Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow
Chapter 6: Setting Up, Anniversaries and Discussions
April 14, 2025 - Kamakura, Japan
Gabriel looked over the offices where he intended to start his operations and nodded to himself. After spending the last two weeks working on setting this up, as well as making sure that it wouldn't cross the Chief of Station's desk at the embassy, or at least made sure that what he was really planning could be masked under a different operation.
There was always something that needed to be done, after all, a truism of intelligence operations if there ever was one. While having to operate semi-openly, as in he was a known and declared intelligence operator, was galling, it also meant that anything he did would have the veneer of an official operation. Adding another layer to obfuscate what he was doing in ensuring that the United States of America's interests, as he saw them, were furthered.
"Sir, it is time for the briefing," came a man's voice from behind.
"Thank you, Zach, I'll be there shortly," Gabriel said without turning around. He had no regard for the man, seeing him only as a means to an end, but maintaining a polite mien helped smooth things over and cost him nothing. To the man's credit, he was sharp enough to notice it and unflappable enough to not let any insult, perceived and real, affect his work ethic.
If the job was within his capabilities, he would do it. If it wasn't, he would mention that someone else may be better suited for it and even offer up names of those he knew for the job. If he still had to do it, he would do his utmost to get it completed satisfactorily and make no excuses if it wasn't up to par.
A professional, in other words. Far too many in the intelligence field allowed political maneuvering and personal interests interfere with accomplishing their duties properly. And Zacharias Richards kept his personal ideologies and beliefs just that, personal. He didn't let them interfere with his duties when he was on the job.
Gabriel needed professionals, even if he eventually decided to not use them in the unofficial and not entirely sanctioned capacities that he intended to use his job for. After all, he had plenty of officially sanctioned work that needed such men and women.
Alfheim, Yggdrasil City
"So Harry, how have you been handling the workload so far?" Kizmel heard Asuna ask.
"Asuna, we're only three days into class," Hadrian replied. "It's not so bad right now. Give them a few months. Or weeks, for that matter. By then, I'm pretty sure I will have already been complaining about the workload. And before you ask, I've already finished my assignments. Get it done now and panic less, later. Which, mind you, a friend of mine back in England would be shocked to hear from me, considering how I was often more than willing to just sit on my classwork until the last minute back then."
"And your other courses of study?"
"Still getting me back to where I was," Hadrian said with a sigh. "It's coming along easier since I have prior experience with that material, but Klein and Remus are not going to let me get into new material until I've gotten what I had learned in the past locked down again."
"So it's a lot of repetition of things you already know and refreshing your knowledge?" Silica asked. "Well, that has to suck," she then said when Hadrian nodded.
"But they're right to do so," Hadrian said. "My abilities aren't something to simply practice a bit and then you're fine. Would you say that your grandparents and uncles would be wrong for having you go over the basics again just to make sure that you still have them locked down?"
Silica shook her head. "No," she admitted.
"Excuse me, Hadrian," Kizmel said, speaking up. "But what is it you're studying?"
Hadrian paused for a moment. "Something I can't talk about here," he said. "Silica, Asuna and the others know what it is, and why I can't discuss it. Silica figured it out, as she already knew about what I am being trained in back in our world, and the others were close to figuring it out before I accidentally let it slip." He gave a wry shrug of his shoulders before turning to the tankard in front of him.
"Still trying to find a beer that meets your standards?" Asuna asked with amusement.
"That would be nice, but I'll settle for a beer that actually tastes like beer right now," Hadrian replied with a grumble before grabbing the tankard with his hand inside the handle. "Huh, it's warm. If this is a beer flavored tea, I'm going to find out who designed these drinks and have some pointed words with that person. Well, here goes nothing." He then took a drink and paused for a moment before putting down the tankard and gave it a confused look.
"Harry?" Silica asked.
"There is no way," Hadrian said. "There's just no way they could have known what that tastes like." He flagged over a waitress. "I want three more of this, for the ladies, please." He then looked at Asuna, Silica and Kizmel. "Asuna, Silica, I know that you two aren't beer people, more preferring wines, but I think you will find this interesting. Kizmel, I don't know your preferences, but again, I think you will find it interesting as well."
"I have a preference for wines, myself, but I am no stranger to beer and ale," Kizmel said. "Not my preference, but they aren't too bad." She got a frown on her face. "Well, the ones on Aincrad usually weren't too bad. I've heard enough grumbling from others to avoid the beers and ales here."
"Smart move," Hadrian acceded. "But this one is definitely something you will want to try."
"Harry, there's good reason beer isn't my thing," Asuna pointed out.
