larger city than she'd ever seen, greater even than her people's Royal Capital on the Ninth Floor.

Why she'd come here, to the City of Beginnings on Aincrad's First Floor, she wasn't sure. Still in shocked disbelief at what she'd learned, she supposed it had simply an instinct to go as far from the frontline—from Kirito—as she could. Gripped by a strange terror of the thought of visiting any Dark Elf demesne, the very bottom of the Steel Castle was probably about as far as she could flee.

Another flare of blue light, a dull impact, and a snapped, "Watch it!" pushed Kizmel away from the Teleporter. Stumbling away from it and the irritated Swordmaster, she walked into the squares crowds in a daze. Distantly, she noticed far more green Swordmaster cursors than she'd ever seen in one place; ironically, most of those she saw mixed in with the crowd seemed as listless as she was.

That's right… Kirito always said most of the Swordmasters never essayed the frontlines at all, and that hundreds still lived here, despairing of any chance to escape this world. Once, I could only pity those caught by Kayaba's trap who had not the will to move forward.

I never imagined a time when I might be no different.

Still reeling from the claims Lind—and Kirito—had made of Aincrad's populace, Kizmel used the sight of those sullen Swordmasters to pull herself together. She couldn't simply give up, not yet. Surely Lind was lying, the arrogant guildmaster using excuses to justify his ruthless pragmatism…

Kirito never lied to me.

Straightening her shoulders, she threaded her way through the city's crowds to a street vendor. His cursor was yellow, that of one of Aincrad's natives. An "NPC", as the Swordmasters would say. "Pardon me," Kizmel began, cursing the tremor in her voice. "Can you tell me who leads the Swordmasters here?"

It was a test, as well as a legitimate question. She'd seen several groups of Swordmasters in dark armor and green capes at the edges of the crowds, a clear sign that some organization was present. Surely the locals would know something.

The vendor glanced up from his cart of fruit, looking decidedly disinterested. "Swordmasters mind their own business, and we mind ours," he said, tone as lacking in curiosity as his expression. "You'd know better than I would, Swordmaster-san. Can I interest you in some fresh oranges?"

Kizmel felt a chill creeping up her spine, but she refused to give up so easily. "There are so many here, you must have heard something," she persisted. "Surely you've heard something from your customers."

"Who knows what Swordmasters do? I sell fruit, I don't chat with heroes. Can I interest you in some fresh apples?"

Different words, but… "Please," she tried one more time. "If there's even anything you've overheard from people passing by, anything at all…?"

That only got her a shrug. "I'm not one to eavesdrop, Swordmaster-san. Can I interest you in some ripe lemons?"

Shuddering, Kizmel turned quickly and walked away. One person is hardly proof, she told herself, looking for another local to try. I've known smiths among my own people who've scant interest in anything but their craft. I may have simply had bad luck.

"Sorry, I wouldn't know anything about that. Would you like a loaf of bread, Swordmaster-san?"

"Ahh, who knows what Swordmasters think? Heroes from another world. Amazing we even speak the same language. So, which of my fine blades interests you, Milady?"

Beginning to grow desperate, Kizmel was just about to ask a local who seemed to be a guide when another voice brought her up short. "You're not going to get any answer out of them, you know."

A familiar voice, that was. She couldn't quite remember whose, though, even as ice began to gather in her gut. Slowly, dread edging toward horror, Kizmel turned to face the owner of that cold, angry voice.

Brown hair and eyes. Brown armor, of a style not even mid-level Swordmasters would still have worn. In those brown eyes, dull anger. "Keita…"

"I'm surprised the Beater's 'partner' would be all the way down here," the former guildmaster of the Moonlit Black Cats said, practically spitting the words. "There can't be anything worth poaching on the First Floor at your levels, right?" He tsked. "But that's not why you're here. Those questions. Finally realized it, did you? That there's nothing here but dolls."

She flinched. Once before, she'd been called a "doll" by a Swordmaster—by XaXa, one of the mad murderers among the "players".

"I'd almost pity you, if I thought you could understand it." Keita snorted. "The Beater's full of it, but I guess you're a bit smarter than most NPCs. Just smart enough to know you're different. But still a doll." His mouth quirked in what might be called a smile, if it had been on a malevolent spirit. "If you're hoping for a better answer, you won't find one here.

"If you can even understand that much… I hope you understand that the Beater let a human die so you could keep ticking a little longer."

Sasamaru. Kirito could've saved him, but because he chose me, Sasamaru was… and Hafner…

Unable to stand Keita's bitter satisfaction, Kizmel fled, running blindly back into the crowd. A humorless, contemptuous laugh followed her.

---

Of all the places to which she might've gone, fleeing the broken, bitter Keita, even Kizmel couldn't say exactly why she'd ended up in a human cathedral. By all rights, she ought to have finally sought a haven of the Dark Elves, away from those who might taunt her plight—or worse, pity her.

Kneeling before the cathedral's altar, bathed in the multicolored light from its stained glass windows, she supposed it was probably just as well. Visiting the places of her youth likely would have made things even worse, when she began to test the claims Lind and Kirito had made.

She'd never had much cause to speak with the native humans of Aincrad. Even after she joined the Swordmasters' clearing group, most of her time in human towns had been spent with the "players", speaking with natives only when a task, a "quest", abided. True, Kizmel had often found those with whom she did speak somehow… duller of wit, less vibrant than the Swordmasters, but she'd first taken that simply to be that more adventurous souls were naturally bolder.

Later, after finding an inscription in an ancient cave wall, she'd attributed it to the spell that had supposedly been placed on Aincrad's natives to impede any effort they might make to liberate the Steel Castle. That, she'd believed, neatly explained the inflexibility she had gradually begun to notice even among her own people.

Yet Kirito told me I shouldn't read too much into those words, Kizmel thought, eyes closed in pain. I should have pressed him on that. I knew even then that something was not right.

Now she knew for sure. Whatever merit Lind's other claims had, after trying to engage the townspeople of the City of Beginnings in conversation, she was convinced few, if any, of them truly were more than automatons. After the third human had responded to queries in a stilted way, eventually repeating themselves…

That, and meeting Keita in the central square—and facing his ugly, bitter satisfaction—had driven Kizmel into the largest, most deserted building she could find. That it was a cathedral seemed cruel irony.

To whom might I pray? Kizmel thought bitterly, her head nonetheless bowed over clasped hands. I know nothing of human religions beyond a few holidays, and if those words are true, the Great Trees are themselves nothing but tales spun to give an illusory world more color.

But if they are nothing but tales, and the people here nothing but dolls given scripts… what am I?

And… what does Kirito truly think of me?

Her heart clenched. Kirito had told her, the night she'd come to realize her own feelings, that he believed her to be real. Even now, she wanted to believe him. Even after he'd confirmed Lind's words, she wanted to believe he saw her as more than another "NPC".

But… but I…

How long she knelt there, agonizing, Kizmel wasn't sure. Eventually, though, the silence was broken by the cathedral doors creaking open, and soft footsteps on stone. "He didn't mean to hurt you, y'know. None of us did. We just… never knew how to say it."

"…Klein. Why are you here?" Kizmel didn't ask him how he'd found her. Fuurinkazan's guildmaster had been on her "Friends List" since the battle with Nicholas the Renegade; once she'd emerged from the Cloak of Illusion's concealment, tracking her would've been simple.

