Sword Art Online - Volume 5 - Phantom Bullet

  “Pfft…, hey, Asada~” While her fingertip was still extended, Endou spoke in a voice mixed with laughter.

  “So my older bro has a number of those model guns. Next time, I’ll show it to you at school. You like them right, pistols.”

  “…”

  Her tongue could not move. In her dry mouth, it just quivered in a troubled way.

  Shino shook her head with a small stutter. If a real model gun was suddenly shown to her in school, she was likely to faint right there. Simply by imagining that scene, her stomach began to shrink, and her body could not help but bend down.

  “Hey hey, don’t puke Asada~—”

  Behind her, there were still voices mixed with laughter.

  “But when you puke and collapse in the middle of world history class, it’ll be super tough afterwards.”

  “Well, if it’s here, then there are drunken old men puking quite often.”

  Louder laughter burst out.

  I want to escape. I wish I could run away. But I can’t do it. The two opposing thoughts echoed loudly inside her mind.

  “For the time being, we’ll let you off with what you have on you now, Asada. You look sick, anyway.”

  Endou reached out to the bag held by Shino’s right hand, Shino really could not resist. ‘Don’t think about it, don’t remember it.’ While thinking that, the vision of her memory revived in a black brilliance. The heavy, wet feel of iron. The smell of gunpowder inside the nose— At that time, a shout sounded from behind her.

  “This way! Mr. Patrolman, hurry!!”

  A young man’s voice.

  Endou’s hand moved quickly away from her bag. The three people ran out the front with amazing speed, mixing into the crowd of people in the shopping district.

  This time her legs really lost strength, and Shino collapsed onto her knees, crouching.

  She desperately tried to control her breathing, trying to keep herself from panicking. Slowly, the shoppers noisy conversation and the super market’s grilled chicken smell came back and her nightmarish flashback faded away.

  How many tens of seconds had she been in that state? Then, from behind, came a timid voice.

  “…Are you okay, Asada-san?

  Taking one last deep breath, Shino gathered strength in her weakened legs and stood up.

  She adjusted her glasses while turning around, and saw a small skinny boy.

  He wore jeans and a nylon pullover, with a dark green backpack over his shoulders. Along with his casual clothes, a black baseball cap sat over his little round face. Although he looked like a middle school student, the dark shadows beneath his eyes betrayed his youthful visage. Shino knew this boy’s name. He was the only one in this town she could trust—or at least wasn’t an enemy. In another world they have a good relationship like comrades.

  Feeling her heartbeat finally settle down, Shino gave him a small smile and replied.

  “…I am all right. Thank you, Shinkawa-kun—Where are the police?”

  She looked at the back of the alley; it was dark and empty, and no one seemed to be appearing.

  Shinkawa Kyouji scratched his head through his cap and smiled.

  “It was a bluff. It happens a lot in movies and manga right? I wanted to try it once. I’m glad it worked.”

  “…”

  Shino was somewhat amazed, and gently shook her head.

  “…You always come up with these kinds of tricks in a flash—Why are you here?”

  “Ah, I was at the game center over there. I came out the back door…”

  Kyouji looked behind him. On the rain soaked concrete wall near the road, she really could see a small silver door.

  “Those guys surrounded Asada-san. I really thought of dialing 110…”

  “Yes, you were a great help. Thank you.” Shino smiled again, Kyouji also smiled for a moment, then returned to a worried look.

  “…Asada-san, this kind of thing…does it happen a lot? That…even if it’s me saying it, you should report this to the school…”

  “It won’t help, even if I do that. It’s okay, if they go any further than this, I will really go to the police station. Then again, before worrying about other people, are you… all right?”

  “Ah…I’m fine. I have not met those guys again.”

  The small boy, this time gave a self-delusional sort of smile.

  Shinkawa Kyouji was Shino’s classmate before the summer holidays. “Was,” as he hadn’t come to school since the second school semester.