"I know that, and this won't change your tune," Hadrian admitted. "But it is something different, something I've tried before. And even many who don't like beer tend to make exceptions for this one."
The waitress came by and put the tankards down in front of Kizmel, Asuna and Silica.
Asuna gave the steaming tankard a skeptical look before turning her attention to Harry. She looked to be debating on something, Kizmel surmised, before she grabbed the tankard by the handle. "Well, you paid for it, so it's not my Yrd that was spent," she said. "But if this isn't to my liking, I know where Ashley works and you're going to be our favorite tailor's dress-up doll."
"Fair enough," Hadrian replied with a nod.
Kizmel and Silica then grabbed their tankards and Kizmel immediately noticed the warmth coming from it. Almost like a mulled wine, heated until it was very warm and with spices, really. She took a cautious sniff and smelled some of the spices used in it, and also something buttery. She looked at everyone and saw Silica giving Hadrian a curious look and then took an experimental sip of it. She let the drink's flavor roll over her tongue.
It was clearly some form of beer or ale, tending toward the latter, but lacked the bitter edge to it. There was a sweetness to the drink, as well as a somewhat creamy taste. As if they had added some butter or milk to the mix while they were heating it. Not enough to overpower or even clash with the taste, but instead worked as a compliment.
She took a deeper pull from the tankard and put it down, to see Silica drawing deeply from hers and Asuna staring at the one in front of her in surprise.
"It's clearly beer, but the taste is different," Asuna mused and got thoughtful before looking at Hadrian. "And this reminds you of something?"
Hadrian nodded. "It does," he replied. "From before we met. Not the same, obviously, but close enough for me to make the comparison." He looked at his tankard before taking another pull from it. "Hmm, not boiled as long, I think, so it would have a higher alcohol content than it would back home. Well, it would if we could get drunk. I asked around and it seems as if you can't get drunk here to the best of what veteran players can tell, not that I'm complaining."
"Klein might," Silica said with amusement, followed by a chirp from Pina.
"It's Klein," Hadrian replied with a scoff. "Anyway, all we need is to wait on Argo to either figure it out or use her usual tricks of bribery and/or blackmail to get it out of anyone who has figured it out."
"I take it that this Klein is a bit notorious, then?" Kizmel asked.
"Famous, infamous, storied, annoying... they all fit as well," Silica replied. "He led the largest guild on Aincrad and they didn't lose a single person."
"Which is a credit to him," Asuna added. "But we know him as the type of person who, well, he's a character."
"...Are we not all playing those?" Kizmel asked, smirking. "Some less so than others?"
"What Asuna means," Hadrian said, smiling and setting down his tankard. "Is that he stands out. Everyone- and I mean everyone- knew him as 'The Bro'."
"...As in Brother?" Kizmel asked, puzzled.
"In a way," Asuna replied. "There is more to it, of course. Bother, friend, person you know and like who happens to be male, all of those meanings can be summed up in that word."
"I see," Kizmel said. "You humans have an odd way with ascribing meanings outside what they originally meant to words."
She saw Hadrian glance around the inn's tavern before turning his attention back to her. "Please be a bit more discreet when you say things like that, Kizmel," he said in a quiet voice. "Granted, there's enough noise being made that it's unlikely anyone heard you, especially with a normal conversational tone, but we are trying to keep some things from being found out. Anyway, what do you all think?"
"It's… not bad," Asuna admitted. "Still not my thing, but it's not bad at all."
"Definitely not what I was expecting," Silica said. "Sweeter and smoother than what I've noted from your usual beers. Well, the ones in Aincrad that were tolerable, at least. You were good at finding those."
"Beer? Merely Tolerable?" Hadrian said, although his offense seemed to be a sham. Then his eyes narrowed. "You do both like tea, right?"
"Well, yes," Asuna said, and her shock he would ask also seemed to be feigned.
"...Were you leading to a joke about us having to like at least one of beer or tea to be Japanese, dear?" Silica asked, and the edge in her voice was not so much for fun.
"Well, it's the great bridge between my country and yours, Silica," Hadrian said, and then in a just loud enough mutter into his tankard, he added: "Though you seem to prefer baseball to cricket, for some reason."
"Blame the Americans," Silica replied.
"Bloody Yanks. Where's Gus? I'd like to gripe directly."
"Still staying offline," Came Argo's voice from behind Kizmel, causing the former elf to turn in surprise. She did notice that the others seemed to have not reacted.
"How did you-" Kizmel began when Silica put a hand on her arm.
"Kizmel, it's Argo," she said. "She likes to do that."
