Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow
Chapter 12: A Dinner and a (Virtual) Visit
June 15, 2025 - Nekohanten, Nerima"Well, that idea of mine bore fruit," Harry said as he grasped some noodles with his chopsticks and was happily slurping them up a moment later.
"Which one?" Keiko asked as she expertly grabbed a slice of tofu from one of the tsukemono dishes with her own. Harry had a few ideas of how to spend the summer, well, the free time they would get with the martial arts training and all.
"The one where I could have Ron and Hermione visit," he replied.
"Ah, that one," Keiko replied. "And are they bringing anyone else? And also, as a detail of minor importance, how much of it is coming out of our funds?"
"Hermione's mum is coming, she was up for some vacation, though her dad can't," Harry said. "They need someone present as they are the senior dentists and both of them being absent has to be coordinated well in advance. Also, Ron's mum as well. Ginny, his sister, is basically guaranteed since she would be the only girl at the Burrow otherwise. Mr. Weasley probably could secure the time off, but he doesn't want to do the necessary favor trading. As for anyone else, it's not a hard commitment, but I wouldn't be surprised if the pair of jokers that are Ron's twin brothers also get dragged along." He smirked. "I still need to pay them back for one prank, and Mrs. Weasley got to see a picture of what Instant Jusenkyo can do."
"And who is paying for them?" Keiko asked in a tone that boded ill for him if he didn't have a satisfactory answer.
"Sirius is," Harry replied. "He did offer to help with the expenses, even if my family's money could easily cover the costs. And if he wants to spend his money, I am not going to stop him."
"That it also means that you're spending less of our money has nothing to do with it." Keiko noted drily. "Or what I would do to you if you made that kind of decision without my input, I'm sure."
"That too." Harry admitted. "And if that was going to be the case, I would have arranged a second meeting while we worked out how much it would cost, not to mention refining the list of those coming along. Granted, it was a loose idea of mine, but I did talk it over with you."
"And I agreed with it so long as it wasn't too much," Keiko said. "Granted, 'too much' is hard to quantify with what the two of us have direct access to right now."
"If it was going to cost more than what was set aside for the others on an individual basis, though, then it would definitely be too much," Harry said. "You can easily live off of that for a year if you don't mind modest living, after all. Just Ron and Hermione? Easy enough. Several others? Even with it all, I am glad Sirius is picking up that part of the tab even if it didn't break that generous budget." He shook his head. "And just the two of them would cost quite a bit."
Keiko nodded. "While those with your talents have access to means to get here may be less expensive than anyone else could enjoy, the travel alone would still be pricey," she said. "And that doesn't count the cost of a place to put them up."
"And that adds more to the price, especially as we can expect at leat three more accompanying them, possibly five," Harry noted. "We got a place picked out, a nice hotel that is used to a varied customer base, and Sirius is picking up the tab on that one. And it has a fair number of staff who are competent with English, even if it's the more Yank influenced version."
"I would ask what the difference is, but I know better," Keiko said as she took some noodles up in her chopsticks. "English has, no doubt, at least as many accents and unique dialects as Japanese does."
"More, I would think," Harry said as he picked up a piece of pork from his ramen. "In fact, Hermione once told me there's even an accent linked to a particular way of speaking that's to do with class and standards, Received English. A lot of colonies picked that one up. English is fairly spread out, being the main language of several countries and all."
"That's a fair point," Keiko admitted after a moment. She reached for some of the tempura right as Harry was, only for him to withdraw his chopsticks as the last moment. She shot him a pout as she grabbed the tempura, but said nothing.
He knew why she did this, often go for the same side dish at the same time he was. For all that people would say that they could be saccharinely sweet with each other, that was when they were trying to get people to react, even today.
Those who knew them knew that they disagreed, bickered, and had to work out compromises between each other on. Their relationship wouldn't be remotely healthy otherwise. It would be dangerously codependent, toxic, or both. And the line between the codependency and toxicity was a fine one.
No, this was her practicing her own family tradition of doing harmless, but annoying, things to each other to get a rise out of each other. Mostly as a training tool. If you managed to score your food before the other, good, you're getting better. If not, then get better. There was also the matter of keeping one's temper in check when frustrated at encountering repeated failure at something so apparently simple.
He could try and climb that mountain, especially as Keiko was more agile and dextrous than he was even if his reaction reflexes were slightly faster. But why would he try to climb that mountain when there was a pass to make reaching his destination simpler?