"Somebody had to," Klein said simply, his footsteps halting a respectful distance away. "What, did you really think your friends would just let you go to pieces by yourself? I know you don't wanna see Kirito right now—Blackie's got his own mess to work through right now anyway—but somebody had to make sure you didn't go and do something stupid."

"Stupid." Now she did open her eyes, casting a baleful, tear-blurred gaze at the samurai. "Such as? Throwing myself off Aincrad's edge, perhaps?" She snorted bitterly. "I don't see why you'd care. After all, I'm only an 'NPC'. If Lind is to be believed, I would simply reappear anyway. I suppose I am only one of many made from a mold…"

"You don't really believe that, Kizmel." His voice was sharp now, though his expression remained soft, infuriatingly compassionate. "C'mon. Don't tell me what they told you would hurt half this bad if you really thought you were just one of a bunch of copies."

"Why not? What could possibly make me any different?" Kizmel turned her head sharply away, not willing to let him see her tears. "If this world is but a game, why should one Dark Elf be any different from any other 'NPC'?"

Because she knew, now. If she'd known to look before, she would've known long since. Others of Aincrad were nothing more than lifelike statues spouting scripts as if from a play. There was no reason, in Kayaba Akihiko's game, to breathe true life into a single one—even were he capable of it.

And yet…

"…How?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. "Klein, I… I remember. Kirito says this world began less than two years ago, by rights I should only have come into being moments before I met him, but I remember. The war, my childhood, my sister…"

Kizmel expected him to scoff. Expected Klein to shrug, and say that Kayaba could've simply written "scripts" even for that. But the samurai only sighed, and knelt a discreet few paces away. "Honestly, Kizmel? There's a lot about you that doesn't make any sense. Kirito's told me a little about it, and I know he's been trying to figure it out since he met you. …So tell me. What's your side of the story, My Lady?"

So she did. Everything she could think of, from her early childhood with Tilnel and their parents, to training as a Knight, to fighting in the long war with the Forest Elves. Tilnel's marriage to a lout of a Wolf Handler, her own study of her people's lore from before the Great Separation…

The battle that had claimed Tilnel's life, a month before Kirito and Asuna had charged into her life to save her from a Forest Elf.

Somewhere in the telling, they'd moved to one of the pews arrayed in the cathedral's center. Tears were slowly falling down Kizmel's face, as somewhere in the telling she'd realized something else.

"I… don't know what to think," she whispered. "Klein… I see now what other natives of Aincrad truly are, even among my own people. Thinking back… growing up, only Tilnel and our parents had the—the depth the Swordmasters possess. Not even Queen Idhrendis was so 'real'. Even so, I remember, Klein. Can all of that truly have been written into my memories as if they were pages in a book?"

"That much history? Gotta say, it's weird." Klein scratched at the stubble on his chin, a pensive look on his face. "This is supposed to be the biggest game ever, but that kinda detail, for one NPC? Even if it's possible, it's weird." He shrugged, and leaned against the back of the pew with a sigh. "'Course, to hear Kirito tell it, you haven't made sense from day one."

Under other circumstances, Kizmel might've felt insulted. Now, she was just desperate for answers—anything to give back a feeling of balance to a world gone mad. "Tell me, please. I need to know, Klein."

He shrugged again, looking up at the stone ceiling high above. "Keep in mind, Kirito and the Rat are the ones to talk to for details, but… even I can tell you're not what an AI—artificial intelligence—oughtta be, Kizmel. You're too… human. Or elf, whichever, don't give me that look… Kizmel. You sleep, right?"

She blinked at him. "Of course I do. What manner of creature would not?"

"One that doesn't have flesh and blood," Klein said dryly. "Yeah, sure, us Swordmasters get to ignore most of those pesky limits with our SAO avatars, too—but we still have brains. Sleep catches up sooner or later. You? If your mind is data on a server, you shouldn't need sleep."

What, exactly, a "server" was, Kizmel still wasn't quite sure. She did know in the abstract what machines were, though, so she thought she began to see his point. As well suggest that a cart needed to rest its wheels, were there no need for a horse pulling it.

"Another thing. You're not any smarter than we are." At that, Kizmel managed a half-hearted glare, which he fended off with a brief grin and a raised hand. "Lemme try that again. A computer 'thinks' a hell of a lot faster than a human, Kizmel. If you're an AI, by rights you should find the rest of us pretty slow-witted."

"…Much as actions taken via Mystic Scribing are far faster than anything that might be done by hand," she said slowly.

"Yep. Exactly. And one more thing." Klein sat up straight, turning to favor her with a serious look. "Kizmel. You just dropped more history on me than the entire Elf War quest has for lore—but you couldn't tell me conversations word-for-word. A computer never forgets. Well, data gets corrupted sometimes, but believe me, that's not like fading memory." He lifted both hands, slowly shaking his head. "This is one of the reasons Kirito never tried telling you the truth, Kizmel. Because you don't make sense. You're not what an AI should be, but you're obviously not a player in disguise, so…"

Half of what he was telling her was still going over her head. The other half… Some of it is almost reassuring. Some only makes this more confusing. Am I somehow real? Or am I…?

Even as Kizmel wanted to believe Klein's words meant she was different from others born to Aincrad, a hideous thought occurred to her. Kirito and Argo both said Kayaba was directly interfering with our quest. Could he have simply taken an interest in Kirito's behavior, and added to "my" life over time?

Then, even if "my" memories are more than what any other "NPC" would have, I could just as well be such an interchangeable object, distinguished only by how long I've survived…

Abruptly, Kizmel came to her feet, shaking her head rapidly. "I don't know what to think, Klein," she whispered. "Am I real? Am I just another doll?" She remembered one of PoH's killers, XaXa, calling her that once—remembered Keita repeating it, not so long before—and flinched. "How can this world be fake? Yet… how can a world filled with dolls be anything else? I… I…"

Klein hopped off the pew, and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "C'mon, Kizmel. Let's take a walk."

The thought of facing the world outside the cathedral, with its mix of the most downtrodden of the Swordmasters and dolls she had once thought were people, made her stomach clench. Even so, Kizmel let the samurai guide her toward the door, knowing there was nothing to be gained simply hiding away. "Where are we going?"

"Oh… a few places. Dunno if I can answer all your questions, Kizmel, but… maybe settling a couple of them will help. Can't promise the truth will be the one you want, but I think Kirito would tell you it's better to know than to wonder."

…Yes. I cannot hope to move forward until I learn what the path is made of. Better to know I walk barefoot on thorns than to step into the sand and fall…

---

By rights, the very idea of the Black Swordsman facing off against the Flash should've drawn a huge crowd. Even those who didn't know who Kirito was would be like moths to a flame if they heard about someone challenging Asuna, given her visibility and popularity. Some probably would've attacked Kirito for it, if they thought they could get away with it.

Which was probably exactly why he'd insisted on taking their duel elsewhere. The training grounds of Moongleam Castle in the Dark Elf Royal Capital were a bit of an odd choice, but it at least made sense from the perspective of staying out of sight. Even so long after the frontline had moved beyond the floors of the Elf War questline, few players had ever completed it.