"That's not how, though..." Kizmel protested.
"Again, it's Argo," Silica noted. "She's just that good at sneaking up on people." She turned to her fellow Cait Sith. "So, what brings you here?"
Argo shrugged. "I noticed you all were online and in town," she replied. "And all of you have a beer in front of you, that's new. Aa-chan doesn't do beer."
"Harry talked me into it," Asuna said. "And he's lucky that I'm finding it to be palatable, or he would be modelling some of Ashley's newest designs."
"Harry," Silica said, with a smirk.
Hadrian raised a hand to summon the server. "Let me get you a mug of it..."
"By the way, where's Kii-bou and the others?" Argo asked while Hadrian ordered.
Arun
Rain just stared as several young players of various factions gathered around Lux, and she could swear that a couple of them were NPCs as well. She could see Yui off to the side smiling at the sight, only for the AI to be beckoned over.
I go out to see if there are any good mats I can work for sale, just so I don't have to farm them later, and what do I see? She thought.
"Hi- I mean, Lux, it's so easy to forget to not use real names here... It seems she is popular with the children," A woman's voice said from behind her.
Turning, Rain saw an older Sylph woman looking on with a smile. "It's like she has this 'Big Sister' vibe going on with them," she said. "Or maybe a favored aunt. She never showed this off in SAO, though. Then again, she's the nice one of our little group, so it really shouldn't surprise me."
"Oh?" The Sylph asked. "I didn't… oh, wait, I recognize your voice. I'm Lux's mother, we met in the real world, back during New Year's, I believe."
Rain blinked at that. Wait, Lux's mom plays? She thought before thinking it over. Oh, right, she does. Lux did mention it. Wasn't training her up a bit of the reason for their delay getting here. Well, on top of the Sylph-Cait Sith treaty, at any rate?
"I'm afraid you have me at a loss, Miss..." Rain said.
"Oh, pardon me, I go by Shrin here," the woman said, flushing a bit. "I don't come online all that much, now that my daughter is in school." She looked at Rain. "And your name… Rain, correct? And why do you think that this shouldn't surprise you? You and your friends certainly spent a lot of time with her."
Rain smiled and nodded. "The one and only," she replied. "And this surprises me because she spent so much time with us. While we didn't avoid being social with people, we also didn't have too many opportunities to interact with the regular SAO players." She looked at Lux surrounded by children.
"I see, a shame," Shrin replied.
Rain shrugged, as if saying it was what it was. "Anyway, she's probably going to be busy for a bit, want me to tell you some amusing stories from our time in SAO?" She asked with a grin. "I remember one from… I think it was about six or so months ago. Well, anyway, we were all taking a break and actually using some public places when what we have all come to call 'The Dusk's Flash Incident' occurred…"
##
Lux paused as she heard her mother laugh and looked to see Rain telling her something and wondered what it was. Knowing the Russo-Japanese girl, it was likely to be some amusing, and embarrassing, story from SAO. Of which all of them had been at the center of at least once.
And hopefully Rain wasn't telling her mother about the Dusk's Flash Incident. She better not be telling that story. Not unless she wanted open season to be declared and her own embarrassing incidents brought to light.
I wonder if I can get the others in on that, though they will be bringing up every embarrassing incident of mine and each other in response, she thought. Which would make everyone who wasn't in SAO think we're insane. She looked around a bit, meeting Yui's eyes at the end and spotting the knowing gleam in them. Well, more insane than they already think we are. And note to self: see if Yui's somehow telepathic, because I swear she knows what I am thinking.
"Hey, hey, Lux!" One of the boys said, getting her attention. "You said that one of your friends was eaten by a mob?"
Lux chuckled. "Yes, he was," she replied. "He cut his way out of it, so he was fine, if a little smelly. We would have thrown him into a lake to take a bath if one was nearby. If only to wash out the smell, though that wasn't the worst smelling any one of us ended up being."
Yui barked a laugh. "No, that was after that one quest you all did in Alsterin," she said with some amusement before looking at the other children. "It involved a sewer, and the smell followed them out."
Lux shuddered. "Don't remind me, Yui," she said. "That quest… the smell wasn't even the worst part."
"Were you facing mobs made of poop?" Another boy asked.
"Thankfully no," Lux said with a grimace. "Even if it would have been a relief to have something to fight. But a mob made of that?" She shuddered. "That's one of those mobs we would have just went 'nope' and walked the other way. Or we would have whacked it with Harry, given that we were all blaming him for jinxing us into that quest."
"Eew…" All the children replied, their faces screwed up in disgust.