He was used to frustration and having to keep his temper in check. Those years living with the Dursleys having taught him that the hard way. Though many of the Slytherins in Hogwarts would disagree with his ability to keep his temper in check given how often Draco Malfoy managed to get a rise out of him.
And yet, all the times he made any motion to something specific, only to yield to Keiko, had a purpose behind them.
Had she paid attention to some of the dishes, most of which he knew Keiko favored to begin with, she would have noticed him swiping from them whenever he had yielded on another, especially if she had been distracted by talking or eating. Granted, it wasn't a tactic that always worked, but it always working would take the fun out of it.
That, and everything was more a smokescreen for what he had been really aiming for, he mused as he grabbed the last dumpling on a plate. Whether it worked or not was immaterial when one put it into the perspective that part of the fun was, when successful, also in using one's own tactics against them via a different means.
##
Keiko finished her Ramen before Harry, which wasn't uncommon, and idly reached for the dumplings. Hearing only the clack of her chopsticks hitting the plate, she glanced at it and paused.
How did the plate empty? A motion caught her eye and she watched as Harry was biting into a dumpling. The last dumpling. How did- no she knew how he had pulled it off. He used their conversation as a mask for his own actions, along with going after anything he really wanted to eat among the sides when she was otherwise occupied.
Point to him, the sneaky bastard.
She gave him a fond smile, acknowledging his win there.
"So, a minimum of three, but up to five extra?" She asked.
Harry nodded. "That's what I am thinking," he replied. "Won't know how many for sure until next week when I meet up with them to finalize things."
Keiko gave a hum as she considered that. "Perhaps I should come along when you do," she said after a moment. "For all that this was your idea and your Dogfather is helping-" She had easily picked up on the meaning behind that bit of English wordplay. "-you did run it by me when it became more than a loose idea. Mostly so I would know beforehand if I was notified about a sizeable withdrawal being made from our account."
"And I wouldn't put it past Gringotts to do so," Harry admitted. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they did so as a matter of course. You are the current Lady Potter after all, legal marital status notwithstanding. And riding herd on whoever the current Lord Potter is would be a part of your responsibilities. A responsibility which would require you to have access to the necessary information, such as what I am doing with our money."
"And that still puzzles me," Keiko said. "Why would I be the current Lady Potter when I am not legally married to the current Lord Potter."
"Probably because of the wedding in Aincrad," Harry replied. "Not even Professor Dumbledore is entirely sure why the rings turned up at the exact moment we exchanged vows there, but they did. For all that the wedding there holds no legal weight in the Real World, which even I will admit is proper for all that I don't like it, we still got married, and we were serious about it."
"And it's not like both of us still don't think of ourselves as husband and wife," Keiko admitted. "We don't get up to certain activities, and for obvious reasons, but that doesn't change how we think of ourselves. So, should I make sure I have my passport ready?"
"That might be a good idea," Harry replied and then chuckled. "You know, our passports are seeing a fair bit of use, even when they are only there and back matters."
Alfheim, Yggdrasil CityAsuna largely ignored the sight that greeted people when they arrived in the city from Arun as she stepped away from the Teleport Platform as soon as she arrived. The vista of looking toward the horizon, while beautiful in its own right, was familiar and thus easily ignored by her. Well, that and long habit of moving out of the way so as to not be bumped into by someone else teleporting in, or the more recent by her perspective reason of avoiding being crashed into by some idiot deciding to fly into their own teleport and suddenly losing use their wings and control of their movements in the air due to now being above ALO's Altitude Limit and face planting or crashing into someone depending on their momentum.
While it was amusing to watch, it was not so amusing to be on the receiving end of such incidents. Of course, any SAO Survivor would still have the habit of quickly moving away from a Teleport Platform and getting a bit of distance from it as well. It had been far from unheard of for a teleport to not be precisely accurate in SAO, and ALO wasn't much different. One wouldn't teleport inside of something or someone, but momentum carried and not everyone waited to be at a complete stop before teleporting.
And then there were the times one simply wasn't paying attention, either. One could still be caught by surprise even with SA giving you good awareness of your surroundings, and this went double when you were in a safe area. Where your guard was likely to be down due to the explicit safety.
Half of Argo's ability to sneak up on someone was due to her exploiting that. The other half was simply because she was good at it. To the point where she could consistently sneak up on Harry and Kirito when she was actually trying. And those two were hard to sneak up on, if for different reasons.
The sound of a lute and singing caught her attention and she turned to see a pair of Puukas, both girls, putting on a small impromptu outside concert, with a male strumming his instrument. Heading over, she spied the Moonlit Black Cats and made a slight adjustment.
