I thought I could do anything with a single sword at my side. I was the hero who stood at the pinnacle of ten thousand. The hero who defeated the evil sorcerer and saved the world.
It was a virtual world, just a game, developed by a business on basic marketing principles, and I’d imagined it was real. That the strength I found in the game was real strength. Had I been disappointed in the weakness of my actual body once I was released—exiled, more like it—from the world of SAO? Did a part of me wish that I could go back there, where I could be the greatest hero the world had ever known?
No wonder that when I’d learned that Asuna’s mind was trapped in a new game world, I’d assumed that I could make it all better on my own, rather than letting those with true power, the adults of the real world, sort it out. I must have been very happy regaining my imaginary power, crushing other players and satisfying my ugly pride and self-esteem.
In that case, this was my just dessert. That’s right—I was a child, playing with the power someone else had given me. I couldn’t even overcome the simple ID system that granted a person system admin privileges. The only thing I was good at earning for myself was regret. If I couldn’t handle that, my only escape was withdrawing from my mind altogether.
“You going to just run away?”
No, I’m only looking at reality.
“Giving in? To the power of the system you once denied?”
I can’t help it. He’s the game master, I’m only a player.
“You soil the memory of that duel with those words. You showed me that the human will could surpass a computer system. You helped me realize the future possibilities that our battle could bring about.”
Battle? It’s meaningless. A bunch of numbers going up and down.
“You know that’s not true. Now get on your feet. Grab your sword.”
“Stand up, Kirito!!”
It was like a bolt of lightning tearing through my wits, the voice the resulting clap of thunder. All of my wandering senses were connected in a single moment. My eyes shot open.
“Ugh…ah…” I couldn’t produce anything but dry grunts. “Urh…rrgh…”
I gnashed my teeth and moaned like an animal close to death, but I did plant a hand on the ground and push myself onto an elbow. Attempting to lift my body only dug the heavy sword deeper into the small of my back.
I couldn’t just lie there and crawl around miserably with this thing pinning me. I wouldn’t let myself be crushed by such a soulless attack. Every one of the countless blades I’d suffered in SAO was heavier than this. More painful.
“Gr…raaah!!” I howled briefly, using every ounce of my strength and willpower to push myself up. The tip of the sword pulled out of the ground and finally fell out of my back, clattering beside me.
Sugou watched my unsteady rise to my feet with his mouth agape. He took his hands off of Asuna and glared at me, then shrugged theatrically.
“Oh, dear. I fixed that object’s coordinates permanently, but it still came loose. Must be a few bugs left in the system. Those worthless, bungling programmers,” he muttered, walking over and pulling his fist back to punch me.
My hand shot out and caught his in midair.
“Oh…?” He looked at me with suspicion again. I opened my mouth and spoke a string of commands that had lain dormant in my mind for months.
“System log-in. ID ‘Heathcliff.’ Password…”
After that came a complex assortment of letters and numbers. Once it was over, the crushing gravity pulling me down finally disappeared.
“Wh-what? What was that ID?!” Sugou yelped, teeth flashing. He snatched his fist away from me, leaping backward and swinging his left hand down to open the blue system window. But before his fingers could work the buttons, I entered another voice command.
“System command, adjust supervisor privileges. Set ID ‘Oberon’ to level one.”
Sugou’s window abruptly vanished. He looked back and forth from the empty space between his hands to my face several times, then swiped his hand again in irritation.
Nothing happened. The magic scroll that granted Sugou his fairy king powers had been spirited away.
“An…an ID with a higher clearance than mine…? That’s impossible…It can’t be…I’m the ruler, the creator…I am the emperor of this world…God…” he babbled, his voice so high-pitched it sounded like it was playing at double speed. His beautiful features were twisted and hideous.
“You know that’s not true. You stole it. You stole this entire world and the people left in it. You’re nothing but the king of thieves, dancing alone on the throne you stole from someone else.”
“Why…you little brat…How dare you speak to me that way. You’ll regret this insult…I’ll tear off your head and hang it up as a decoration!”
He jabbed a twisted claw of a finger at me and screeched, “System command! Generate object ID ‘Excalibur’!!”
But the system no longer heeded Sugou’s voice.
“System command!! Obey me, you miserable heap of scrap! Your…your god commands you!!”
I tore my eyes away from the wailing Sugou to look at Asuna. The dress was nothing more than scraps loosely hanging on her body now. Her hair was tousled, and tear tracks gleamed on her cheeks. But those eyes had not lost their shine. Her hardy soul had not been broken.
I’ll bring this to an end soon. Just give me a little time, I silently told her as I stared into her hazel-colored eyes. Asuna returned my signal with the slightest of nods.
The sight of Asuna’s distress lit the fires of rage anew within me. I looked up and said, “System command. Generate object ID ‘Excalibur.’ ”
The space in front of me warped, tiny strings of numbers scrolling past to form a sword. Color and texture flowed upward through it from the tip. It was a beautifully detailed longsword, set with a dazzling gold blade. I recognized it as the sword sealed in the very bottom tip of the dungeon at the center of Jotunheim. There was something profoundly distasteful about producing the greatest sword in the game—the stuff of dreams to countless players—with a simple spoken command.