"It was one of those days," Lux said. "Now, you all wanted me to tell you some stories from my time in SAO, right? Well then, why don't I tell you about Harry and Silica's wedding and how it grew into the event it was? I heard that someone actually managed to stream footage of it in here?"
Valley of Dragons
Kirito easily dodged the Gnome's axe and countered with his own slash, scoring a wound of the player's avatar. He ignored the cheering and jeering from the watching audience as he kept his focus on his opponent, watching for the telltale signs that indicated an attack and it's type.
If he were to be honest, he could have ended this much almost as soon as it began. His opponent was slow and relying on brute force to win, no technique or finesse to it. Granted, he was comparing it to his SAO experience, which had far different standards. In SAO, this player would have been a Middy who was firmly in the middle of the pack at best, while here he was actually considered fairly capable. Not an elite player by any stretch, but still competent.
He was seriously tempted to hold a lesson for the entire bunch of ALO players, just to improve their relative quality. I am now beginning to see why so few groups have managed to finish the Grand Quest now, he thought. Most of them are just not up to the same quality that even a mediocre SAO Player was.
And if he was honest, they were better off for that.
He sidestepped another strike from the axe and ran his sword through the Gnome's shoulder. "I believe that we should call this done," he said.
"Damn, I couldn't even hit you," his opponent groused.
"You telegraph your attacks too much," Kirito replied. "You go for attacks that, while they would do a lot of damage if they hit, are useless if they don't. Against mobs, those attacks are a lot more effective, but against a player who knows better than to tank a hit he doesn't have to, it's less than optimal. I know someone who specializes in using an axe. Go to the Sword's Rest Tavern and look for a Gnome named Agil. Ask him for some tips."
The Gnome looked confused for a moment before giving a skeptical nod, not that Kirito could blame him. While it wasn't as bad as it was in MMOs before SAO, ALO still had players intentionally distributing information that was either missing key bits, erroneous, or flat out lies.
The kind of Troll behavior designed to catch newbies out and humiliate the overconfident, really.
A crash caused him to turn his attention to another mock duel going on and he watched as Strea got up from the small crater she obviously created from a hard landing with a cheerful grin.
"Not bad!" The AI called out cheerfully. "That makes it what this month? Two for you when compared to my seven? You're getting better!"
"Still means I got my ass kicked by you seven times already this month," a Salamander said as he descended, resting a flamberge over his right shoulder.
"Which is still less often than what you ended up with by the same time last month, Dai," a different Salamander called out. "I think she was even trying a little this time!"
"Kiss my ass, Ren," Dai replied. "If she tried even a little, that means I might actually be getting better at using this oversized knife, rather than using a lance. Which, mind you, she doesn't need a weapon to kick any of our asses if we're using."
"Oh, I remember that," the Gnome he had been fighting said with a chuckle. "She caught both of their lances by their heads when they tried to stab her and threw to two into the same boulder. Apparently she heard about a Sylph doing the same thing during a botched ambush a while back and decided to repeat it."
"It wouldn't have been in the Ancient Forest, would it?" Kirito asked idly. "Because if it was, I know the Sylph who did it."
"Oh, know him IRL or some other game?" the Gnome asked.
"Yes," Kirito replied, not offering any more information.
Alfheim, Yggdrasil City
"Oh, they're off and doing their own thing," Harry said and then smirked at Argo. "It's not like we do everything together."
"Only most things," Asuna added.
April 15, 2025 - Nishitokyo, SAO Survivor School
Keiko sighed in relief as they left the school. "You know, I would normally be able to tolerate some subjects, but they really, really, need to work on the English curriculum and how it's taught." She said.
"Tell me about it," Harry grumbled. "While the grammar instruction was more or less spot on, if I get corrected about splitting an infinitive one more time…"
""Isn't that a rule of English?" Asuna asked. "Because I think I've heard that rule in the past."
"If by 'rule', you mean a completely made up rule by grammarians who had delusions of intellect, adequacy, and relevance, then yes," Harry said. "If I were a bit better with proper Japanese, I would send a note to MEXT about them needing to revise their guidelines. Teaching rules that few native speakers follow, particularly when speaking, but do exist, even correcting me on them? That's fine. They are actual rules, even when most don't give a damn about them. But to insist on…" he sneered. "Rules that were made up? Thanks, but no."
"A bit of a sore point, I take it?" Kazuto asked.
