Sword Art Online - Volume 2 - Aincrad (Side Stories)

  “Erm, what is this…?”

  Kirito smiled before he answered:

  “You can bring bottled drinks with you to NPC restaurants. This is an item that I had called «Ruby Ichor». If you drink a cup of it, it will increase your dexterity by one point.”

  “It’s, it’s really precious…!”

  “Well, it’s not like alcohol gets any better if I keep it in my inventory, and I don’t know that many people so I don’t have many chances to drink it…”

  Kirito gave a silly shrug. Scilica laughed and then took another sip. The somehow nostalgic taste slowly softened her heart, which had hardened because of the many sad things that had happened this day.

  After she finished drinking, Scilica held the cup to her chest as if she still longed for its warmth. She then turned her gaze downwards to the table and said quietly:

  “…Why… do they say such mean things…”

  Kirito’s expression turned serious as he put his cup down and then opened his mouth.

  “Is SAO your first MMORPG?”

  “It’s my first.”

  “Oh right — In any online game, there’re many players whose personalities change when they wear the mask of their character. There are people who become kind, as well as others who become evil… They called it roleplaying in the past, but I think it’s different in SAO.”

  Kirito’s gaze sharpened.

  “Even though we’re in such a difficult situation… Well, it’s impossible for all the players to work together at clearing the game. But there are too many people who enjoy watching others suffer, stealing items—and even those who kill others.”

  Kirito looked straight at Scilica. There seemed to be a deep sadness behind his anger.

  “I think that the people who commit crimes here are total garbage back in the real world as well.”

  He almost spat this out. But then he noticed that Scilica was cowering slightly, so he smiled and apologized:

  “Sorry… I’m not even in the position to talk about others myself. I hardly ever help others. I even—caused my companions to die…”

  “Kirito onii-chan…”

  Scilica realized that the black swordsman sitting in front of her bore a deep scar within him. She wanted to console him, but she resented the fact that words were too shallow to convey what she wanted to say. Instead, she unconsciously grasped Kirito’s hand, which was clenched on top of the table, with both of her hands.

  “Kirito onii-chan is a good person. You saved me.”

  At first, Kirito was surprised and tried to pull his hand back, but he soon relaxed. A soft smile appeared on his lips.

  “…It seems I ended up being comforted. Thanks, Scilica.”

  Just then, Scilica felt a painful feeling, as if her heart had constricted. Her heartbeat sped up for no reason. Her face felt hot.

  She pulled her hands away quickly and pressed them down on her chest. But the aching didn’t stop.

  “What are you doing…?”

  As Kirito leaned forward over the table, Scilica shook her head and managed to smile.

  “It, it’s nothing! Ah, I’m hungry!”

  After they had eaten their bread and stew, with some cheesecake for desert, it was already past eight. They decided to turn in early in preparation for going to the forty-seventh floor tomorrow. The two went upstairs to the second floor, where there were countless rooms on either side of the wide corridor.

  The room that Kirito had rented was, by coincidence, next to Scilica’s. They bid each other good night with a smile.

  As soon as she entered her room, Scilica decided that before she got changed, she would practice some combos to familiarize herself with the new dagger that Kirito had given her. She tried to concentrate on the weapon, which was slightly heavier than the one she was used to, but the aching in her chest made it hard to.

  After she somehow managed to chain five blows together, she opened her window, unequipped her gear, and then got into bed in her underwear. She then tapped on the wall to bring out the pop-up menu and switched off the lights.

  She felt a heavy weariness all over her body, so she thought that she would be able to fall asleep easily. But for some reason, she felt even less drowsy than usual.

  Ever since they had become friends, she had always gone to sleep with Fina’s soft body in her arms, so the wide bed felt somewhat empty. She tossed and turned for a bit before she gave up on sleeping and sat back up. She kept looking towards her left—where the wall that was connected to Kirito’s room stood.

  She wanted to talk some more with him.

  She was surprised at herself as she thought of this. This person was a male player who she had known for less than a day. She had avoided male players up until now, but why did this swordsman she knew nothing about kept appearing in her mind?

  She couldn’t explain her own feelings. When she glanced at the clock, which was at the bottom of her vision, it was already ten. She could no longer hear the footsteps of other players from her window, only the sound of a dog barking in the distance.

  ‘Well that doesn’t make any sense, so let’s just sleep.’

  She thought that in her mind. But for some reason, she got out of bed and stepped lightly onto the floor. After telling herself that she would only knock and waved her hand, she opened the menu, chose the cutest tunic she had, and put it on.

  She took a few steps in the candlelit corridor. Then, after hesitating for a few dozen seconds in front of the door, she knocked twice.

  “Huh? Is something the matter?”

  “Well–”

  Scilica just realized that she hadn’t prepared a reasonable excuse for coming and was flustered. ‘I just wanted to talk’ simply sounded too childish.

  “Well, that err—ah, I wanted to know more about the forty-seventh floor!”

  Fortunately, Kirito didn’t suspect anything and simply nodded.

  “Okay then. Should we head downstairs?”