"Man, surprised to see her here," Keita said. "It's been long enough that most of the SAO Survivors who would have come to ALO had already and it is unlikely any others will."
"She did say that her father was understandably reluctant to allow this when I brought it up back in class," Sachi noted with a shrug. "Not that I blame him, just as I don't blame my parents for requiring some serious persuasion on my part and giving the conditions that they would allow me to play ALO."
Ducker snorted. "Sachi, all our parents required some serious convincing, and I'm not sure it really took," he said. "It was more the fact that we made a lot of connections there, I think. Yuuna over there isn't the only person who got caught up in SAO whose family is high profile."
Like me, Asuna noted to herself. It wasn't a big secret Outside that her father was the CEO of RECT, the same company that ran ALO, after all. Not spread about, but not a secret.
"Surprised Nautilus came into ALO," Ducker added. "I don't know the details, but he had issues with combat in SAO that were believed to be FNC related. Not any sense losses, but he didn't like to fight despite his going out with Yuuna to protect her. Not as much of a problem with AmuSpheres, but it is still one that happens."
"It's none of our business," Sasamaru said. "And we won't ask."
"That other girl, what was her name, Seven?" Tetsuo said in order to change the subject. "She's not bad. An interesting accent, but not bad at all."
"She did ask for us to be understanding, as Japanese is not her native language," Sachi noted. "Can't really place it, but it's not like any of us have a lot of experience with foreigners. Hadrian being an obvious exception, of course."
"Similar accent to his though, so maybe she's English?" Keita wondered. "Or perhaps American?"
"Probably American," Tetsuo noted. "America is closer and are about as tech crazy as we can be, so it wouldn't be a surprise for them to be the among the first nations to get a global release of the AmuSphere. But we would have to ask. And Ducker, no, that doesn't mean we go and ask her."
"Hey!"
Asuna gave an amused snort, which got their attention. "Oh, please, don't mind me," she said.
"A little late for that, Asuna," Keita drily said. "I'm sure you noticed SAO's own bard, Yuna, has finally come to ALO. Unsurprisingly as a Puuka, as that would fit her theme from SAO. And given what Sachi has told us of who her dad is, that is a bit of a surprise, given that he has been… understandably reluctant to allow her to go back into VR."
"I believe that most parents would be reluctant," Asuna noted. "And as you noted, for understandable reasons."
The impromptu concert finished and the audience gave applause.
"Well, that wraps things up for today!" The older Puuka, Yuna, called out.
"It was fun, everyone!" Seven called out. "Dosvidanya!"
And with that Russian farewell said, and noting that the voice was familiar, Asuna had a good idea of who Seven was. "If Rain isn't around, she's going to be annoyed that she missed her sister putting on a concert," she said.
"What?" Keita asked. "She's Rain's sister?"
"It's only a suspicion, and that was because her voice is familiar to me since I have met her, I recognize the accent, and she used Russian at the end," she replied. "Spend enough time around Rain and you pick up a little Russian, though that's mostly swearing. Just as spending time around Harry would likely result in a similar grasp of the finer points of English."
Keita snorted. "Unless you're married to him like Silica was in SAO," he said in amusement. "And none of use have any doubt that the two of them will rectify the fact that they aren't married in the legal way as soon as they can. Be a bit of time, though."
"And you don't want to know how much that fact frustrates them," Asuna agreed. "Even though they understand and accept the reasons, it frustrates them." She shrugged. "They'll deal with it."
"Not trying to stop us from speculating?" Ducker asked.
"That would be a waste of time," Asuna replied. "I'm surprised they haven't been feeding rumors and speculation here in ALO. At least I don't think they've been feeding them. Then again, none of the speculation about them that I know of has come anywhere close to what had been spreading through SAO, with and without their help, even before they got married. Being made of pure bullshit due to how they fight is nothing like how everyone in SAO occasionally talked about their sex lives."
"To be fair, that being made of pure bullshit applies to all of you in Steel Phoenix," Keita said. "And a number of confirmed SAO Survivors here in ALO. Mostly Assault Team members, from what I can tell."
"Not including yourselves in that?" Asuna asked.
"Asuna, we were Middies," Keita replied. "Our skills are, at most, slightly above what a solid veteran ALO player would have. Good teamwork, solid fighting ability, and reactions which we don't say we suspect is because our SA carried over but is not so outside expectations as to be virtually game breaking. Which is nowhere near as bullshit as the SA of anyone from the Assault Team had. Our beating the Grand Quest doesn't change that."