Harry shrugged. "I wouldn't say it's a sore point," he said. "It's more… how do I put it? It's more that we tend to take rules and look at them as guidelines. Writing is a lot more structured, but that's writing. The spoken language is… well, the general rule of thumb is, if you can be understood clearly, then it works. I know they're trying to teach it to students who never experienced the language the way a native would. I bet that if I learned Japanese more in a classroom back in England, instead of getting the language shoved into my head and then SAO, where I had to learn the rules as I went along… it would probably be a lot more, ah, correct. On the surface at least. I bet you all would have a laugh at how I was speaking"
"Not to your face," Nijika noted. "This is Japan, where we take politeness so seriously you don't know if you've been insulted or not."
"Not like a barbarian like Harry would know," Hiyori added.
"Hiyori, you wound me," Harry replied. "I'm just a hapless, poor, and innocent gaijin. Why, you took away the skulls I use as drinking cups, the necklaces of beads I use to protect my virtue, and the sheep entrails so I can properly divine the correct answers to any questions I may be asked." He gave a dramatic sigh. "You were polite about it but... Civilized, the lot of you. What is a proper savage and barbarian to do?"
They all shared a laugh.
"Okay, you're all laughing, what did I miss?" Kazuto asked as he walked up.
"Only us talking smack about you behind your back," Keiko replied.
"Like we all do when it's one of us who isn't here, as it should be," Kazuto said with a nod. "All of us have incidents under our belts that we joyfully hold over each other's heads."
"Better to take the piss out of ourselves," Harry noted. "Though none of us have managed to top what Klein roped Kazuto and I into on our own."
"And the only reason none of us topped that is because none of us were drunk," Nijika said.
"Nijika," Asuna said. "We didn't need to be drunk, or do I need to remind you of the Drill Our Own Shortcut Incident?"
Nijika flushed. "Asuna!" She protested. "We promised not to talk about that!"
"No, you promised, I didn't promise anything," Asuna said in a smug tone.
"Well, if that's going to be the game, how about I-"
"Ladies, we're not on the school's grounds and people are starting to stare," Harry said.
Asuna blinked and composed herself. "Is it odd I have to think about that to care?" She murmured.
"We rock the boat enough as it is," Kazuto replied quietly. "No need to 'prove' to people that we don't fit in, even when it may be true. Anyway, we have to head to the dojo, right?"
"We do," Asuna said. "And I hope that it won't be like it was a couple of days ago, my mother wants me to get started with the tutors on a couple of subjects."
They continued walking toward the subway station and Keiko very carefully didn't pay attention to the one person who kept his attention on them as they walked by. Or the one who seemed to melt into the crowd at the bus pulled up to the stop as they passed it by. Or the one that was quietly shadowing them. Neither did the others.
But they were aware and Harry was already making a call.
Kamakura
Gabriel looked over the report that one of his people picked up from a dead drop location that he was fairly confident that the PSIA didn't yet know about. Not completely sure, Japan's domestic counter-intelligence agency was good at what it did, but there had been no indication yet that they were aware of it.
Though even if they were aware of the dead drop, or even had an idea of the contents of the report, it wouldn't be something that would trip their radar. Well, no more than the fact that such a report was placed at a dead drop, at any rate.
Any report detailing observations on SAO Survivors was likely to raise a few eyebrows, but he was sure that various intelligence agencies around the globe were paying some attention to that group, if only because many of them would think that they would be prime recruiting material for the JSDF.
The Chinks and the Gooks would certainly think that, he thought. If only because they would naturally suspect anything involving Japan and it wasn't any real secret that the government helped defray that costs of developing the Nerve Gear. I'm surprised that its development hasn't raised more of a stink internationally outside of the embarrassment of the incident with SAO.
Full-Dive Technology's potential military applications were easy for him to surmise, despite the current limitations of the technology. And while Japan has no stated intent to use the technology in such a way, the other nations in the region are unlikely to believe that is the case or would remain so for long. Japan was one of the top spenders for defense in the world for a reason, despite their being very careful to not spend any of that money in developing strategic weapons platforms.
But then, Japan had left deep scars in this part of the world, and it refused to forget or forgive, even as realpolitik dictated that there was nothing wrong in the background.
He put those thoughts to the side and went over the report again. While it wasn't precisely necessary for him to have the ones detailed in the report observed, this group of survivors was worth paying attention to simply because they had ended SAO in such a remarkable fashion.
The report mostly concentrated on how they seemed to be acting more like a set of youths within their own age groups, or at least trying to, but the observers all seemed to agree that some of the acting more like their ages seemed forced in some ways. As if they were soldiers who have recently returned from a war, rather than a bunch of kids who have been through a more mundane, if still harrowing, experience.
