“Sensei! Sasha-sensei! It’s horrible!!”
The door to the room slammed open, and several children flooded in like an avalanche.
“Hey now, you’re being rude to our guests!”
“That’s not the matter here!!”
The red-haired youth from earlier shouted, with tears threatening to spill from his eyes.
“Gin-bro and the others have been captured by the Army!”
“—Where!?”
Getting up with a manner so resolute that it felt as though she became another person, Sasha asked of the young boy.
“At the vacant land behind the second-hand shop at the fifth eastern district. The Army is blocking the passageway with ten people or so. Kotta was the only one who managed to get away.”
“Understood, I’ll go right away. —Excuse me, but…”
Turning around to face Asuna and Kirito, Sasha lightly bowed her head.
“I cannot just ignore the children in need. We will continue the conversation later on…”
“We’ll go as well, sensei!!”
As the red-haired boy cried out, the entire crowd of children behind too, shouted out in agreement. Rushing next to Kirito, the boy had a desperate expression as he spoke.
“Bro, let us have the earlier weapons for a while! If we got them, even those guys from the Army will run away!”
“I cannot accept that!”
Sasha let loose her refusal.
“The lot of you will wait here!”
At that time, Kirito, who had been watching over the development silently, raised his right hand, as though to pacify the children. He rarely ever read the air or understood the extent of conversations right, but only at times like this, did he exhibit a mysterious presence, quickly silencing the children.
“—It’s a pity though—”
Kirito began speaking in a composed tone.
“The parameters required for that weapon are way too high, so someone like you wouldn’t be able to equip it. We’ll help you out. Even if she does look like that, that big sis over there is unreasonably strong.”
Glancing at Kirito, Asuna too, returned a firm nod. Getting up, she turned towards Sasha and opened her mouth.
“Please allow us to help as well. Having more manpower should be for the best.”
“—Thank you, I’ll be counting on you.”
Sasha gave a deep bow, firmly pulled up her glasses, and spoke.
“Well then, forgive me, but we’ll be running!”
Rushing out from the church, Sasha began running straight ahead with her dagger shaking on her waist. Holding onto Yui, Asuna too, chased behind her along with Kirito. As Asuna glanced towards her back while running, she found a huge crowd of children following behind, but it did not seem like Sasha had any intention to send them away.
Weaving their way through the groves of trees, they entered the sixth eastern district and dove through the back alleys. It seemed that they were taking shortcuts for the shortest distance possible, and as they crossed through NPC store fronts, gardens belonging to private houses and such, they spotted a group blocking the thin alleyway in front. There were probably at least ten people. Dressed in uniform ash-green and steel-black equipment, they were unmistakably members of the «Army».
As Sasha, who was dashing through the alleyways without hesitation, drew to a stop, she caught the attention of the players from the Army, and they turned around with a broad grin.
“Oh, the baby-sitter’s here.”
“…Please return the children.”
Sasha spoke with an unwavering voice.
“Don’t just tarnish our reputation like that. We’ll return them soon; we’re just instilling some proper social etiquette into them.”
“Yea, yea. The townspeople do have their responsibility to pay up their taxes, after all.”
The men went wa-ha-ha-ha, letting loose raucous laughter. Sasha’s tightly closed fist trembled.
“Gin! Kain! Everyone!! Are you there!?”
When Sasha called out towards the men, a frightened girlish voice soon rang out in response.
“Sensei! Sensei… help us!”
“Don’t worry about the money, just hand it all over!”
“Sensei… we can’t just…!”
This time, it was a strained boyish voice.
“Nha, ha, ha.”
One of the men blocking up the road spluttered out a laugh that resembled a spasm.
“Well, it’s all because you guys haven’t been paying up quite a bit of taxes… Money just isn’t enough like this, eh.”
“That’s right, that’s right, we’ll have you drop your equipment here too. All of your armor too… every single, last piece.”
Looking on at the men’s vulgar smirks, Asuna instantly guessed at the state of affairs from within the alley. This «tax collection force» was no doubt demanding for the group of children, which included a girl, to take off all of their clothes as well. A fury close to blood-thirst began swelling within Asuna.
Sasha seemed to have reached the same conclusion, drew closer to the men, brimming with hostility.
“Get out… Get out of my way! Otherwise…”
“Otherwise what, baby-sitter? You gonna pay the tax in their place?”
The smirking men made no effort to move whatsoever.
Within towns, or within the boundary of the town’s range, so to speak, as the program known as the Crime Protection Code is always activated, trying to inflict damage, as well as attempts to move other players against their will were completely impossible. But in return, malicious players blocking paths cannot be eliminated, and sealing up the roadway by standing there, to «block»; even getting several people to surround the target directly to immobilize the victim, to «box»; the existence of these unethical harassment methods ended up being allowed.
That said, those acts were only effective in cases where one was moving on the ground after all. Asuna looked at Kirito, and spoke.
“Let’s go, Kirito-kun.”
“Yea.”
Nodding in agreement, they casually kicked off the ground.