"Still higher than many veteran ALO players would have," Asuna countered. "But that's admittedly a result of our redefining hardcore and having been logged in for more than two years straight and how many of us were crazy and stupid enough to not do the smart and sane thing and, you know, not risk our lives on a daily basis."
"Meh, doing the smart and sane thing would have been boring," Sasamaru said with an almost dismissive wave. "Not that there weren't days where we all wondered just why we didn't do just that some days."
"I can think of a few," Ducker admitted. "There is definitely one day I would rather we did the smart thing and not headed out. I don't care how valuable the quest drop would have been had we completed the quest instead of what happened and after that day… it just wasn't worth it."
Asuna nodded, knowing precisely what he was referring to. A certain day which left all of the Moonlit Black Cats with mental scars, Ducker more than the others. "Let's not bring up that day," she said. With the clear implication that other days like that should be tabled.
No need to bring up traumatic memories from SAO in ALO, they were here as much to have proper fun in a virtual world without risk as they were to get some familiarity back. How much of either depended on the person, and none who did come to ALO blamed any of their peers who decided to not do so.
Hell, the joke among the SAO Survivors in ALO was that their fellows not coming to ALO was conclusive proof of their sanity.
"Surprised Hadrian and Silica aren't on yet, they usually are by now," Tetsuo idly said.
"They may be on later, but they are on a date right now," Asuna replied.
"Are they calling it a date?" Tetsuo asked, clearly remembering how often they denied that their outings were dates.
Asuna chuckled and nodded. "They are," she replied. "They stopped denying that those were dates well before they got married. I think it's because they simply got bored with the denials." She knew full well the reasons why that happened but that involved details that few players outside of Steel Phoenix knew.
"That would be like them," Keita admitted.
##
"Thanks for accompanying me from Concordia and running with my idea, Yuna," Seven said.
"Not a problem," Yuna replied. "I enjoy putting on performances and coming out this way from Concordia isn't an issue for me."
Seven nodded. "My sister did tell me your reputation from SAO, she saw some of your performances there," she said. "Mostly early on, though. She joined up with the group she was with at the end after about six months there. After that, she was often too busy to look for your performances, though she caught quite a few in… Algade I think it was called? At least, it was the place a lot of people used as their base of operations from what I've heard."
Yuna nodded. "Oh?" She asked, interested. The only American she knew of who participated in SAO, Gus, was male. Not that she had met him to her recollection. That didn't preclude other Americans for having been trapped in it, though.
"Oh, you may have heard of her," Seven replied with a smile. She looked around a bit and focused on one group that was approaching. "But it looks like others want to approach us."
Seven saw Yuna look where she was and then nod. "Ah, I know them," she said. "Well, all but the Undine, at least. I feel like I should at least recognize her, so she's probably another SAO Survivor. Our appearances tend to follow general patterns from how we looked in SAO. Wonder how that got pulled off, since our appearances should be randomized much more than they are."
"Well, you spent two years there and go to school with a number of them," Seven noted. She looked at the Undine, having a suspicion she should recognize her as well. "As for how SAO Survivors tend to closely resemble how they looked in SAO, I have no clue. And I understand why you think you should recognize her, she does look familiar. But the only ones I would- ah."
"Hm?"
Seven smiled. "Never met her online, but I have met her in the real world," she replied. "As well as others in her guild. You would definitely know of them."
Seven inwardly smirked as Yuna took a more discerning look at the group approaching. She could see the gears turning in the older player's head, just as she could see the flash of recognition in Yuna's eyes as she made the connection. "Now your using dosvidanya when you ended the performance makes sense," she said, turning towards her. "That Undine is Asuna of Steel Phoenix, which means your sister has to be Rain. But-" She shook her head. "None of my business."
"And she is younger than Rain," came Asuna's voice. "They have different family names, but that story is not mine to tell."
"Dad and mom divorced over a difference of opinion," Seven said. "Sestra went with mom and came here, I went with dad to America. There were reasons for that."
"Reasons we won't discuss here," Asuna noted. "I don't know if Rain gave you a general overview of it, but we prefer to not talk about private personal matters Outside when out in public online."