  “No, well—if it’s alright, in onii-chan’s room…”

  She answered without thinking and then quickly added:

  “Be-because, we shouldn’t let anyone else hear precious information!”

  “Erm… well… yeah, you’re right. But…”

  Kirito scratched his head with a slightly uncomfortable expression, then…

  “Well, I suppose it should be okay.”

  He muttered, then opened the door properly and took a step back.

  Of course, Kirito’s room was the same as her own: a bed on the left, plus a tea table and a chair a bit further in. That was all the furniture there.

  Kirito offered the chair before he sat down on the bed and opened a window. He manipulated it quickly and called out a small box.

  The box that had been placed on the table had a small crystal ball inside. It shone under the light of the lantern.

  “Pretty… What is it?”

  “It’s an item called the «Mirage Sphere».”

  When Kirito clicked on the sphere, a menu window appeared. He manipulated it quickly and pressed the OK button.

  As soon as he did this, the sphere began to project a bright blue light, and a large spherical hologram appeared. The image seemed to be the entirety of a floor in Aincrad. It showed the villages and every single tree in great detail, and was completely different from the simple map that could be found on the system menu.

  “Uwaa…!”

  Scilica stared numbly at the half-transparent map. It almost seemed like it could show people walking around if she kept gazing at it.

  “This is the living area, and this is the Hill of Memories. You have to go past this way… and there are some strong monsters around here…”

  Kirito pointed here and there as he explained the geography of the forty-seventh floor without pausing. Scilica felt warm just by listening to that calm voice.

  “And if you cross this bridge you can see the hi…”

  Suddenly Kirito stopped talking.

  “…?”
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  “Shh…”

  When she raised her head, she saw that Kirito’s expression was hard and that he had a finger on his lips. He glared at the door with a sharp gaze.

  Kirito burst into action. He jumped off the bed at lightning speed and opened the door.

  “Who’s there…!?”

  Scilica could hear the sound of running footsteps. She ran over and looked outside from under Kirito’s body, where she saw someone’s shadow running down the stairs.

  “Wha-what is it!!?”

  “…I think he was eavesdropping.”

  “What…? But you can’t hear anything past a wall right?”

  “You can if your eavesdropping is high enough. Although… there aren’t… all that many people who would train this skill…”

  Kirito closed the door and walked back into the room. He sat down on the bed with a pondering expression on his face. Scilica sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around herself. She was overwhelmed with an inexplicable feeling of fear.

  “Why was the person eavesdropping…?”

  “We’ll find out soon, probably. I have a message to send, so could you wait a bit?”

  Kirito smiled slightly before he put the crystal map away and opened a window. He started moving his fingers on top of the holographic keyboard.

  Scilica curled up on his bed. A distant memory from the real world came back to her. Her father was a reporter. He was always in front of an old PC, typing something with a serious expression. Scilica liked to watch the back of her father as he did that.

  She didn’t feel afraid anymore. As she watched the side Kirito’s face from behind, it felt as if she was enveloped in a warmth that she had forgotten for so long. Before she knew it, her eyes had closed themselves.

  Part 3

  Scilica awoke to a chiming noise that was sounding in her ear. It was a morning alarm that only she could hear. The time set was seven in the morning.

  She pulled the blanket off herself and sat up. It was usually hard to get up in the mornings, but today she was able to open her eyes in a good mood. Her head felt fresh, as if everything had been washed away by the deep sleep.

  After stretching, Scilica was just about to get off the bed when she froze.

  There was a person sleeping with his back to the bed; the morning sunlight that was shining through the window fell on him. Just as Scilica drew a breath to scream, thinking that it was an intruder, she remembered where she had fallen asleep last night.

  –I, in Kirito onii-chan’s room…

  As soon as she realized that fact, her face grew hot as if she had been hit by a fire breath attack. Since emotions were rather overstated in SAO, steam might really be coming off her face right now. It seemed that Kirito left Scilica on the bed and slept on the floor. Scilica groaned as she covered her face with her hands out of embarrassment and regret.

  After taking a few dozen seconds to calm herself down, Scilica quietly got off the bed and stood up. She then walked over to Kirito with silent footsteps and stared at his face.

  The sleeping face of the black swordsman looked so innocent that Scilica couldn’t stop herself from smiling. She had thought that he was quite a bit older than her because of his sharp gaze. But surprisingly, now that she saw at him like this, he didn’t seem all that different from her.

  It was fun watching his sleeping face; but Scilica couldn’t stay like this forever, so she softly prodded the black swordsman’s shoulder and spoke to him.

  “Kirito onii-chan, it’s morning~.”

  Kirito opened his eyes widely and blinked several times as he stared blankly at Scilica’s face for a while. Then his expression quickly changed into one of embarrassment.

  “Ah… So-sorry!”

  He suddenly lowered his head.

  “I thought of waking you up but you were so deep asleep… and I could’t open the door to your room, so…”

  Rooms that players rented were impenetrable system-wise, so there was no way you could get in unless you were a friend of the player. Scilica quickly waved her hand and said:

  “No, no, I’m the one who’s sorry! For taking over your bed… “

  “No, it’s fine. You don’t get any muscle aches here no matter how you sleep.”