Surrounded by shining black stone, lit by deep blue torches, and watched only by a handful of Dark Elf soldiers indulging programmed curiosity, Asuna stood at one end of a small arena. She wore the full red-trimmed white uniform of the Knights of Blood, rapier Queensguard sheathed on her left hip. Across from her, Kirito was dressed like a shadow as always, long black coat shifting slightly in an unseen breeze. Just like he had from the day she'd met him, he wore a simple one-handed sword slung over his back.

This wasn't the first time Asuna had faced her old partner on the other side of a duel. Back in the days when they were the only ones who knew of PoH and his conspiracy, they'd trained extensively in PvP, trying to prepare themselves to fight the would-be murderers. Back then, though, that was all it had been: preparation to fight orange players.

Back then, Kirito hadn't looked at her with a cold fury smoldering in his eyes.

"You're really set on this, aren't you, Kirito-kun," Asuna said wearily. "You really have to take it this far?"

"Sometimes words aren't good enough, Asuna," Kirito replied coolly. "This is something I have to show you. Or you'll never understand."

His voice was colder than she'd heard from him in a long, long time. This wasn't the Beater talking; the Beater was theatrical, deliberately playing up a flamboyant sense of style and arrogance to throw people off. This was real anger, like she hadn't seen in him since the day the Fallen Elf King had stabbed Kizmel with a poisoned blade.

I can't even really blame him for that. It had to be said, he should have said it himself a long time ago… but that's easy to say, isn't it? Not so easy to know Kizmel's hurting, and it's partly my fault.

…But why fight a duel over it? What's that going to do to help Kizmel?

Kirito didn't seem interested in saying anything else, though. Opening his menu, he flipped through tabs, then stabbed one finger down. A window promptly appeared in front of Asuna, indicating a request for a one-on-one duel. First Strike was the type selected, which she supposed made sense; both of them were skilled enough, strong enough, that even a Half-Finish match stood a chance of being lethal if a single wrong move were made.

She didn't have to do this. As far as she could tell, there was no reason to do this. There was absolutely nothing to be gained from indulging her old partner in a strange whim. Yet somehow, she felt no hesitation, now that it had come this far. Maybe it was a sense of obligation, after being party to what had happened. Maybe it was knowing Kirito seldom did anything without a good reason.

Maybe it was just her own stubborn pride, as a swordswoman and as someone who had come so far just to be herself.

Shoving her doubts into a locked box in her mind, Asuna tapped [YES].

A sixty-second countdown appeared in the air above and between them. She was quick to draw Queensguard, even as Kirito drew a dark-edged sword whose name she hadn't yet heard. Choosing what to do from there wasn't so quick, though; certainly not as quick as it might've been against anyone else.

Linear was a good opening move, especially with her own speed. Against anyone else, she might well have done it. But the very first thing Kirito had ever seen her do was spam Linear against Kobolds on the First Floor; he knew better than anyone what she'd do with it.

She could wait to see his first move, maybe. Like her, Kirito hadn't settled into a clear pre-motion yet, though, so predicting it would be tricky. It would also mean surrendering the initiative, something she instinctively rejected.

Flashing Penetrator would be too obvious, and take too long to set up. I could try Linear anyway, I've always been a little faster than he is… but those crazy reflexes of his probably still know how to handle that. …Okay, then. Let's try this, instead.

Kirito's stance was still neutral. Asuna, though, finally moved as the countdown reached the thirty-second mark. Lowering her center of gravity, she moved one foot back as though preparing to run, extended her free hand ahead of her, and pulled her rapier close to her shoulder.

It was faint, but she thought she saw his forehead crease at that. Her stance was similar to that of Flashing Penetrator, but her blade was too high. If he hadn't been keeping up with Rapier Skills, it was entirely possible he didn't even know what she was doing.

As the count dropped below ten seconds, Asuna fixated on that chance. She knew her old partner: she'd need every gram of speed and tidbit of unexpected skill to land the first strike.

Five seconds. Kirito's sword finally moved, going down and to the left as if preparing for a backhanded slash. Asuna might've smiled to herself, if circumstances had been different. This pre-motion, she recognized.

Their swords began to glow, hers white, his blue, and with a buzz the count hit zero.

Asuna blazed forward instantly. In a contest of reflexes, the Black Swordsman would win every time, but when both of them were already prepared, she was first off the mark. Racing across the stone floor, propelled by the System Assist, her AGI stat, and sheer determination, she thrust her rapier forward.

Almost a Linear. Close enough to a Linear to fool the reflexes, but at just a different enough angle to get through anyway.

Which was probably the only reason the Shooting Star collided with Kirito's upward-swinging Rage Spike, instead of her partner's skill catching her under the arm and lopping her limb off.

If she had been using a Linear, it was anyone's guess which blow would actually have counted as the First Strike. Kirito had shifted his own body enough she might well have missed. Instead, their skills clashed and rebounded, sending them skidding away from each other on the smooth stone.

At least Asuna had the satisfaction of seeing surprise break through the cold in Kirito's eyes, if only for an instant.

Then his reflexes caught up, and she had to employ every bit of her own speed to fend off his attempt at a Sharp Nail's inverted triangle. Recognizing the beginning from all the times they'd fought together, she blurred into a precise Linear to disrupt the skill before he could even finish the first slash.

It was her turn, then, to take the initiative, dancing in while he was still recovering to deliver the high-low double-stab of a Diagonal Sting. Unable to launch a new skill of his own yet, Kirito whirled away from it instead, using the momentum from their last rebound.

Asuna was undeterred, pressing the attack while he was still off-balance. His reflexes were the fastest she'd ever seen, but her speed once in motion had always been greater, and now she used that to her advantage. Following Kirito as he retreated, she unleashed the horizontal cousin of her previous attack, the Parallel Sting, aiming to break through his guard on one side or the other.

A startlingly-fast Snake Bite snicker-snacked against her Queensguard, almost tearing the rapier from her grip. It was Asuna's turn to spin with an impact, accepting it instead of fighting it. She turned it into a ducking pirouette, using it to slash a Streak at Kirito's legs.

He jumped it, evading the skill at the expense of being able to start another of his own, giving Asuna the time she needed to recover and start one more. Quadruple Pain, this time, four rapid stabs that could well have managed a decisive Stun even in a Half-Finish duel.

Kirito countered it blow-for-blow with a Vertical Square—yet countering was the best he could manage, and Asuna perversely found herself starting to smile.

When they'd first met, over the course of the months they'd been a team, Asuna's goal had been to reach Kirito's level. To be able to fight as he did, to understand the world of Sword Art Online well enough not to need his help to survive. She'd swiftly reached the point of pulling her weight, but when she'd joined the Knights of Blood she'd still been left with the question of just where she stood, compared to him.

Now I know. Whatever happens, I know I have that strength now. I won't lose, not to this world, and not to him!

She kept the momentum for a good thirty seconds after that, an eternity in a duel. His reflexes were as blinding as ever, but that did no good when she didn't give him time to swing his sword. He countered her, again and again, never letting the decisive blow through, yet he never had the time to launch the kind of skill that would break right through her own guard.

There was a bad moment when Kirito unexpectedly switched to using entirely basic attacks, eschewing Sword Skills entirely, but even there Asuna's speed was a match. More than that, really, without the System Assist bolstering his, and without post-motion slowing hers.

He mixed things up with a few Martial Arts skills in the middle. If anything, that did him even less good; there weren't that many skills in that category, and she knew all of them. She fell back from the Gengetsu's backflip, spun aside from Suigetsu's roundhouse, and peppered him with thrusts as he turned those skills' backlashes into impressive acrobatics.