"Outsi- oh, you mean the real world," Seven said. "A fitting but interesting term, though I have heard you use that term for just that when I was watching the streams. And before you ask, no, I am not in Japan. I am still in Cambridge, the American one in Massachusetts, not in England. Dad is a researcher and does work as an assistant professor at MIT between projects, after all. It'll be a few weeks to a month before I come to Japan to spend some more time with sestra." She gave a small smirk. "And watch as she swears like a sailor at dad if he doesn't pussy out on coming with me like he did last time, only for him to correct her on it. He expects her to the moment she sees him, by the way."
"Why am I not surprised?" Asuna asked with a sigh.
"You know her?" Seven asked.
"That would probably be why," Asuna admitted. "Hopefully she can hold it in long enough to be in a place reasonably private before she starts."
"Hopefully I can hold what in long enough?" Came a sudden question from behind that made Seven start and turn about quickly to see a leprechaun walking up. One she clearly recognized simply because SAO player avatars had a strong resemblance to how they looked there. She had her suspicions why, it wasn't as if Kayaba wouldn't have left such a gift for those who decided to come back. Which was unlike her, who simply lucked out in her avatar looking decently close to how she actually did. A little taller and lithe, a little more padding up in the chest area, but she could look in a mirror and easily recognize herself. The hair was paler, and her eyes were red like an albino's, instead of the brown for both, though her hair was light enough to be close to blonde.
"You holding in your desire to tell your father what you feel about certain things in detail," Asuna replied without missing a beat before giving Sevel a sly look. "If you happen to witness it, I hope you record it. I will give you my email address if you like, so you can send it to me. Especially if he decides to correct her while she is still swearing at him."
"So mean, Asuna," Rain said. "And what do you… mean?" She then quickly looked at Seven. "Na- sestra?! What are you doing here? I thought you were still in America!"
"Still am," Seven said. "The AmuSphere is slated for full release back home next week but quite a few of us were able to get one on early release. You have no idea how many of the MIT students are jealous that some got that early access."
"I can imagine," Rain replied. "Just as I am sure you aren't being a brat about that fact, or lording over the undergrads that you have a Ph.D at your age." She added in a desert dry tone.
"Bah, I don't lord that over them, I just simply wait until one asks me if I'm lost when I am there to give them a guest lecture," Seven said. "The looks on their faces when their professor confirms that a teenager is the one giving the lecture is amusing, though."
Rain nodded. "Ah, the fact that someone who should be in middle school has managed to attain educational heights that most of them won't," she noted. "In other words, schadenfreude at its finest. Still, that doesn't explain why you're here, though. I would have thought that ALO wasn't slated for a global release any time soon, if at all."
"Was able to get it done with an international order and the AmuSphere is not region locked. It's not like any developers back in the States have something they can market for this system yet," Seven replied. "I do know that there are a couple of companies looking in on that, but the development architecture is not along the same lines as even conventional VR and they are having to learn and relearn a lot of things. It's not like they have access to the SAO Beta Servers to data mine and reverse engineer that RECT does. That saved that company a lot of time, effort, and money. And it's not like Akihiko Kayaba left a 'Building Virtual Worlds for Dummies' guide or software set."
"What makes you think RECT datamined and reverse engineer the SAO Beta Servers?" Asuna asked.
"Simple, ALO was developed fairly quickly and from what I can tell, there are too many similarities to SAO," Seven said. "That, and RECT would have been foolish to not use the SAO Beta Servers to help develop the baseline for ALO since they had their hands on them. No need to reinvent the wheel, after all."
Asuna nodded. "A good observation, and you're right, RECT did just that," she said. At everyone's look aside from Rain and Yuna, who were also nodding, she decided to explain. "I have an in with some decision makers at RECT."
"Translation, her father and brother confirmed it when Kirito made that same observation," Rain snarked. "It's no big secret who your family is, Asuna, even if I have the advantage of having met your parents and brother."
"Well, they did want to meet you and the others, if only to see how bad an influence you all were on me," Asuna said with a smirk. "Not to mention seeing how you all handled being well out of your comfort zones. Which you all handled quite well, by the way. Even with mom being who she is."
"Dinner at your place, while definitely something none of us were used to, isn't quite out of our comfort zones," Rain replied. "Not after that one quest on the seventieth floor that disturbed all of us." She shuddered. "It says something that wading through a sewer that was up to waist deep in shit was the least unpleasant part of it."
"I heard about that quest," one of the others said. "Oh sorry, I'm Keita, the leader of this group minus Asuna, the Moonlit Black Cats. We're SAO Survivors as well." He turned to Asuna. "Heard from the general grapevine back in SAO about it. You all heard about it from Argo and decided to do itt? How badly did you want to throw her off the edge for that? Because she had to be trolling."