I grabbed the hilt of the sword and hurled it at the shocked Sugou. Once he had clumsily caught it, I brought my foot down hard on the pommel of my own sword; it clanged loudly and spun up into the air. I swiped my hand horizontally as the sword fell back to the earth, and caught it perfectly.
With the point of my massive dark blade pointed directly at Sugou, I issued my challenge.
“It’s time to settle the score between the king of thieves and the so-called hero…System command, pain absorber to level zero.”
“Wh…what…?”
That command had raised the sensation of virtual pain to an infinite amount. Panic flashed across the face of the fairy king, despite his golden sword. He faltered a step, then another.
“Don’t chicken out. He never backed down from any situation—Akihiko Kayaba.”
“K…Kaya…” He blanched when he heard that name. “Kayaba…Heathcliff. So it was you. You’ve come to ruin everything again!”
Sugou waved his sword in the air and screamed in a voice like tearing metal.
“You’re dead! You kicked the bucket! How are you still interfering with my life after death? You always did this…always! Looking smug and serene, as if you understood everything…stealing everything I ever wanted from under my nose!”
He jabbed the point of his sword at me and continued. “You little cretin…what would you understand?! Do you have any idea what it was like to work under him, to compete and be compared to him at every turn?!”
“I do. I lost to him in a fight and had to be his servant—but I never wanted to be him. I’m not like you.”
“You brat…you brat…you insolent little brat!!” he screeched, leaping at me with his sword drawn. Just as he came within range, I flicked my sword out. The tip grazed the fairy king’s elegant cheek.
“Agh!” he yelped, holding his face and bouncing backward. “Aah…aaaah!”
&nbs
p; The look of shock on his face only made me angrier. This man, this miserable coward, had kept Asuna prisoner for two months, tormenting her all the while? Intolerable.
I took a big step forward and swung straight down. Sugou put an arm up out of defensive reflex. The hand holding his golden sword was severed at the wrist and flew away into the darkness, landing with an audible thump somewhere far in the distance.
“Aaaahh!! My hand…my haaaand!!”
The pain he felt was false—only electronic signals—but as far as his brain knew, it was real agony. Yet, it was not enough to satisfy me. It couldn’t possibly be enough.
Sugou bent over, clutching his maimed arm. I took a hearty swing at his green-clad torso.
“Gbwuah!!”
His tall body was cleanly sliced into two equal halves, and they fell heavily to the floor. His legs quickly burst into white flames and burned away.
I grabbed Sugou’s flowing blond hair and lifted. Thick tears sprang from his wide, terrified eyes, and his mouth worked fiercely. There were no words coming out of it, only metallic screeching.
I felt nothing but disgust at the sight of him. With a toss of my hand, I flung his upper half straight up into the air and readied myself for a double-handed sword thrust. He reached the apex of the arc and came tumbling down, still bleating hideously.
“Haaah!!”
I swung with all of my strength. With a dull chunk, the sword struck through Sugou’s right eye, and out the back of his head.
“Eeyaaagh!!”
His scream echoed unpleasantly through the darkness, like the screeching of a thousand rusty gears scraping into motion. Thick white flames erupted from his pierced eye, and soon licked across the rest of his head and torso.
Sugou did not stop screaming for the several seconds it took for him to be completely burned into nothing. His voice eventually faded out and vanished, and the world was silent again. I swiped my sword in satisfaction, scattering the little white flames that remained.
With an easy flick of my wrists, I severed the chains that had held Asuna prisoner. The sword’s duty finished, I laid it on the floor and picked up her limp body.
It was at this point that the source of energy that had kept me going finally gave out as well. I slumped to my knees, and there gazed at Asuna in my arms.
“…Ngh…”
The feeling of miserable helplessness running through me leaked out of my eyes in the form of tears. I held her fragile body tight, burying my face in her hair, bawling. I couldn’t speak. There were only tears.
“I always believed,” Asuna’s clear voice murmured next to my ear. “No…I still do believe. I did in the past, and I will in the future. You’re my hero…You’ll come to save me anywhere, anytime…”
Her hand brushed my hair.
No. That’s not true. I don’t have…any true strength…
I took a deep breath and managed to mumble, “I’ll do my best…to make sure that’s true. C’mon…let’s go.”
I waved my left hand and was greeted with a different, more complicated system window. I picked through it on instinct alone, digging through menu after menu for the teleportation-related commands.
With a deep stare into Asuna’s eyes, I told her, “I think it’s already nighttime in the real world. But I swear, I’ll be at your hospital in no time.”
“I know. I’ll be waiting. I want you to be the first person I see with my real eyes.”
She smiled, and with a distant gaze as calm as still water, she whispered, “So…it’s finally coming to an end. I’m going back…to the real world.”
“That’s right…You’ll be so surprised at everything that’s changed.”
“Hee-hee. You’ll have to take me all over and show me a good time.”
“Yeah. I will.” I nodded and hugged her even harder. There was a targeted log-out button on the admin menu, and it turned my finger blue. I used that finger to trace the tracks of her tears, wiping them away.