A fleeting glance at the timer hanging above them showed Asuna the count was running short. Soon it would end in a draw, if nothing changed, and something in her rebelled at that. At the same time, she noticed that the cold anger in Kirito's eyes never flickered—until the moment the time remaining hit twenty seconds.

Then his eyes narrowed, and he abruptly launched another Gengetsu. It did nothing but catch another Linear with the sole of his boot, leaving her to frown in consternation as he backflipped away again. In that flip, though, she saw his left hand gesturing rapidly, as if bringing up his menu mid-acrobatics.

Landing neatly on his feet, light flared by Kirito's left shoulder. Asuna's eyes widened, even as his left hand flashed up—and with a loud "Kiai!" that broke the duel's silence, he launched himself at her one more time.

---

Out of all the floors of Aincrad that the Swordmasters had so far cleared, Kizmel would never have expected it to be the Fifty-First Floor to which Klein led her after inviting her into a temporary party. Considering it was on that floor that Kirito had been perhaps the most relaxed she'd ever seen him, and its nature as speculated by the Swordmasters, she had no clue how it might hold relevance to her quest.

As she and Klein separated briefly to change into attire more appropriate for the floor's conditions, she darkly hoped the samurai had a good reason for taking her there. She was depressed enough as it was, without tainting the happy memories she had of the Fifty-First Floor's beaches and calm waters.

She kept her peace, though, until they reached Ousetta Island's docks. Fuurinkazan's sailboat, Kusanagi, was waiting for them, though there was no sign of the rest of the guild. "What are we doing here, Klein?" she asked at last, as she followed him aboard.

"You want to know for sure the truth of this world, Kizmel, there's one way I don't think will leave you with any doubts." Despite the lack of extra hands, Klein went about readying the boat for launch with a competence that reminded her again there was a reason he was guildmaster of the only frontline guild with no casualties. "Sorry, I know it's a long trip, but this is best option I can think of."

Ominous. And Kizmel didn't care for the idea of a long journey with nothing to do but brood, reminded constantly of happier voyages. So far, though, Klein had been surprisingly insightful, so she chose to trust that he knew what he was doing here, as well.

Insofar as I can trust anything—or anyone—at all, she thought miserably, settling into a watchful position by Kusanagi's mast. Yet I have no choice. I can't trust my own senses now. I can only hope that with the "truth" out, the Swordmasters will have no further need of lies.

As Klein turned Kusanagi toward the northwest, Kizmel couldn't decide which worldview she truly wanted proven. One way or another, she'd been lied to, either before or that day. If the new "truth" was reality, she was just a part of a dreamworld rushing to an inevitable end; if it was the old, she was trapped in a world that was real, but had felt emptier with every month she spent among the Swordmasters.

Kirito never lied to me.

Watching the waves go by, her only distractions the occasional lethal fish leaping up to be skewered by her saber, she tried not to think about Keita's spiteful words. Either possibility of her world's nature was now miserable enough as it was, without pondering a more personal existential crisis at the same time.

Though deep down, she knew this journey would only postpone it. Distractions, Kizmel had learned the hard way, only lasted so long.

It was mildly interesting when, two hours into the voyage, Klein took one hand from the boat's wheel long enough to open his menu and materialize an item. It was surprising enough to rouse her from her dark thoughts to realize it was a familiar compass. "Klein…?"

"Keep an eye on that for me, will ya? Kinda hard to steer and watch the compass at the same time." Klein kept his gaze ahead, doing his part to watch out for unexpected monster attacks. "And try not to lose it, Fuurinkazan hasn't completed that questline yet. The Rat tells me it's not as crazy as what you guys went through, but we kinda need to know where we're going."

Confused, Kizmel complied, watching the arrow on the compass and occasionally calling out course corrections. This leads only to Kobayashi's mooring at Haze Point,she thought. That ship was destroyed. What purpose is there now in going there? Is there something in the wreckage he thinks I should see?

By the time Kusanagi approached the deep fog surrounding Haze Point, though, something began to itch in her mind. There was a connection, she was sure, something about the Swordmasters' behavior that had always puzzled her, but she'd never quite given conscious attention. Something so basic she'd ignored it—or perhaps, something she knew deep down would shake her world.

After all, part of me knew months ago something was wrong with this world. I just thought it was from Kayaba's meddling, not fundamental. …Or maybe I just didn't want to see it.

The fog parted abruptly, just as it had when she'd last come to Haze Point. Even though she'd been expecting that much, Kizmel still took a step back in shock, as Kobayashi's bow loomed into view, hale and whole.

Considering she'd last seen the ship exploding into burning debris, she thought she was entitled to her surprise. "What… How…?"

"The Kobayashi you saw was just the one this world created for your party's quest, Kizmel." Klein stepped away from the wheel, tossed Kusanagi's anchor over the side, and stepped up onto the deck with her. "Even we can't turn back time, but anything that exists in this world, Kayaba can just make again. And more than one at a time, some places."

"What… do you mean?" Kizmel couldn't look at him. Couldn't tear her gaze from the irrefutable proof that something in her world was not right. No charm left to anyone in Aincrad could simply conjure up an entire ship that way, after all. Not a perfect copy.

"We call 'em 'instances'. Maps separate from Aincrad's regular floors, tailor-made for a given party. Mostly so big events can happen different ways at the same time—like ships blowing up. A game wouldn't be any fun if only the first player could do something, right?" Kizmel could barely see, in the corner of one eye, Klein gesturing toward the surrounding mist. "That fog? It's to hide the transition from the shared map to an instance. …You can probably remember a few others."

Swallowing hard, Kizmel could only nod. The Dark Elf camp where she had first stayed with Kirito and Asuna came to mind at once, as did Yofel Castle. Charms of my people, I was told growing up, she thought bitterly. Lies from long before I ever met the Swordmasters… if those memories are even real.

Another part of what Klein had said clicked into place then, and as had happened all too many times that day alone, she felt a chill in her veins. "So that's how Argo makes her living," she heard her own voice whisper. "I always wondered what relevance much of her information had, beyond tales for scholars to collect. Everything we've done… can simply be done again."

"Mostly, yeah." It was a mercy, perhaps, that Klein just said it straight out. A cold, cruel mercy, but still better than prevarication at this late date. "Field and Floor Bosses don't come back, but regular quests? Yeah. There's always another time. …Truth is, Fuurinkazan's probably done most of the ones you and Kirito did, back in the day."

Strength left Kizmel's limbs, and she sank to her knees. One thing for Lind, for Asuna, for even Kirito to tell her. To see with her own eyes, to put together the facts that had always been just barely beyond her reach… "It's true, then," she whispered, vision clouding with unshed tears. "If everything in this world is just a game that begins anew for every 'player', then to others my people are still at war. And if they are, then somewhere, I, too, must be…"

Lind was right. Keita was right. Even that murderer, XaXa. In the end, I'm nothing but a doll like the others. Were I to die, doubtless another "me" would simply take my place. If this vast world is a construct, then how much harder is it to give one "NPC" these memories?

No wonder she remembered so many times she'd fought beside Kirito, different from their waking encounter. By whatever accident or machination of Kayaba's, she'd simply inherited the memories of "other" Kizmels who had come before.