Towards the pair jumping using all of their dexterity and strength, Sasha and the member of the Army could only look up dumbfounded as they soared over them easily, landing in the space that was enclosed from all sides.
“Woah!?”
Several men in there jumped back with fright.
In the corner of the area, two boys and a girl in their early tens were huddled together stiffly. Their armor were already removed, dressed only in simple innerwear. Asuna bit her lips, stepped up to the children, and spoke with a smile on.
“It’s alright now. You can return to your equipment.”
The youths immediately nodded with round eyes, picking up the armor at their feet frantically, and started operating their windows.
“Oi… Oi, oi, oi!!”
At that moment, a player from the Army finally came to his senses and shouted out loud.
“The heck’s with you guys!! Don’t you dare obstruct the work of the «Army»!!”
“Now, now, wait a bit.”
Stopping that, a man with noticeably heavier armor stepped forward. He seemed to be the leader of the group.
“We haven’t seen you guys around, but do you know what it means to go against the Liberation Force? If you still intend to, we can even hear out your case in detail at the headquarters.”
The leader’s slim eyes shone with a vile light. Pulling out a large broadsword from his waist, he stepped up while repeatedly striking the sword blade with his palm, as if on purpose. The surface of the sword glittered with the light from the low-lying setting sun. A shallow gleam typical of a weapon that had never experienced or been repaired from damage even a single time.
“Or do you want to bring this «outside the boundary» to settle it, outside the boundary? Eh!?”
At the moment she heard that single phrase.
The clenching of Asuna’s teeth rang out.
She thought it best to settle the matter amicably, but when she saw the youths shivering with fear, her fury had already passed her limit.
“…Kirito-kun, I’ll leave Yui-chan to you.”
Yui was handed over to Kirito, and before anyone knew what was happening, he had already flung out the materialized Asuna’s rapier with a single hand. Drawing the sword as she received it, she nimbly moved towards the leader.
“A…. Ah…?”
Facing the man, still unable to catch up with the situation with his mouth left half-open, Asuna suddenly threw all her power into a single-handed stab.
The surroundings were dyed in a violet flash of light. The sound of an impact on the level of an explosion. The man’s menacing face was thrown back, and he fell backwards onto his rear there in a daze, with his eyes still open.
“If you wish for a battle that much, there’s no need to go all the way to the field.”
Walking right up to the man, Asuna once again brandished her right hand. The flash repeated, and a deafening sound rumbled out. The leader tumbled backwards, as though he was repelled.
“Don’t worry, your HP didn’t drop after all. Well, thanks to that though, I don’t have to stop either.”
Looking up at the figure of Asuna approaching with steady steps with trembling lips, the leader appeared to have finally realized what she implied.
Within the range of the Crime Prevention Code, even if attacks from weapons are targeted at players, it will be stopped by an invisible barrier and no damage will be inflicted. But this rule too, had an alternate significance: that the attacker would have no worries of being corrupted into the colors reserved for criminals.
An example that uses that fact would be the «Within Boundary Battle», usually done as a mock battle used for practice. However, with the increase of the attacker’s stats and skills, the noise of the impact and the luminosity of the color created by the system, at the time the Code was activated, will be intensified accordingly, and in addition to that, with the power of the sword skill used, though slight, a knockback effect would be produced as well. For people not used to it, it was not an easy thing to bear, even if they do understand that their HP was not reduced.
“Eek… s- sto…”
Knocked down onto the ground by Asuna’s sword attack, the leader screeched out.
“You guys… don’t just watch… do something about it…!!”
Finally regaining their senses with that voice, the members of the Army pulled out their weapons one after another.
The blocking players, who sensed the abnormality of the situation, ran in too, from the north and south roads.
Surrounded by the men in the shape of a semicircle, Asuna faced them with eyes blazing brightly, as though she had returned to the time when she was the ardent warrior. Kicking off the ground without a word, she sliced the troops right before her.
In just an instant, the narrow space was filled with the consecutively howling of a thunderous roar.
About three minutes later.
As Asuna, having regained her senses, stopped moving and lowered her sword, all that laid within that area, were the collapsed bodies of the players from the Army, scattered around. The only ones left seemed to had all deserted their leader and escaped.
“Whew…”
Taking a large breath of air, she sheathed her rapier back into its scabbard and turned around— all she saw were the figures of Sasha and the children from the church, standing stock still, lost for words.
“Ah…”
Asuna took a step back as she held her breath. She believed that she had definitely frightened the children when she abandoned herself to her fury and lashed out earlier, and cast her eyes down in depression.
But at that moment, the usual boy who stood at the head of the children, with his combed back red hair cried out with his eyes sparkling.
“Amazing… That was amazing, sis!! That was the first time I saw anything like that!!”
“I told you that this big sister was unreasonably strong, didn’t I?”
Kirito stepped forward with a broad smile. Holding onto Yui with his left hand, a sword hung lowered on his right. It seemed that he had faced off several others.
“…A- Ahaha.”
Asuna laughed, feeling troubled, and the children suddenly gave several loud cheers, jumping towards her.