Asuna snorted. "Heard about it?" She asked. "We're the ones who told Argo about it when she ambushed us in the bathhouse to wash the stink off. Argo using it to troll people is something we expected. Better to share the suck and all that. And Rain's right about the sewer and all that involved was the least worrisome aspect, and there was no fighting mobs of NPCs involved. I have to give it to whoever designed that quest, they managed some good subtle horror there. We were all wired and tense by the end, and there was nothing to take it out on, which made it all the more nerve wracking."
Keita nodded. "Ah, that kind of horror theme," he said before looking at the others. "Almost glad we didn't take it. We know Argo wouldn't lie, but that doesn't mean that she would tell us everything. And we had heard about how that quest went." He gave Asuna a suspicious look. "You all had to know that Argo would troll people with it."
Asuna smirked. "If we had to do it, why would we deny others the opportunity?" She asked. "And no, we didn't request that she withhold certain key details, like just how bad it smelled and why that smell would follow you until you washed. Why would we? Especially as players would claim that we had to be exaggerating. I mean, they would think that if we, especially Lux and I, could manage to get through it, it couldn't be that bad, right?"
Seven looked at Rain, her sister nodding and smirking at Asuna's words, and decided to leave it be. She had heard about that quest from those who watched the streams and the explanations of that quest and why those who did it found it so disturbing.
She may need to see if any of them back at MIT recorded some hapless person doing that quest to get some additional perspective on it. It couldn't be nearly so bad seeing it from a position of remove, after all.
And her sister seemed to have noticed something. "Let me guess sestra, you're going to find a video of someone, maybe even us, doing that quest," she said before shrugging. "It won't come close to matching just how that quest felt. Just as those who watched that one viral video of Harry managing to scare the shit out of that one idiot after we beat the old record for the Grand Quest before it became beatable but were actually in Arun to witness it wouldn't have the same effect."
"It went viral?" Asuna asked. "I mean, that someone recorded it and posted it online was basically something we figured would be done, but it went viral?"
"Oh, you mean that one where Hadrian chewed that one idiot out?" Ducker asked with a laugh. "I watched that one." He shook his head. "I've heard about how he could be caustic when he sees fit to be so, but man, he managed to do so wonderfully. The comments on the video were hilarious as well."
"And that same idiot lodged a complaint," Asuna noted. "Not that it resulted in anything. My brother told me that he was informed that the matter did not warrant a response from them. Since he was the one who started it…"
"So he was basically told to fuck off and not bother them then?" Rain asked with a snort. "Good, we don't need little asshats like that thinking that they can get away with crying to the complaints department about us because their precious and delicate feelings were hurt because they started something with us."
"So basically, he was put on the spot and he realized that he had to put up or shut up." Seven surmised. "He couldn't and went crying to someone else." She sighed. "Typical internet tough guy behavior."
Everyone present nodded at that.
Katsushika, Tokyo Detention HouseIwato Yamiguchi looked around the cell for several moments before focusing his attention on the sheet covered form lying on the floor. He already knew what happened, so it wasn't as if he needed to search the cell anyway.
Inmate Number 617931, Noboyuki Sugou, wasn't the first dead inmate he had seen, let alone even the most gruesome body of one. Hell, this one was still relatively intact, only beaten black and blue before being hanged by a bedsheet, not maimed and castrated with his testicles and penis shoved into his mouth after having severe rectal trauma via a spike improvised from a bedpost someone got from somewhere.
He already knew that none of the other inmates would have heard a thing, just as he knew that the cameras would have had some technical difficulties during all this. Unfortunate and annoying, that. If any of the watchdog organizations wanted something, they would be disappointed and it would result in the warden having to deal with it. Not that it was likely, all things considered. What the inmates did to each other usually didn't concern those organizations. Had it been done by the staff of the prison, and it got known, it would be a different story.
Also annoying was having to fill out the paperwork to note another suicide in prison. Not that anyone would believe for a moment that it hadn't been helped along the way. They wouldn't say anything, what happened in Japan's prisons was often not their concern to begin with, and what this man had done to warrant being here in the first place meant that they were unlikely to questions it anyway..
Endangering seven thousand people, many of them children, put him pretty much at the same level among the inmates as child molesters were in the eyes of many of the inmates, especially the Yakuza. Regardless of what the actual sentencing was, Sugou was sentenced to Life, which was not a mercy, his days were numbered. It is a veritable death sentence with what he did and how many that pissed off. The Ministry of Justice simply didn't think he was worth the expense to house long enough to go through the proper motions to execute him in due time and the inmates would take care of it.