Eyes falling closed, Kizmel wanted to weep—only it seemed there was no point. Why cry over such a meaningless existence, after all? Her despair, too, was only an illusion, after all…

A hand on her shoulder made her jump, and she looked up to see Klein staring at her with a serious expression in his eyes. "Don't give up yet, Kizmel," he told her. "Don't you dare give up yet. You have to keep going long enough to smack Kirito for not telling you this sooner. Hell, you need to pick yourself up and hit me, too. I'm supposed to be the reliable goofball, and all I did this time was goof."

She almost—almost—chocked out a laugh at that. Instead she only coughed, and tried to blink her eyes clear. "Why should I bother? If I'm gone, surely Kirito can just go and find another 'me'. I'm just a disposable game piece, am I not?"

He surprised her with a glare. "Okay, now I'm gonna get mad, Kizmel. You… ahh, I guess I can't blame you that much. But I'm not gonna just let that one slide. I'll show you." Klein squeezed her shoulder, almost hard enough to trigger the "anti-harassment code", and turned back to the wheel. "I didn't come here to break you. You wanted truth, Kizmel, and this is one of them.

"Now let's go and see another one. I told you, didn't I? You don't make sense."

---

Usually, when night fell, Asuna was safely back in the KoB's new headquarters in Granzam, on the Fifty-Fifth Floor. The days when she would be out questing at all hours had ended with her partnership with Kirito; her responsibilities as vice-commander of the Knights of Blood demanded a more regular schedule.

In the wake of her duel with Kirito, she instead found herself back in Dollarah. He had left for parts unknown; she was too distracted by the day's events, and what she'd learned from the duel, to even try to sleep yet. Under the moonlight reflecting off the underside of the Fifty-Seventh Floor, she sat on the edge of a log cabin's porch, lost in thought. The things her old partner had told her…

---

Six Hours Ago

---

When the duel ended, turned from a stalemate to a decisive victory by Kirito's last resort, they silently moved to the sidelines of the Dark Elf training grounds, leaving them for the NPCs to practice their scripted routines without interference. Only when they'd found a place to sit and watch did Asuna finally speak.

"How did you do that?" she asked him, eyes still wide with surprise. "There's never been anything about that in the Skill lists floating around. And I've never seen you use anything like that before. So how… why…?"

"I wanted to keep it a secret as long as I could," Kirito answered, calmly manipulating his menu to once again conceal his trump card. Now that the duel was over, the anger seemed to have drained out of him, leaving only weariness. "I'm not like Heathcliff, Asuna. You of all people should remember what it's like for me when people find out I've got something they don't."

She opened her mouth to retort, then closed it unhappily. Yes, she remembered all too well. He'd been the scapegoat too many times, in the months they'd been partners, all for the sake of keeping the clearing group from falling apart. Over time he'd faded from the public eye enough to mostly go about unnoticed, but it never took much for it all to flare up again.

Though she'd never told him, that was part of why Asuna had agreed to join the KoB in the first place. She'd hoped, back then, that she might have enough influence with the clearers from that position to finally put an end to the "Beater" nonsense. …Sometimes she thought it had almost worked.

"You still shouldn't have been surprised by it, though." Kirito leaned back against an obsidian pillar, gaze drifting idly to the sparring Dark Elves. "Heathcliff has his Holy Sword skill, and nobody's figured out how to unlock it, either. If you'd thought that through, you might have beaten me today."

Asuna huffed, tacitly conceding the point. She actually had considered, back when Heathcliff first revealed the skill to the KoB, that there might be other skills that hadn't been discovered yet. After five months with no new developments—as far as she knew—though, the question had honestly faded from her mind.

Kirito's point did nothing to answer her current questions, however. "All right, Kirito-kun. You've got a new trick, and I shouldn't have been so surprised by it. Fine. What exactly does that have to do with today? Unless you're planning to use that on The Geocrawler." Not that she thought it would do any good. Even he, whatever tricks he'd come up with, had never taken on a full-on boss without backup.

He shook his head. "Asuna," he said, turning enough to look at her sidelong, "you're not thinking. Don't you see the implications of skills like that? Skills no one else has, or knows how to get?"

Now Asuna was starting to get irritated. First a duel without explanation, now the Socratic method? At a time when any sane person would be doing something to help Kizmel, after what had happened?

Clenching her hands, she turned narrowed eyes on him. "No, I don't," she said flatly. "If there's something obvious I'm missing, can't you just come out and say it, Kirito-kun?"

He raised his hands, palms up, looking exasperated. "…Well, maybe you wouldn't notice. You know SAO as well as I do now, but not regular games… Okay, okay," he said hastily, when she opened her mouth to snap at him again. "Asuna. Unique Skills don't make sense. Not from the perspective of gameplay balance."

She started to open her mouth again, to demand a clearer answer—then snapped it shut with a frown. "…That's just like quests that can only be done once, isn't?" she said slowly. "Like you told me back when we first met Kizmel. It's not fair to other players."

Kirito turned to face her fully, a glimmer of a smile on his face now. Even if no trace of it reached his eyes, which were still cool and flat. "Exactly, Asuna. There's been limited-edition skills and items in MMOs as long as the genre's been around, but there's always a fair chance for anybody to get them as long as they are available. Nobody would make a game where only one person out of thousands—or millions, in a normal MMO—could get something."

One piece of the puzzle fell into place, and Asuna found herself nodding. She really didn't know much about games in general, even after over a year trapped in SAO, but it didn't take a hardcore gamer to understand that point. But still… "So how does that matter here? What does it mean for SAO—and why is it so important you had to beat the stuffing out of me over it, Kirito-kun?"

"It means that anyone who thinks of Sword Art Online as a game is wrong, Asuna. And sooner or later, that's going to get us all killed." He swept out his arm in a wide gesture at the castle around them, and the Dark Elves going about their scripted lives. "Oh, sure, SAO is built on gameplay mechanics. But that's a consequence of the medium. Kayaba said it straight out, before SAO was ever released: 'This might be a game, but it's not something you play.'

"Kayaba created a world, Asuna. We're not players—we're characters in a story."

"Characters in a—" Asuna broke off, inhaling sharply, eyes widening. If she looked at it as a novel, one that just happened to use virtual reality instead of paper as a medium and living people as the characters, then… "A narrative doesn't have to worry about character balance, just making sure it all fits the plot. …Even if you look at this as Kayaba creating a world and letting it play out by itself, reality doesn't have 'balance', either."

"That's it, exactly. Kayaba's consistent about giving players a fair chance to win—but in this world, you have to look at it as him being fair as a writer, not a game designer." Kirito gestured again to the Dark Elves. "You remember as well as I do what happened when we stormed the Twilight Citadel. The threat we found there makes no sense in a game, but stories don't follow the same rules. Neither does reality."

We stopped that plot, she thought, shivering at the memory. I thought back then that it couldn't be real—but something in me wasn't sure. And if Kirito's right, if we keep acting like that's just flavor text when we know there are things in this world that don't make sense as a game…

Shaking herself free from the memories of that nightmarish battle to end the Elf War, Asuna took another look at the Dark Elves, the people from whom Kizmel—the single most unexpected part of the entire game—had come. Okay, so that means we should be thinking even more outside the box. If this isn't meant to be a "game", maybe we're supposed to find a different solution to The Geocrawler. We haven't fought a boss that way before, but then Unique Skills didn't start showing up until almost a year in.