Asuna’s pale body in turn took on that vivid blue. Bit by bit, she grew transparent, delicate as a crystal. Little motes of light danced in the air, and she began to vanish, starting with the tips of her fingers and toes.
I held Asuna as tight as I could while part of her remained. Finally the weight left my arms, and I was alone in the darkness. I sat there, unmoving.
It felt like everything was over, yet it also felt like only a step in a larger process. This incident was the result of Kayaba’s flight of fancy and Sugou’s desire—but was this truly the end of it? Or was it only a part of some larger series of events?
I forced my aching, spent body to its feet and looked up, into the deep darkness over my head.
“I know you’re there, Heathcliff.”
After a brief silence, I heard the raspy voice echoing in my mind again, the way it had earlier.
“It has been quite a while, Kirito. Of course, to me, the events of that day might as well be yesterday.”
Unlike just minutes ago, the voice seemed to be coming from some far-off place now.
“You’re still alive?” I asked. The voice responded after a brief pause.
“You could say that, but you could also say the opposite. I am…an echo of Akihiko Kayaba’s mind. An afterimage.”
“Well, you make as little sense as he did. I guess I ought to thank you—though you could have helped a bit earlier than you did.”
“. . .”
There seemed to be a tinge of chagrin in the silence.
“I apologize for that. It was only just recently that this program was reassembled and reactivated from its many hiding places within the system. Just at the moment that I heard your voice. Also, your thanks are unnecessary.”
“…Why?”
“Too much has happened between us for altruistic favors. Every debt must be repaid.”
Now it was my turn to grimace. “What do you want me to do?”
Out of the vast darkness fell something silver and shining. I reached out and caught the object. It was a small, egg-shaped crystal. A faint light flickered within it.
“What’s this?”
“The seed of the world.”
“What?”
“You will understand when it blooms. I leave its fate in your hands. Delete it, abandon it…but if you do happen to feel any emotion toward my world other than hatred…”
He let that statement hang. After a long silence, he said a brief farewell.
“I must be going. May we meet again, Kirito.”
And just like that, he was gone.
I put the sparkling egg into my front pocket, confused. After a few moments, I had a sudden thought.
“Yui, are you there? You okay?”
Abruptly, the world of darkness shattered around me.
The orange light that had dyed the entire world before our confrontation ripped through the veil, bringing a breeze with it that blew away the blackness. I had to close my eyes against its radiance, and when I could open them without pain again, I was inside the birdcage.
Directly ahead, the sinking sun was releasing its final dying rays of light. I was alone, with only the sound of the wind for companionship.
“Yui?” I asked again. A light coalesced in the space before me, and a black-haired girl popped into existence.
“Papa!” she cried, throwing her arms around my neck.
“You’re all right. Thank goodness…”
“Yes, my address was about to be locked, so I retreated into the NerveGear’s local memory. When I connected again, you and Mama were both gone. I was so worried…Say, where is Mama?”
“She’s back in the real world.”
“I see…That’s truly wonderful…”
Yui closed her eyes and laid her cheek against my chest, a shadow of sadness in her face. I gently caressed her long hair.
“She’ll come back to see you very soon. But I wonder…what’s going to happen to this world?” I murmured. Yui grinned.
“Well, my core progr
am is in your NerveGear, not this realm. You can be with me forever. Oh, but there’s something strange about all of this…”
“What is it?”
“There’s a very large file being transferred to the NerveGear’s local storage. It doesn’t seem to be an active process, however…”
“Hmm,” I said curiously, but I didn’t bother to wonder about it for very long. There was more pressing business at hand.
“Well, I’ve got to go see Mama.”
“Okay, Papa. I love you.”
Yui squeezed me with all of her tiny strength, tears welling in her eyes. I rubbed her head and swiped my hand for the menu.
For a moment, I stopped to view the world as it lay shrouded in sunset. What would happen to it now, this world with its false king? The thought of Leafa and the other players who cared so deeply for Alfheim made my heart hurt.
I gave Yui a gentle kiss on the cheek and tapped a few commands. Light burst out from the point ahead of me, swallowed my consciousness, and pulled me higher, higher.
When I opened my deeply exhausted eyelids, the first thing I saw was Suguha’s face. She was watching me with a fretful expression, but when our eyes met, she bolted upright.
“S-sorry for sneaking into your room. I got worried when you never returned,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed with a trace of red in her cheeks. After a brief time lag for recovery, I tensed my limbs to return the strength to them after my long play session, then bounced up to a sitting position.
“Sorry for taking so long.”
“Is it…all over?”
“Yeah. It’s over…It’s all over,” I murmured, staring into nothing. I couldn’t possibly tell Suguha that I’d nearly been taken prisoner again, and this time in a prison without a victory condition to free me. The time would eventually come to explain it all to her, but I didn’t want to cause her any unnecessary concern for now. This sister of mine, my only sibling, had already saved me in more ways than I had words to express.
My new adventure began in that deep forest that night, when I happened across the girl with green hair—and she’d been at my side for the entire long journey. She’d shown me the way, explained the world’s customs, and swung her sword to protect me. Thanks to her guidance, I’d met two leaders within the game, without whose help I would never have broken through the wall of guardian knights.