  After standing up, Kirito stretched his neck, which made cracking noises contradictory to what he just said. He then raised his arms and stretched them. He looked at Scilica as if he had just thought of something before opening his mouth:

  “…Anyway, good morning.”

  “Go-good morning.”

  The two looked at each other and smiled.

  It was already bright when they stepped outside after eating a solid meal in preparation for «The Hill of Memories» on the forty-seventh floor. The players who were preparing to start their day and the players that had just returned from their nightly adventures came and went with contrasting expressions.

  After replenishing their potion supplies at the shop next to the inn, the two headed for the gate plaza. Luckily, they managed to make it to the teleport gate without running into anyone who wanted Scilica in their party like yesterday. Just as she was about to run to the shimmering blue teleport area, Scilica stopped.

  “Ah… I, don’t know the name of the village on the forty-seventh floor…”

  She was about to check the map for the name when Kirito offered his right hand.

  “It’s fine. I’ll designate the place.”

  Scilica felt grateful as she took his hand.

  “Teleport! Floria!”

  As soon as Kirito said this, a blinding light covered both of them.

  After the light faded, the feeling of transportation followed and countless colors exploded in Scilica’s vision.

  “Uwa…”

  She shouted unconsciously.

  The gate plaza of the forty-seventh floor was overflowing with flowers. Two small paths cut across the plaza in a cross shape. Aside from that, the rest of the space was taken up entirely by flower beds, each of them surrounded by red bricks and filled with flowers that she didn’t know.

  “Amazing…”

  “This floor’s also called the «Flower Garden», as not only the village but the whole floor is covered with flowers. If we had the time, we could also go to the «Forest of Giant Flowers» to the north…”

  “I’ll look forward to that some other time.”

  Scilica smiled at Kirito before she crouched in front of a flower bed. She put her face closer to a bluish flower that was similar to a cornflower and sniffed it.

  The flower was made with surprisingly high detail: from the veins of the flower, its five petals, the white stamen, and up to the green stem.

  Of course not everything in Aincrad, including this flowerbed, as well as all the other plants and buildings, existed in such a detailed form all the time. If they did that, then even SAO’s mainframe, however high its performance was, would run into a shortage of system resources.

  To avoid that while giving the players a highly detailed environment as close to reality as possible, SAO used the «Digital Focusing System». It was a system that brought out the finer details of an object only when a player showed interest and focused on it.

  After she heard of this system, Scilica became afraid that showing interest in things would strain the system; but she couldn’t hold herself back right now and kept staring at the various flowers.

  When she finally managed to stop herself from walking unconsciously while enjoying the fragrance, Scilica took a look around.

  Most of the people here were couples consisting of a male and a female. All of them were happily conversing with each other, either holding one another’s hands or had their arms linked. It seemed that this place had become one of those places. Scilica looked up at Kirito, who was thoughtlessly standing next to her.

  –Would we look like that as well…?

  After thinking this, Scilica said loudly to cover up the fact that she was blushing:

  “Let-let’s go o
ut to the field quickly!”

  “Huh? Ah, yeah.”

  Kirito stood blinking for a second before he nodded and began walking next to Scilica.

  They left the gate plaza only to find out that even the main street of the village was covered with flowers. As the two walked next to each other, Scilica thought about when she had first met Kirito. She couldn’t believe that only a day had passed since then. The swordsman had already become a significant presence in her heart.

  She glanced his way and wondered how he felt, but Kirito still had a mysterious feel and it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Scilica hesitated for a while before she prepared herself and opened her mouth:

  “Ermm… Kirito onii-chan. Can I ask about your little sister…”

  “Wh-why all of a sudden?”

  “You said that I reminded you of her. So, I was just curious…”

  Talking about the real world was one of the greatest taboos in Aincrad. There were a lot of reasons, but the biggest one was that if the thought ‘this world is virtual and therefore fake’ embedded itself deep within the players’ minds, then they wouldn’t be able to accept the «death» in SAO as real.

  But she wanted to ask about Kirito’s little sister, whom he said was like her. She wanted to know if Kirito wanted something from her as a little sister.

  “…We weren’t…all that close…”

  Kirito started talking.

  “I said that she was my little sister, but she’s actually my cousin. Because of some circumstances, she grew up with us from since she was born. She doesn’t know this though. Well, maybe it’s because of this… but I kept distancing myself from her without really meaning to. I even avoided running into her at home.”

  A small sigh came from Kirito.

  “…On top of that, we had a strict grandfather. He forced me to go to a kendo dojo when I was eight, but I couldn’t really get into it and stopped after two years. My grandfather had hit me pretty hard… but when he did that, my sister started crying and protected me by saying that she’ll do even my share to make him stop hitting me. After that, I began playing the computer and lost myself in it, but my sister really devoted herself to kendo and even made it pretty far in the national championships before our grandfather passed away. It was enough to make even him pleased… But I always felt sorry; I always wondered if that was really something she wanted to do and if she resented me. I kept avoiding her because of that… and now we ended up like this.”