Such as the man would have likely had a life expectancy measured in months, a year at most. It all depended on when the guards stopped telling the others to not kill the person. Couldn't they have waited another month? He mentally griped. I would have won the bet on how long he lasted and it had grown to a hundred thousand yen!
A shame. Regardless, he had paperwork to fill out and sign off on before turning it all over to the coroner.
June 18, 2025 - Furinkan District, Nerima"Huh, wonder why someone's suicide in prison is front page news," Keiko heard Harry say as they walked by a simple stand selling newspapers and magazines. They didn't have their extracurricular training today, so they were taking their time getting back to their places and logging into ALO.
"Oh?" Keiko asked.
Harry walked over to the stand and paid for a newspaper. "This," he said as he showed her the front page before looking at the article. "Hmm, looks like this guy, Noboyuki Sugou, got arrested at RECT for his actions endangering seven… thousand… well now, that's interesting." He then looked at Silica. "Dear, it looks like this guy was the one responsible for the Glitchzone." And the careful neutrality of Harry's voice didn't hide the scorn in it.
"There's more about what he was doing or planning behind the scenes, too. Some nasty shit there that makes me glad that the NerveGear is pretty much a dead in the water piece of hardware. Oh, and Asuna's father basically called the police, who arrested him right after he was fired." He continued, looking at her. "We already know that whatever lead to the Glitchzone pushed Kayaba's timetable up and is why he decided to end things when he did, but it's nice to have some confirmation from another source. But it seems as if this guy was up to some other shady stuff as well." He shrugged. "And if he was the one responsible for the Glitchzone and what it was doing to Aincrad…"
"Nothing was lost with this guy dying," Keiko finished with a shrug. "It's not nice to say, but…"
Harry nodded. "Agreed, dear," he said. "And I doubt it's a suicide in the literal sense."
"And it's not like there couldn't have possibly been people there who were family or friends of those he endangered." Keiko noted. "And considering the ages of many of us trapped in there, the Yakuza wouldn't have taken it kindly to begin with. If one of them had family trapped in there…"
"Surprised he lasted this long then," Harry said with a snort. "I've heard some rumors about what the Yakuza does to people who do shit that could harm or kill kids, let alone succeed."
"The prison administration probably stopped telling them to keep it limited so they wouldn't have to go through the inconvenience of deciding whether or not to say it was a suicide," Keiko said. "And that's if it wasn't an actual suicide."
"Well, they didn't go into detail, so I can't tell if it was a suicide, or had some help," Harry said
Keiko shrugged. "Well, it's nice to know, I guess," she said. "Good riddance and all that, you know. Anything else of interest?"
Harry looked over the page of the newspaper and flipped a few more pages. "It looks like the AmuSphere is about to get a global release next week, not that we didn't already know that. What with us running into Nijika's sister in ALO while she was still in the U.S., with ALO set to start up servers in North America and Europe next month. There are some slight issues with setting up an Asia release outside of here in Japan, it seems. Other than that, not really anything that concerns us."
"Meaning that they've shut up about that bitch, Councilor Iguchi, and her latest attempt to force some things for some of us SAO Survivors in the Diet," Keiko said. "For now, at least. And it says something when the Ultranationalists think someone is being a bit extreme. And not in ways that precisely run counter to their stances."
"Well, she did lose a brother to SAO from what I've heard," Harry said. "Though if he was one associated with Laughing Coffin like some opinion pieces I've stumbled on claim, I wouldn't be surprised if she loses her position on the Diet come next election. Not that I don't understand why she is trying this, though my sympathy for her is surprisingly absent if that is the case."
Keiko nodded. Yes, losing a family member to SAO was tragic. However, most SAO Survivors who made it to at least the status of a Middy had little to no sympathy for those who lost family who were members of Laughing Coffin. Well, aside from any sympathy felt that they had been related to those sociopaths anyway.
Too many had died at that group's hands.
June 21, 2025 - Nishitokyo, SAO Survivor's SchoolHiyori stepped off the bus, carefully ignoring the various watchers who often cased the school even as she noticed them. Several of her fellow students also had that air of carefully not paying attention to various people as well, though she noticed a few groups tighten up their formations a bit. Habits learned in SAO were hard to break, and groups of friends from there tended to fall into some form of party formation, after all.
She honestly wondered if anyone was fooled by it. Maybe some, but that would probably be their own biases informing them. After all, why would a bunch of students be aware that they were being watched? They're only children, after all.