Which means Lind might just have the right idea, she thought unhappily. There's an outside-the-box tactic if I ever heard one. …But Kirito wanted to fight me over it, and he said this wasn't just about Kizmel-chan…

"You think there's another way to stop The Geocrawler." She turned back to Kirito, looking at him thoughtfully. "I know why you don't want to hurt NPCs, even if it doesn't make logical sense. But… there's more than that, isn't there?"

"If this is a story, and we're the heroes… what kind of heroes sacrifice the people they're supposed to protect?"

Simple. To the point. At first it only gave Asuna a sense of chagrin, realizing she hadn't quite followed his point to the obvious conclusion. After letting it sink in for a moment longer, though, she stiffened, remembering another time players had done something "outside the box".

"If we let The Geocrawler loose," she said, speaking as much to herself as to Kirito, "it could be that the system would punish us for 'betraying' the NPCs. Or… it might force the system to improvise, and…"

"…Who knows what might happen from there," Kirito finished. "We can usually predict what happens, at least generally, in clearing. But when we broke the Elf War starter quest by saving Kizmel, all sorts of unexpected things happened. And let's not forget what happened when Morte and Joe killed that town lord back on the Sixth Floor."

Asuna wasn't likely to forget those events any time soon. The Elf War had done a lot to shape her into who she was as Vice-Commander of the KoB, and that particular incident on the Sixth Floor had nearly gotten them both killed. Both were only sidequests, at that; who knew what might happen if they broke regular progression of floor clearing.

"I know we still haven't found the right answer to fighting The Geocrawler," Kirito said, turning his attention back to a pair of Dark Elves practicing Saber skills in the center of the training ground. "But I'm sure there is one. We just have to look at this as something other than as a game." He quirked a small, fleeting smile. "Or maybe more like a single-player RPG. If you're going to think of SAO as a game at all, it's more like that than a regular MMO."

She'd have to take his word for that one, but she thought she got his general point. It was possible that she might even manage to convince Lind of it, once she made it clear to him that Kirito hadn't just gone native on them. The DDA guildmaster was arrogant and insensitive, but he could usually be made to see logic.

Though speaking of logic, and an apparent lack thereof…

"So why did you have to fight me over it?" Asuna demanded now, dragging things back to the original question. "I would've believed you if you'd just said all that, Kirito-kun."

"Maybe so." Kirito shrugged carelessly. "Though if you ask me, my way was more to the point…" He coughed as she drove an impatient fist into his side, just lightly enough not to count as an attack. "Asuna. Used to be, you'd hesitate at the idea of a duel, remember?"

"Of course." Back when they first learned of Morte, and PoH, and the mad conspiracy to disrupt the clearing. "I got used to it. I had to."

"Exactly." When she blinked in confusion, Kirito sighed. "Asuna. You got used to aiming your sword at people. To striking people with it. Now ask yourself what happens if you get used to treating things that look and act like people as disposable… and what happens when you go back to a world where you're surrounded by millions of people you'll never get to know as more than faces in a crowd."

Asuna's blood ran cold. Much as she hated SAO for trapping her, she'd come to love some things about it, and its incredible simulation of the real world was part of why. There had been NPCs, once upon a time, that she'd treated as real, besides Kizmel. They'd been so real, it was hard not to.

Then she'd gotten used to the idea that, however real their faces, they really were nothing more than automatons running on scripts too limited to even be called AI. Put that together with a willingness to draw her sword even on other players, if the need arose…

As she pondered the chilling implications of the way the lines between reality and VR were blurring, Kirito abruptly pushed away from the obsidian column. "Think about it, please," he said, quietly but earnestly. "You always said you didn't want to lose to this world, right? So… don't. Please."

"…I will. But," she called, as he started to walk away into the castle's halls, "about Kizmel-chan… Bring her back, Kirito-kun. Please. Just… bring her back."

Kirito hesitated for a long moment. "I will," he said finally. "I don't know how yet, but I will.. One way or another…" He turned his head, letting her see half a bitter smile. "Truth is, Asuna, I've already lost to this world. I'm going to have to find my own way. And… I have to give Kizmel my answer."

Huh?

Before Asuna could begin to figure out what that was supposed to mean, he started off again. He left her with one more parting statement before he disappeared, though, calling back, "Oh, the other reason I insisted on the duel? You really did make me kinda angry today, Asuna. Sorry, but this one I couldn't let go."

---

Present Time

---

Hours later, Asuna was still trying to work through the implications of everything she'd learned in that duel and its aftermath. Fourteen months since he dragged me out of that dungeon, and sometimes I still think I'll never understand this world as well as he does, she thought, idly watching the few NPCs scripted to be out and about so late. Some things never change, I guess.

She still didn't agree with Kirito on everything. In a way, she wasn't sure if he wanted her to. The way he'd said he had "already lost" to Aincrad… But she couldn't deny he'd raised some important points. At the very least, she'd been reminded not to be complacent about what she—and the other clearers—thought was confirmed fact about gameplay.

Kirito-kun may be right about the risks if we let The Geocrawler in here, too. If there's anything that Kayaba would react to, it's that. I'll have to bring that up at tomorrow's meeting. …We still need a strategy, though. We've been stalemated for three days now as it is.

Asuna sighed, turning her gaze to the stone floor high above. It certainly didn't help that they were probably down a minimum of two clearers for at least the next couple of days. Maybe more, on both counts; Kirito's party wasn't likely to come back while one was still missing, and who knew what Klein was up to. That was quite a hole in their frontline.

"Is something wrong, Swordmaster-san?"

She jolted, dropping her eyes to find a village girl looking at her curiously. Did I really look so down an NPC noticed? …Well, the system does seem able to pick up on moods sometimes, that's how the emotional expression stuff works. "Um, kind of," she said aloud. "I've just got a lot on my mind, I can't get to sleep yet."

Whether that was something a regular NPC could understand, Asuna wasn't sure. Probably not. A couple of NPCs among the Dark Elves had shown unusual insight, if nowhere close to Kizmel, but she hadn't seen any in a long time, and they'd been few and far between then.

Surprisingly, though, the girl nodded, smiling sympathetically. "That's too bad. But… maybe I can help? There's this lullaby that always works for me." Without waiting for a reply, she took a deep breath, and began, "The southern traveling bard, with a lute in his hand, with a brush of silver threads, sleep awaits…"

Asuna blinked. Stared. Sat back with another sigh, as she realized what must've happened. I triggered a minor singing event. Flavor text… that's just so fitting right now. …Eh?

"Even the serpent armored in iron…"

Eyes widening, Asuna's attention was suddenly riveted to the "lullaby". A lullaby that just happened to mention something that sounded an awful lot like the very boss whose armored hide—and the clearers' inability to pierce it—had set off the day's mess to begin with.

As the village girl continued on into a second verse, Asuna did her best to catch every word. I'm an idiot! We're all idiots! We've gotten boss info from minor quests before; why didn't any of us ever think to just ask regular townspeople? Sure, I don't know regular RPGs, but practically everybody else on the frontline does!

When the girl finished the song, she favored Asuna with another smile. "Did that help, Swordmaster-san? I know it wasn't much, but it always makes me feel better when my mom sings it!"

"You've helped me a lot, actually," Asuna told her sincerely, giving her a deep, seated bow. "Thank you very much."