Interesting, but irrelevant. Observing them was more a passing interest, as some of them did bear watching, if only to ensure that they didn't stumble on anything he was involved in.
And, perhaps, to utilize them as well.
All in the United States' interests. Whether they saw what he was planning as such or not was immaterial. He didn't go through the trouble of arranging to set up operations in Japan for no reason.
Now, what was next on his list of things to do? Personnel?
Nerima, Potter-Black Apartment
Harry looked his reflection over, taking in his clothing, a simple dressy shirt and pants and went over his plans for the night. He would go to Keiko's place, take her out to dinner, the two would probably walk around the shopping district and some more meandering and wandering. In other words, much like how their outings in SAO had gone, if without the two of them returning home to their shared room, bathing, Pina alighting on her perch and preening her feathers, and anything that would come after that.
And on that thought, he was again reminded as to why he seriously didn't like the current status of their relationship due to the laws, for all that it was necessary right now.
"You know, I'm pretty sure that most boys your age would be more nervous about going on a date before they left, rather than showing some borderline frustration," Sirius said idly to Harry.
Harry turned to his godfather. "Most boys my age aren't married in all but name due to some legality issues," he said dryly.
Sirius looked thoughtful.
"If you're that backed up, I'm sure the Shiba's head of household has one of his many medicines..."
Sirius smirked. "It's not that. It's just... you remind me of your parents more sometimes than others." At Harry's raised eyebrows, he shrugged. "The first war with Moldyshorts was on when they married, after all..."
Nerima Streets
Jiromaru watched the pair of kids that he had been trailing walk down the street without a care in the world and sneered. They looked like any pair of kids he had seen coming out of that school, if a slight bit more robust than their companions. Just students, not the pair that had stopped his sister's fun in SAO and put her in what passed for jail there and the prospect of confronting frightened her to this day.
Damn it, Daisuke, you got caught in that mess as well, you should have been able to keep that from happening! He thought with irritation. His friend should have been able to intimidate anyone into backing down, and if not, roughing them up enough to make them do what he and his group wanted them to do.
And it seemed to work, until her group drew the attention of those who wanted to put a stop to his sister and her group's actions. It wasn't as if anyone got hurt or killed by it, only scared and roughed up a little. There was no reason to basically arrest her, throw her in a jail cell, and leave her there for several months until she was allowed to leave it, albeit under heavy supervision and not allowed out of the place where the entire incident began.
Which was a far sight better than what the others had to deal with, they didn't see the outside of those cells until the last day, right in time to watch seven players confront and kill Kayaba, freeing everyone.
This was all information he only truly learned after the fact. Yes, he watched the streams, somewhat, but not often. What was the point? He never got a call that his sister had suddenly died and he had better and more important things to do.
If they hadn't stepped on Karyu in getting there, I would leave them alone, he thought. But they had. I don't care if she said that they should be left alone, that was there, this is here, and no one, no one, gets in my family's way!
##
"Harry…" Keiko said.
"Yeah, he's still following," Harry replied, looking down at her and taking in the blouse and long blue skirt she was wearing, while glancing out the corner of his eye. "Continue on or confront?"
"Let's just keep going, he might not be here for us and may just be wandering around," Keiko noted, though the tone of her voice made it clear that she doubted that. They had been tailed by this one since the Nekohanten.
Granted, he was doing a decent enough job in blending in, and made sure to not approach too closely, but that was part of the problem. The two of them had noticed that they were being followed by someone who wasn't among their normal minders almost immediately. While neither would claim to know who everyone watching and trailing them were on a personal level, they knew who most of their unofficially official minders were on sight.
Hearing a slight growl, he looked at Keiko and smirked. "Hungry again?" He asked.
"I'm a growing girl, Harry," Keiko replied. A second growl had her smirking at him. "And it's not like you would complain about a bit more food."
"Fair point," Harry admitted as he looked around and spotted a familiar sushi cart. "In the mind for a light sushi snack before continuing on? Mr. Umemori does a good job. Why, it happens to be just as good as Klein's luck with the ladies is bad."
"From a simple yattai?" Keiko asked. "That takes skill. Well then, let me try some of it. The more official places around here are good enough, but if he can make good sushi and cut some quality sashimi from a simple cart, I might want to see if Aunt Nabiki can help finance him setting up a more permanent location."
"Ah, but from what I learned from him, he likes using the cart and moving around. Different customers, different tastes. Why, I remember him telling me about this one customer he often runs into in Chiyoda loves ordering inarizushi from him. And I've tried his rice. You and Asuna were right on how the rice makes the dish, dear."