Children, or at the very least minors, yes. Stupid, no. She knew full well that her fellow students in her class thought that the government was at least keeping a quiet eye on them, just as she knew that she and her friends were being quietly watched. And not just by the government.
Granted, not all the watchers were government. Well, Japanese Government, that is. Some of the more obvious foreigners who were regular sights were probably watching them all at the behest of their own governments. Or criminal organizations for that matter, given that she had spotted one group and some obvious to her Yakuza staring each other down while what was probably the National Police discreetly watching them.
She would admit to some if asked that if she knew exactly who was doing the watching for whom, she would be tempted to make some phone calls to let them know that they aren't as subtle as they may think they were being. From a phone purchased specifically for that purpose, of course. And maybe with a separately purchased SIM card. Paid for with cash.
Or she could just simply keep her awareness of things and leave them be for now. Also, maybe she should stop watching bad spy or yakuza movies on those nights when her nightmares make sleeping problematic and watch anime or look at cute animal pictures on the internet instead.
"Not very subtle, are they?" A woman's voice asked as she entered the school's grounds.
"Subtle enough, I think," she replied, turning. "If you're saying that they are not subtle due to how many of us are aware of them and the indications that we spotted them, you do need to keep in mind that close to half of us made it a habit to court danger in SAO, Sakimura-sensei."
Aina Sakimura, the woman who taught more than her subject of Japanese Literature at the school to Hiyori's knowledge nodded. "It's easy to forget that many of you all are a bit more aware of your surroundings." She admitted. "By the way, Miss Kashiwazaka, do you know when Mister Potter will arrive?"
"Potter and Ayano should be here soon," Hiyori said, using the family names for her friends out of simple courtesy towards her talking to a teacher. "They usually arrive a little before I do and I arrived earlier than usual."
The teacher nodded. "I see," she said. "Well, if you see him before I do, please inform him that I would like to speak with him."
Hiyori nodded, knowing what the Japanese Literature teacher was most likely wanting to talk to him about. "I will," she said. "Though I do believe his progress in his extracurricular studies is going properly apace from what I've been told."
Aina raised an eyebrow. "I should be surprised that you know about that, but I'm not," she said after a moment. "Frankly, I would not be surprised to find out that your file has a properly passphrased note in it that you did know. The same applies to your friends from Sword Art Online."
Hiyori considered that and nodded. It made sense to her, after all. "Well then, if you don't mind, Sakimura-sensei, I best get to class," she said. "I will let Potter know if I see him." At the teacher's nod, she gave a brief bow and began to head to class.
##
Aina watched as Miss Kashiwazaka walked off and turned her attention back to the students arriving. That she knew of Mister Potter's other studies and the implication as to what they were about was, as she said, more surprising in the sense that it wasn't surprising. Not with how tightly knit many of those who had been in the same constant groups so often and for so long.
That, and the implication that it was known by the authorities as it was. She really needed to see if the rest of Potter's group had passphrase annotations to their files showing that they had been brought in properly on that knowledge.
Her mistake, there. Granted, depending on how they found out, it could have been passed off as something else, like him having a moment where he went full on chuuni due to the events he would have been enduring finally making him act up to bleed off the stress. Hell, she wasn't the only one who suspected that was half the reason he and Miss Ayano got married in SAO. Well, that and them being teenagers.
In an admittedly highly stressful situation that even adults would struggle with, but still teenagers. They would have needed something to help bleed off the stress, and getting into a relationship would have been seen as a possible way. Especially as it didn't show signs of being an unhealthy one or one started for the wrong reasons toward the end of SAO.
Given that her brother had passed on some international news about the two of them in England dealing with some political matter that Potter felt he needed to deal with personally, with Miss Ayano there providing support, she figured that the lack of an obvious open relationship was more because people weren't looking.
Or they were simply not bringing any potential drama between them to school. Probably a bit of both.
And as if thinking of the two summoned them, she saw them walk through the school's gates. Time to tell him that he would need to schedule some time with her so she can evaluate his progress in his magical studies. She had no doubt that his tutors were managing well enough, but she was here to ensure that all the magical students were getting caught up in their magical studies and properly document it. Well, and to also provide them tutoring in any subjects they were lacking in. Or just provide names to get such tutoring in subjects she was not qualified to be a tutor in.
She would also have to schedule a meeting with his tutors afterward, for that matter.
"Mister Potter, I need a moment of your time," she said as she approached him.