  From the rumors she’d heard, Kyouji was severely bullied by the seniors in his soccer club. His physique was small and his family owned a large hospital, which made him look like the perfect target. They didn’t ask him for money outright like Endou’s group did, but he paid for their food, entertainment and other sorts of stupid stuff, damaging his self-esteem in the process.

  Natually, she had never heard about this directly from Kyouji.

  They first got to know each other in June, in the nearby municipal library.

  Shino was in the second floor reading room, reading The World’s Firearms. She had finished most of the graphic magazine.

  At the time, she was finally able to look at such pictures without panicking, but looking at the page with «that gun» for around ten seconds was her limit. Right when she hurriedly closed the book, a voice came from behind ‘…Do you like guns?’

  That the person who had said that was her classmate was something she didn’t realize until later.

  Shino had wanted to immediately answer, ‘No way, it’s the opposite’. However, then he would question why she was reading the magazine. It would be hard for her to offer a rational response, so she had just answered vaguely.

  Now, Kyouji knew that Shino had an extreme fear of guns in the real world, but back then he misunderstood Shino’s response. So, he smiled happily and sat in the chair next to her.

  He pointed at the graphic magazine and talked about the firearms pictured, while Shino listened with cold sweat flowing within her. But among all that, Kyouji mentioned a «different world».

  She knew that Full Dive game machines went on sale a few years ago, and she also knew about the term VRMMO. However, Shino had grown up without playing games, and believed that it was enough for «A World of Swords and Magic» to exist only in fantasy books. She wasn’t interested in it.

  But the virtual world Kyouji intimately described in a dreamlike way didn’t have any swords or magic. In exchange—it had guns. That world’s name was «Gun Gale Online» (GGO). The many firearms that exist, or have existed, in real life were precisely reproduced in that world, and the players use those weapons to kill each other in a gruesome wasteland.

  Shino interrupted Kyouji, asking him with a sigh.

  “—In the game…does this gun exist?”

  The boy blinked in surprise, then nodded in an of course fashion.

  If it’s like that, Shino started thinking. In that virtual world, can she confront «that gun» again? Five years ago, her eleven year old heart was deeply pierced; that black gun left a bullet wound which would never disappear. Can she face that black gun once more; fight it; overcome it?

  Shino firmly held her cold, sweat-soaked hands and, in cool voice, asked Kyouji, “To start playing this game, how much money is required?”

  Half a year had passed.

  Inside Shino was born a girl named «Sinon», a ruthless sniper who became famous in the wasteland of GGO.

  But, unfortunately, she still has not met an enemy with «that gun». So Shino does not know. Has her real self—not Sinon, but Asada Shino—really became strong, or not…?

  The answer still eludes her. “…Hey, would you like a drink? My treat.”

  Kyouji’s voice pulled Shino out of her deep thoughts. Looking up, she found the sun shining into the narrow alley had already begun to redden.

  “…Really?”

  Shino smiled, then Kyouji happily nodded.

  “I want to hear about your recent rampaging
story. In this alley, there’s a quiet tea shop.”

  A few minutes later, sitting in a seat deep within the shop she was led to, holding her hands around a cup of nice, fragrant milk tea, she finally relaxed a bit. Endou will probably continue to find ways to bully her. Well, what will happen will happen, she thought, pushing those thoughts to a corner of her mind.

  “I heard, the day before yesterday. You had a big success right?”

  She looked up at Kyouji’s voice. The skinny boy was poking at the half ball of vanilla ice-cream floating on top of his ice coffee with a spoon, looking at her with upturned eyes.

  “…That’s not true. The battle plan was a failure. In our squadron of six, four were killed. For an ambush that turned into a firefight, the result can’t be called a win.”

  She replied with a shrug. Thinking of actual firearms in the real world could easily push her into panic, but recently, while talking about things inside GGO, she had managed to stay calm. It is like the virtual world was having a rehabilitation effect. “Still, it’s amazing. That Minigun user «Behemoth» has never died in a group battle before this, I heard.”