Giggling, the girl skipped off, leaving the Vice-Commander of the KoB to sag with released tension. If she understood that right, she'd just stumbled on the key to defeating The Geocrawler, completely by accident. That, finally, was one problem she had a handle on.

Climbing to her feet, she set off for the inn the KoB leadership was using. It was too late to tell anyone then, but as soon as everyone was up in the morning, she'd lay out her own plan.

Deep down, though, she wasn't as buoyed as she would've liked by the development. With that much out of the way, Kizmel's crisis was looming larger in her heart than ever. Her elven friend's crisis—and what Kirito had said to her as he left. What she'd seen, though she was sure he hadn't meant for her to.

…It's been a long time since I've seen Kirito-kun cry…

---

After burning out his fury in his duel with Asuna, Kirito had returned to the inn his party had been using in the central town of the Fifty-Sixth Floor, Eastwood. Though he knew better, deep down he'd hoped to find that Kizmel had returned, to find her waiting for him in the room they shared by habit.

Of course, when he opened that door on the second floor of the Tumbleweed Inn, all that had greeted him was silent emptiness. There was no sign she'd been back for even a moment, in the endless hours since they'd left that morning.

In his partner's absence, Kirito was just as glad to see no sign Philia or Rain had returned to their room, either. He didn't know what they were up to, and just then he didn't care. If they weren't there, then there was no one to see him sit heavily on the edge of his bed, hang his head, and cry.

He'd failed more times than he liked to remember, since the day Kayaba Akihiko trapped them in his twisted death game. Recognition of Illfang's change in weapon had come just a second too late for Diavel; the Black Cats had died because his instincts were just a little too slow on the uptake. Hafner had sacrificed himself to protect him and his partner. By now, he was almost used to losing people to Aincrad. But this time was different.

All those deaths, Kirito could at some level acknowledge weren't entirely his fault, that no one could predict everything SAO would throw at them at every moment. At the most basic level, while his actions could have saved them, it was the game that had killed them.

Staring down at clenched fists through his own tears, Kirito didn't have even that comfort now. Kizmel was alive—but she was broken, and it was all his fault. However angry he was at Lind and Asuna for pushing the issue, in the end he knew it was his own fault.

I did it to her, he thought miserably. I was too scared to tell her the truth. Scared she couldn't handle the truth. Scared she'd hate me for it. I was so scared of being honest that I did to her exactly what was done to me.

No. No, what he'd done was worse. In his more honest moments, Kirito had to admit his parents—Suguha's parents—had had no way of anticipating how he'd take the news that he was adopted. He had no such excuse. He'd had a pretty good idea of what it would be like to suddenly learn such a devastating truth, and so for over a year he'd led Kizmel on.

Okay, yeah, early on, I didn't know for sure if she could even comprehend it. I damn well knew by the time we met the Black Cats, though. I should've told her then. I should've told her… before things got so far.

I never lied to her. I told her as much truth as I could, and I dodged, and I outright said I couldn't answer sometimes, but I never lied. Except by not saying anything, I told the biggest lie of all.

Kirito lifted his head to look at Kizmel's empty bed, and remembered when it had been Asuna who'd been his constant companion. Everything he'd said to her about why he'd dueled her was true—but he'd also done it to distract her, so that she wouldn't say what he knew she would, and he didn't want to hear. Asuna had always demanded he tell her the truth, however painful.

None of it was as painful as knowing Lind was right to call me out for not telling Kizmel the truth. Of all people, he was the one who had it right this time…

None of it was as painful as seeing the hurt, the betrayal, in Kizmel's eyes, before she turned her back on him.

The hours passed as Kirito wallowed in depression. By the time night had fallen on Eastwood, he was seated at the room's desk by the window, finally coming to the conclusion he really had no idea how to handle his own emotions. When he'd gone through what Kizmel was now suffering, he'd run away until detachment built a wall against the pain. When SAO trapped him, he and Asuna had managed to steady each other. Since she'd joined the KoB, Kizmel had always been there to support him.

Her empty bed mocked him. So many nights they'd shared a room, chatting together—just the two of them—even after Philia and Rain made themselves a permanent fixture. After Asuna had left, Kizmel had kept at bay the loneliness he'd lived with ever since he'd learned that terrible truth.

More than that. Somehow, over the long months it had been just the two of them, Kizmel had filled a void he hadn't even known was there.

Kirito uttered a dry, bitter laugh; the first sound he'd made since the crying stopped hours before. I really am hopeless alone, aren't I? I'm not specced for handling emotions. If I was, I'd have known what to say when Kizmel said… that… when we spent the night in Moongleam Castle.

…No. I knew what to say. I just couldn't say it. Not when we weren't on equal footing. When I was still lying to her. Now she knows, but it's too late, and I really don't know what to do anymore.

I… need her.

A soft knock at the door roused Kirito from his misery, and with a fleeting stab of hope he turned to face it. That hope was quickly dashed, though, when the door opened to let in Philia and Rain, not Kizmel. Where they'd been, he couldn't guess. Why they were both wearing swimsuits, he didn't have the energy to wonder about.

"Thought you'd be here, Kirito," Philia said quietly, moving to sit on his bed. "Um… have you been here all day?"

"Not quite." He summoned up a hollow smile. "I tried beating the stuffing out of Asuna and told her what-for, before I came back here."

Easing herself onto Kizmel's bed, Rain lifted one red eyebrow. "Funny, when I saw her on the way here she looked like she just had some kind of revelation. Doesn't sound like somebody who just had their ego crushed, if you ask me."

Kirito shrugged wearily, letting the forced smile fade. "It was hours ago. Maybe something I said gave her an idea. Probably better than anything I've managed today." He hesitated, knowing the answer to the question he was about to ask. "Have either of you heard…?"

"Not a word, sorry," Philia replied, shaking her head. "We were with Sachi part of the day, and she didn't hear anything from Klein, either. …Sorry."

"Not your fault. This one's on me. Lind was right about that, at least."

"Yep. He kinda was, Kirito." Rain's words drew a sharp look from Philia, but the redhead's raised hand cut the treasure hunter's retort short. "Sorry, guys, but he was. If anybody should've made an effort to tell Kizmel the truth, it was you, Kirito. She loves you, y'know."

Kirito flinched. That was the first time anyone had flat-out said it in plain Japanese. Even Kizmel had used Sindarin, and he was pretty sure he knew why. She knew I wasn't ready, so she didn't want to force me. She just… wanted me to know she was waiting for me.

"Doesn't matter now, though, does it?" he said, hanging his head. "I screwed up. I promised Asuna I'd bring Kizmel back, there's something I need to tell her myself… but it's too late for that, isn't it?"

He heard a sigh. Two quick, light footsteps. Then there was a hand on his collar, lifting him bodily from his chair. He had just a brief moment to see Rain glaring at him, before her palm slapped him across the face with every gram of her STR stat.

In VR, even in the death game SAO had become, it didn't actually hurt, and within a safe area it couldn't do any damage. It did spin him around hard enough to knock him off his feet, sending him tumbling onto his bed ahead of a hastily-retreating Philia.

"Too late?" Rain spat, as angry as Kirito had ever heard her. "Don't give me that! Yeah, you screwed up, you stabbed her in the back, but guess what?! You, of all people, should know what she's going to want when she gets her head on straight again!"