Sasha held her two hands tightly before her bosom, smiled on with eyes that seemed to be holding back tears.
“Everyone’s…. Everyone’s hearts are-“
A slight, but clear voice resounded. Asuna raised her face, startled. Within Kirito’s arm, Yui who had awoken without anyone noticing, looked towards blank air and reached out with her right hand.
Asuna looked towards that direction in a fluster, but there was nothing there.
“Everyone’s hearts… are…”
“Yui! What’s the matter, Yui!!”
Kirito cried out, and Yui blinked twice or thrice, looking on with a blanked out expression. Asuna too, ran up in her confusion, grasping onto Yui’s hand.
“Yui-chan… could it be, that you remembered something!?”
“…I… I…”
Frowning, she hung her head down.
“I, wasn’t… here… Always, by myself, in the darkness…”
Frowning as though she recalled something, she bit her lips. And, at that moment…
“Wa… aa… aaah!!”
Throwing her head back, a high-pitched shriek surged out from her slender throat.
“…!?”
Zsh, zsh, the sound similar to electronic noise reverberated within Asuna’s ears for the first time ever since she was in SAO. Immediately after that, Yui’s petrified body started trembling here and there, as though they were decaying away.
“Yu… Yui-chan…!”
Asuna screamed, and wrapped her hands around that body frantically.
“Mama… scary… Mama…!!”
Holding up the feebly moaning Yui from Kirito’s arm, Asuna tightly embraced her within her chest. Several few seconds later, the mysterious phenomenon settled down, and the strength escaped from Yui’s rigid body.
“Just what… happened just now…”
The hollow murmur from Kirito faintly flowed through the empty space consumed in silence.
Part 3
“Everyone, take one piece of bread each!”
“Hey, it’ll spill if you don’t pay attention!”
“Aah, sensei! Gin stole my sunny-side-up fried egg!”
“I gave you my carrots in return, didn’t I!”
“This is… pretty amazing…”
“Yea, it is…”
Both Asuna and Kirito gazed upon the scene of a breakfast resembling a battlefield, unfolding right before their eyes, and muttered to each other in a daze.
The Starting City, the guest room within the church of the seventh eastern district. Large plates of eggs, sausages, vegetable salads and such, were lined up on a pair of huge, long table nearly overflowing with them, and ravaged by twenty or so children in a grand riot.
“But still, it looks like they’re really having fun.”
At the circular table slightly away, Asuna sat with Kirito, Yui, and Sasha, smiling as she bought a cup of tea to her lips.
“It’s like this every day. It doesn’t sink in no matter how many times they’re told to be quiet.”
Having said that, Sasha narrowed her eyes filled with love from the bottom of her heart, as she looked at the children.
“You really do like children, don’t you?”
Asuna spoke, and Sasha smiled with embarrassment.
“On the other side, I was training to become a teacher in university. You see, classroom chaos had always been a problem, hasn’t it. The chance to be able to guide children; I’ve always gotten fired up by it. But when I came here, when I started living with those children, just about everything was different from what I believed in… It felt like I was the one relying on them instead; tha
t they were supporting me more than the other way round. But, well, that might be fine too… I started believing that it was merely a natural result.”
“Well, I guess I do understand somehow.”
Asuna nodded, softly brushing Yui’s head, who was earnestly putting a spoon to her mouth beside her. The warmth brought about by Yui’s existence surprised her. It was different from the heartrending love she felt in her chest that tightened when touched by Kirito; it was like being tucked into unseen feathers, before being covered once again; a quiet serenity.
Yesterday, passing out after going into a mysterious fit, Yui fortunately came to after several minutes. However, as Asuna did not want to immediately make any long trips or use the teleport gate, and also partly due to Sasha’s keen invitation, they ended up borrowing one of the Church’s available rooms for the night.
Yui’s condition seemed well since the morning, so Asuna and Kirito were relieved for the moment, but her original circumstances had not changed. According to the faint memories that seemed to have returned to Yui, she appears to have never came to the Starting City, and in the first place, she was not living with a guardian. In that case, the origin of the defect in Yui’s memory, the symptom of her regressing back to an infant, was absolutely unknown, and they were at a loss at what they should be doing next.
But Asuna had tempered the feelings from the depths of her heart.
From now on too, she will continue living together with Yui until the day her memory returns. Even if her break were to end, and she had to return to the frontlines, there should be a way to somehow—
As Asuna got lost in her anxiety while stroking Yui’s hair, Kirito put down his cup and started speaking.
“Sasha-san…”
“Yes?”
“…Well, it’s about the Army. To the extent of my knowledge, despite the overwhelming tyranny from those guys, they were still determined to maintain public order. But looking back at those guys from yesterday, it was as if they were criminals… Since when has it been like that?”
Sasha tensed her mouth and answered.
“The time I felt their change in objectives should had been around half a year ago… There were some who committed acts of extortion under the name of tax collection, as well as others who, on the other hand, cracked down on those. I have also seen scenes of fellow members of the Army confronting each other several times. According to rumours, it seems that there were power struggles among the higher-ups or something like that…”