  “Oh…is he that famous? I didn’t see him in the «Bullet of Bullets» ranking, so I didn’t know about him.”

  “There’s a reason for that. No matter how strong the Minigun is said to be, carrying 500 rounds of ammo puts him overweight, so he can’t run anymore. «BoB» is a solo encounter fight. If he gets sniped from long distances, it will be over. However if he has adequate support in a group battle, he’s invincible. That weapon is against the rules.”

  Seeing Kyouji complain like that with a pout, Shino could not help smiling.

  “…Then, my Hecate II would really be against the rules. After using it, I have to face a variety of troubles, too. That Behemoth-san is probably thinking the same thing, too.”

  “Geesh, that’s luxurious trouble…So, what are your plans for the next BoB?”

  “I will enter, of course. I have almost all of the previous top 20 ranked people’s data collected. This time I plan to bring Hecate. This time, I will…”

  Kill, she was going to say, then hurriedly covered up with:

  “…Try to reach the upper ranks.”

  Shino/Sinon participated in the GGO ranking tournament two months ago, named «Bullet of Bullets». Thirty people who passed the preliminaries entered the main tournament, a battle royal, vying to be the strongest. Despite her efforts, Sinon finished as rank 22nd. As the thirty participants are randomly placed in a wide map at the start of BoB, there is a chance that you can be instantly forced into close range combat. So, she had used an assault rifle instead of the sniper rifle Hecate II. But during close combat, she was killed by a sniper with a «Remington M40» from afar.

  Two months later, even if the gun was still hard to manage, she had gained experience with Hecate and gotten used to it. She also obtained a rare light sub-machine gun «MP7», so she could handle close combat more effectively. She will bring the huge rifle to enter the upcoming third BoB, she thought. Basically, she will hide behind cover—even if said to be unfair—waiting for a target to enter her view, and then blow them all away without leaving even one remaining.

  In this GGO, filled with powerful warriors, she will kill all her enemies. And when she can be sure that she is the strongest—at that time, for sure…

  Kyouji’s regretful voice in her ear pulled Shino away from her dark thoughts.

  “I see…”

  Shino blinked and looked at Kyouji, he was looking at her with somewhat shining eyes. “Asada-san is amazing. You obtained that incredible gun… and your stats are like those guys with STR builds. I invited you to GGO, but you already left me far behind.”

  “…That’s not true. Shinkawa-san got to the semifinals in the previous preliminary tournament too. That fight was mostly luck. What a pity, if you had reached finals then you would have been able to enter the main tournament.”

  “No… I can’t. With an AGI build, without some extremely good luck with rare drops, this is as good as I’ll get. My stats placement was a mistake…”

  While listening to Kyouji’s complaint, she frowned.

  The other Kyouji, a character named «Spiegel», followed the AGI route, which focused on increasing the dexterity parameter and was popular early on.

  This type of character used its overwhelming evasion and firing speed—in this case, rapid fire isn’t the gun’s actual firing speed, but the time needed to aim and for the Bullet Circle to steady—to destroy other character types. AGI builds held the advantage for half a year since the start of GGO. However, as new maps were conquered, they lacked the STR, the strength to equip the new weapons that became available, or the guns themselves became more accurate so evasion became less effective. Now, eight months after the beginning of service, AGI builds could not be called the main trend any longer. Even so, if AGI types managed to obtain rare, large caliber rifles specialized in firing speed, for example the «FN FAL» or «H&K G3», they could still do well as they are. The previous BoB 2nd rank player called «Yamikaze» was an AGI build—that said, he was beaten by the winner «Zekushiido», a balanced STR-VIT build. However—

  For Shino, stats and type related things were just «Character Strength». There was a more important factor which solemnly existed.