Shaking his head in a vain effort to pull out of the Tumble she'd put him in, Kirito did manage to get her back in his peripheral vision. "Rain…?"

"I don't know what really went down with your family," she said, talking right over him. "But I can tell you want to get back to them more than almost anything. Well, y'know what? We—you—are all the family Kizmel's got right now. If there's any stability left in this world for her, it's you." Rain reached down and yanked Kirito back to his feet, holding him there when the Tumble still didn't let go. "So let me tell you something, Kirito: if you're okay with how things are now, just leave her be. Prove you really are just a coward and a liar.

"But if you want her back? If you want to give her that answer? Go get her." Red eyes bored mercilessly into onyx. "Even a knight needs their own knight sometimes. If you ever want to face your sister again, go bring back Kizmel. Or you really don't deserve to see either of them again. You hear me?"

---

From the Fifty-First Floor and the reality she had been forced to confront there, Kizmel could not even have guessed where Klein next intended to lead her. This was a day where nothing went according to her expectations; by then she'd more or less given up on having any.

Whatever speculations she might've had certainly had not included a visit to Zumfut, however. The central human town on Aincrad's Third Floor, it was a place she hadn't seen in over a year. At first, it didn't even seem relevant.

Klein quickly headed outside of the town, though, taking her into the forests that led back to where the Second Floor's labyrinth opened onto the Third. The realization that they were going to the Forest of Wavering Mists… that struck her with a sense of nostalgia strong enough to be painful even through the Swordmasters' numbness. That Forest was, after all, the very place she had first met Kirito and Asuna.

As she followed the samurai deeper into the misty, confusing woods, Kizmel felt a sense of growing dread. There was only one reason she could think of to go to that place, and it was one that had haunted her nightmares long before she had any glimmering of the truth.

"I know you don't really wanna see this, Kizmel," Klein said softly, not looking back. "But trust me. It's important."

She supposed it was. There was little question in her mind what they were going to see, but one way or another she knew she needed to. Even if it was only the final blow that sent her into despair.

Seeing Kobayashi, still afloat despite having last seen her blown to pieces, had already finished her doubts about the nature of Aincrad. How she felt about it, she wasn't even sure; as horrifying as it had been, there was undeniably a sense of relief at having the question answered.

She feared she would have no such relief after this. After all, Kobayashi proved Aincrad always reset to what had come before, to the tiniest detail. As Lind had said, even the dead returned exactly as they were.

Kizmel found it perversely irritating she couldn't even distract herself with the monsters they fought along the way. The treants that menaced those reaching the Third Floor for the first time couldn't even truly be called a nuisance for two warriors just back from the Fifty-Sixth Floor. Between them, Sword Skills were hardly necessary at all.

That left their attention free to listen. Not for treants or wolves, or even spiders, the strongest of which would be hard-pressed to even scratch them. Not for monsters, no, but for…

There, Kizmel thought, long ears twitching. That sound. It could be anyone… but I fear I know all too well what I'll truly see. She abruptly sped up, passing Klein in a silent dash toward a nearby clearing. Despite her heartbeat hammering in her ears, she heard the clash of sword on sword all too clearly.

What she would see, when her vision passed the last trees, she feared would destroy her. Every instinct she had told her not to look, not to confront the doppelgänger she knew in her heart was waiting for her. But she could no longer look away. She couldn't live like this, forever unsure if she was one or many.

Kizmel feared she wouldn't survive it. Yet she had to know. Slowing enough so that even elven ears couldn't hear her passage, she pressed up against a tree, and with a final deep breath, peered around it to see the warriors clashing steel.

Time and again, she'd seen this battle. More than she cared to recall in her dreams, in which she died under Kirito's sad eyes; one awake, as he and Asuna saved her life. Yet another, she was sure would be no different—and indeed, the first thing to come into view was a Forest Elven Hallowed Knight. Tall and muscular, pale-haired and clad in golden armor and green cloth. Kizmel knew that face well and armor well, as often as she'd fought that duel in her dreams.

With a familiar roar of fury, the Forest Elf swung his longsword, battering at his foe, who wielded a saber from just out of sight. He pushed forward, stepped to the side, and spun as if to change places with the other. The saber's wielder swept into Kizmel's field of view—

Lilac hair. Dark skin. Black-and-purple armor with heavy saber and kite shield.

A tall figure, with muscles that spoke of brute strength more than elegance and endurance. A face which Kizmel had never seen before. Not even in a mirror, or reflected in Kirito's eyes.

Tall, proud—and male.

It's… not me…?

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Author's Note:

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And here we have it, comrades: the awful moment of truth we all knew was coming. Now we come upon the end—of the beginning. One driving plot comes to an end in this arc, but it opens in its wake myriad possibilities I couldn't explore before.

A few things to take note of, naturally. First of all, I admit to indulging in a bit of an author tract with Kirito's argument with Asuna (though fortunately one that fit in context). More often than I'd like, I've seen SAO criticized for various things not making sense from a gameplay perspective; Dual Blades, Unique Skills in general, particularly seem to be hit by this, but they're far from the only ones. I'd just like to remind people here that, as Kirito points out in this chapter to Asuna, SAO is not a game. It only needed to appear as one for as far as the beta testers would see. Beyond that, all bets are off. Kayaba gives a fair chance, but a fair chance of beating SAO is not necessarily "fair" to every player individually.

Second, you'll be seeing some new material in Chapter XVII now. Some edits to the section at the Dark Elf capital, based on revelations in Progressive Volume 5 and some things in the Integral Factor mobile game (specifically, the game's Moongleam Castle is, in my opinion, cooler than what I'd come up with). Also a new scene in the middle, intended to smooth some rough edges in the pacing and provide a bit more of a lead-in to the events of this chapter.

Third, we've officially reached the point where Monochrome Duet is distinctly in conflict with canon events occurring prior to the time of the fic's beginning. Certain things in Progressive Volume 5 conflict with Duet, and it's quite clear Volume 6 will introduce more significant divergences, impossible to reconcile without severe editing. Thus, I can officially say that Duet is more or less compliant with canon up through Progressive Volume 4 and most of Volume 5, but after that is more or less AU.

Fourth: the question has been asked more and more lately, so I think it's time I made a direct statement on the subject. Yes, the AI Yui will be appearing in Duet. However, her role will not bear much resemblance to canon. Quite honestly, I don't like the character, and I really don't like what she "adds"—if you can call it that—to Kirito and Asuna's canon dynamic. I've been convinced to include her for other reasons, and I do have a meaningful role worked out for her, but Kirito and Kizmel are not going to be playing "parents" for her.

Finally, I know this chapter took a long time to come out. Part that was my being a perfectionist, this arc more than any other needing to be just right; most of the delay, however, was due to needing to catch up on my Persona 3 fic, with a chapter that was particularly difficult to write.

This chapter having been such a downer, after taking so long to even finish it, I will tell you all this: my goal is to have Chapter XIX up by Christmas. This is a miserable place for me to leave everybody hanging, after all. As my Christmas present to all my readers, and my great thanks for there being so many of you that this has become the first story I've ever written with one thousand followers, I will bring you the continuation as quickly as I can. I kinda worry this chapter might've fallen a little flat, but the next one is gonna be a doozy—and this time, not all of it doom and gloom. Big things coming. Very big.

See you then, comrades, and thank you once again. One thousand followers… You're awesome, all of you. -Solid