"Now the question is, is the food he makes at least nearly as good as what Asuna makes?" Keiko wondered. "Remember when she brought and shared that overly large bento to training a few days ago?"
Harry nodded. Asuna had brought quite the bit of food for them to enjoy after the physical evaluation of their capabilities. He was both surprised and impressed that her skill with preparing food was, while not as good as it was in SAO, was still better than one would assume for a girl her age.
Then again, once they had cooled down and showered from all the exertion, they fell on the food like a pack of starving wolves. Or teenagers, to be more accurate. With all the lack of table manners, by their standards- Asuna had managed to keep them somewhat civilized- that implied.
There had been a lot of pointed looks from Keiko's grandmother to her grandfather and uncles in that moment, and much puzzled "what"ing in return.
The two smoothly moved over to the cart.
"Welcome, Mr. Potter!" Genta said as he saw Harry approach the cart. "Out for a light snack with the young Mrs.?"
"We're in your care, Mr. Umemori," Harry replied, not missing his choice of terms but not wanting to encourage him. Honestly, it was hard to tell who the bigger ham was. The sushi chef or the kabuki actor? Harry was tempted to see how well they went with cheese and determine if they could approach the levels of Sir Brian Blessed.
"Everything Harry has told me says we can trust you with such," Keiko agreed.
"I should hope so!" Genta said theatrically. His eyes darted briefly behind them and then met Harry's, eyebrows raised. Harry nodded slightly.
Let their tail join them. Better to play it out with one of Japan's own demon hunters backing them.
##
Jiromaru didn't know what made him take a seat at the sushi cart. Yes, the pair he was following had stopped at it, but he could have continued on and doubled back after a few minutes. He had seen enough movies to know that staying too close to someone being tailed, or hanging around for that matter, was only an invitation to be spotted.
There was the gut feeling the game was already up in that case to consider, of course. Nah, it couldn't be, he thought. There is no way that any skills they may have picked up there came out with them.
He looked over the menu and decided on an order, noting that the two were already focused on eating when the cart's proprietor was seemingly bumped from behind and seemed to lose control of his knife, sending it flying in a high arc toward the two. He watched the boy just snap his left hand out and catch it by the hilt, flip it in his hand, and hand it back to the sushi chef. All without looking.
What the hell?! He thought in shock. How did-
"Many apologies for my clumsiness," the proprietor said in a contrite manner.
"Hmm?" The boy queried. "Oh, right, the knife. No harm done, so don't concern yourself over it."
Jiromaru began to rethink the wisdom of tailing the pair in order to do something to them to square the books in his mind for their ruining his sister's fun in SAO. Now? He was beginning to understand why his sister said that people both admired and feared those who had been the ones to end it.
"Excuse me," he began, licking his lips. "I don't mean to pry, but I thought I recognized you and wanted to ask... my sister was in SAO. Where you as well?"
The boy gave him a calm look. "Yes, both of us were," he said in a neutral tone.
"That... Steel Phoenix, was it?" Jiromaru pressed. He was fighting himself to stay calm. He generally had too modest, too polite or too relaxed. This was in an odd place, blunter than he could get away with even with his fellows, but still delicately toned.
The boy nodded. "We were among that group," he said. "Why do you ask?"
Jiromaru sighed. "I think... you ran into my sister in there. And as a brother... part of me wants to deck you. But... I'd like your side of it. She... doesn't go into much detail. I know what I saw on the streams, but I didn't watch close. I... couldn't do anything for her from here."
"We crossed paths with a lot of people in there," the girl... no, this was a young man and woman here. She didn't look up from her meal, sipping miso after cleansing her palette with some radish mixed with soy.
"She went by Rosalia," Jiromaru admitted.
The young man sighed, setting down his chopsticks. "That... that was not fun for us. I'm... a bit sensitive about people acting like the worst possibility is impossible. I'm someone who barely survived that, lost my family to the worst case."
Jiromaru met his eyes, and slowly nodded. "Gimmie your side."
Alfheim, Arun
Asuna bit back a growl as she watched a Gnome act like a complete asshole to a group of kids and restrained her desire to go over and throttle him. The main reason was that Yui was there and simply staring him down, the white knuckled grip on the haft of her spear showing just how irritated with him she was. She was liable to stab the idiot at any moment, despite the fact that Arun was a safe area and it wouldn't do anything outside of giving the youngest seeming, but the oldest in fact, AI of their group some catharsis as she beat the idiot like a drum until her morale improved.
The second reason was Strea and Lux walking, more like stomping in the case of the former, over with thunderous expressions on their faces.
"I am surprised you aren't walking over yourself," Kizmel said at her side.