  That is, a player’s own strength; their strength of heart. In her fight the day before yesterday, «Behemoth» usually had a calm composure when he moved, and above that he had the luxury to put on a half smile. The source of that man’s strength wasn’t his M134 Minigun, but his ferocious smile.

  That’s why Shino couldn’t fully accept the way Kyouji said things were.

  “Yes… That rare gun is very strong, although… There are strong people with rare guns, but not everyone with a rare gun is strong. Actually, about half of the thirty people who entered the previous tournament only used customized guns bought in shops.”

  “That is… Since Asada-san has that super rare gun, and above that you are a balanced STR build, that’s why you can say that. There really is a large gap in weapon quality…”

  While watching Kyouji sigh and stir his coffee float, Shino realized that saying anymore would be useless, so she tried to end the topic.

  “Then, Shinkawa-kun won’t be entering the next BoB?”

  “…No. Even if I enter, it would be useless.”

  “I see… Well… you have studies too. You are going to the Prep school’s big test right? How were your mock exam results?”

  Kyouji hadn’t gone to school since summer vacation, and it seemed he had considerable argument with his father over that incident.

  His father runs a relatively large hospital, and so the second son Kyouji who was to succeed the family name had been strictly ordered to prepare for the medical department exams. The result of a very tense family meeting was, they would allow him to study at home, but in the year after the next, he must participate in university entrance qualification examinations in order to enter the famous university’s medical department where his father graduated from without losing any time. That was their promise, as Shino had heard from him in the past.

  “Ah… Yes.”

  Kyouji nodded and smiled.

  “I am fine, I’m maintaining the rank I had while going to school. No problem, Ms. Instructor.”

  “Good.”

  Shino jokingly replied, also with a smile.

  “Shinkawa-kun’s login time is incredible. I was a little worried. Whenever I went in you were always online.”

  “I study during the day time. Variation is very important.”

  “Since you spend so much time playing, you must make a lot of money—?”

  “…That’s not true. It’s almost impossible for AGI builds to solo hunt now…”

  Since the conversation mood became strange again, Shino hurriedly said.

  “Well, making enough for the connection fee is fine…Sorry, I need to go home soon.”

  “Ah, I see. Asa
da-san makes her own dinner right? I would like to eat your food again, if possible.”

  “Ah, ye, yea, sure. Before that… I need to improve my cooking a little.”

  Shino started panicking again.

  Just once, she had invited Kyouji to her home for dinner. Eating the meal itself was fun, but afterward when they were facing each other drinking tea, she felt Kyouji’s stare grow more intense, and she had a cold sweat. Even though he was an ultra net gamer and gun maniac, a man was still a man. In retrospect, she decided that inviting him to her single person home was a bit careless.

  She did not hate him. Chatting with him was one of the few ways for her to relax in the real world. However, at the moment, she didn’t want to consider anything beyond their current relationship. Not until she can destroy the darkness deep within her heart, triumphing over that memory.

  “Thank you for your hospitality. Also… really thank you for saving me. You were very cool.”

  Shino said while getting up. Kyouji was all smiles while he scratched his head.

  “If I can always protect you that would be nice. That is… well, when you return from school… can I go pick you up?”

  “N, no, it’s fine. I also need to become strong.”

  After hearing Shino’s laughing reply, Kyouji’s eyes shone once more and his puppy dog eyes disappeared.

  Shino climbed the concrete staircase, tinged slightly black after soaking in years of rain.

  The second door was the apartment house where Shino lived alone. She took a key from her skirt pocket and inserted it into the old electronic lock. After entering a 4-digit code in the small panel, she turned her key, and heard a metallic click.

  She entered the slightly dark entrance way and closed the door with a hand behind her back.

  She turned the deadbolt, and after confirming it was locked, she silently let out, “I’m home.” Of course, no one answered her.

  From the entrance area, a narrow, long space extended about 3 meters. The right side was the apartment’s bathroom door; on the left side was a small kitchen.