"There is no need," Kirito said with a snort. "Those two will more than suffice in voicing our collective displeasure."
"Well, more Strea," Rain opined. "Lux is likely to check over the kids and make sure they're okay. You should have seen her yesterday, when a bunch of younger players and I'm sure some NPCs just gravitated to her. Then again, with the way that ass is acting… she's probably got a few cutting comments ready."
Kizmel gave them a curious look.
Nerima Streets
Jiromaru stared at Harry Potter, who his sister had known as Hadrian inside SAO, as he began to wind down his side of the story.
"Again, I am not proud at how I played a role in escalating that encounter," Harry said, taking a sip of his tea as he looked over the remaining sushi in front of him. "I could have gone about it differently, maybe been a little less provocative in how I spoke, or less confrontational. Hell, I could have made it clear to her that she was biting off more than she and her friends could chew right from the start. She didn't believe that Kayaba was being honest about the whole dying in the game means you die in reality. But even so, she was gradually escalating things and it would have resulted in someone dying at the hands of her and her group."
"And I bet she is probably happy that we stopped her before she could escalate that far, now that she's out of SAO and knows that Kayaba was telling the truth," Silica, or at least that's what she had been known as in SAO, said. "Even if she won't say as much." Her face had an expression that made her seem a decade or two older than her teens for a moment before it cleared.
Jiromaru blinked and then remembered that the pair of youths at the sushi stand had knowinglykilled others in SAO. Looking at them more carefully, he noticed that the two of them carried themselves in a way that would be out of place in two teenagers. There was none of the cocksure confidence telling the world to give them its best shot. None of the surety of belief in bad things only happening to other people, not them.
It was the quiet confidence and self-assuredness of those who had already faced challenges and hardships, and not been worn down or broken from their experiences.
What they had said, which they explicitly mentioned was from their perspective, did tie up with some of what Karyu had said about her encounter with them. That they had intentionally baited her into targeting them, playing on their youth to sell it. While there were clear differences, their perspective painted Karyu in a worse light than his sister painted herself in, it also didn't contradict what she had told him.
"Okay, stop that," Harry said.
"Stop what?" Jiromaru asked in confusion.
"Stop trying to read between the lines to see what may be there," Harry replied. "You'll only get lost on the page and miss the story. I'm fairly sure that what we told you painted your sister in a worse light than how she painted herself to you. That's expected. Different tellers, different viewpoints." Harry made a motion to check the time on his phone and turned to his companion. "Well, I think it's about time for us to get moving, dear." He said before turning to Jiromaru and gave him a nod as the two got up from their seats and began to walk off.
Jiromaru looked over what he had found himself ordering without even noticing, the conversation he just had, had been quite distracting. Taking a bite, he began to eat the prepared fish and rice eagerly. It was quite good and the rice was definitely better than what would be expected from a simple yattai.
Despite things, he realized that he had to talk with Karyu. He may have missed some details when she first talked with him about the incident, and he wondered what her reaction would be when he told her that he had run into certain people.
April 17, 2025 - Chiyoda, Nihon University Hospital
Shino sat down in one of the available seats as she waited for her counseling appointment, not that she expected anything but more of the same that she had dealt with since she had been eleven. Why should she? Despite the apparently neutral demeanor of her previous counselor, that hadn't stopped him from giving her judging and condemning looks, or not condemning her with his own words for her killing a man.
As if she didn't condemn herself enough for it.
The door to the psychologist's office opened, catching Shino's attention. "I will be seeing you again next week, Miss Karatachi and we can continue with how you coped with the aftermath of those unfortunate incidents within SAO," came a woman's voice.
"Thank you for your time, Dr. Ikuda," came another woman's voice and Shino watched as a high schooler exited, or at least someone wearing a school uniform. Where did she see the crest on the uniform's jacket again? Wait, didn't the counselor say that the girl an SAO survivor?
She gave the woman a more careful look. Late teens, college age, wearing a high school uniform. She couldn't tell the school by the uniform, but the conversation indicated that she was a student at the school set up for the SAO Survivors. Brown hair and of above average height, but not overly tall. Semi-alert but not wary posture. Aware of her surroundings and subtly turning to glance at her out of the corner of her eye.
"Dr. Ikuda, I believe your next appointment has arrived," The woman said dryly.
Shino blinked. That was new. She was used to being ignored by people, beneath notice, which she preferred to the alternative.
Because if someone noticed her presence, the harsh looks and the silent condemnation would start. She had long since given up on hoping that someone who found out about what she did those three years and change ago would do any different.