Phantom Bullet 2

  A red line flew in from behind me and pierced the center of Death Gun’s hood without a sound.

  It was not a bullet, but a bullet line—Sinon. I understood her intention in an instant. She was attacking him with the bullet line itself. A last attack, wringing out all of her experience, intuition, and will to fight. A phantom bullet.

  With the instinct of an animal sensing a predator, Death Gun leaped backward. A growl of rage escaped his skull mask. He must have noticed right away that Sinon would not risk the danger of shooting me by accident. But the shock of me dropping his real name had dulled that realization. So his body reacted to the phantom shot and took evasive maneuvers before his mind could stop it.

  This was my last chance. The bullet line feint wouldn’t work again. I couldn’t let Sinon’s opportunity go to waste. I lunged forward, chasing after Death Gun.

  But there was a cruel fate in store. He began to disappear—the Optical Camo. I could follow the footprints to track his location, but there was no way to ensure my lightsword would hit his crit point with any accuracy. I had to finish it with one strike, or his counter would knock out my remaining HP.

  Then, an even more surprising phenomenon:

  My left hand moved on its own, as if guided by someone else. My freezing, nervous hand was enveloped, warmed, and guided by the familiar hand of another. It moved to my left waist and grabbed something tight. It was the other weapon whose existence I had completely forgotten: the Five-Seven. The moment it slid out of the holster and its weight registered on my arm, a single thought etched into my mind and burst into flame.

  “Rrraaaaahh!!”

  I howled. Leaped. Twisted left, then bolted forward in a spiral like a bullet.

  Before me, Death Gun was in the process of disappearing entirely. I swung my left hand at the outline of the wavering silhouette.

  In my normal dual blades configuration, my left blade would jump up from ground level to break the enemy’s defense, but I was holding a pistol now, not a sword. But who decided that a gun couldn’t execute a sword skill? I held the trigger down, in the same way I would slice the sword upward.

  The bullets flew in a diagonal line, striking the invisible object and erupting with sparks. Death Gun’s body reappeared from their midst. His camo was exposed, his avatar open to my attack.

  With all of my inertia and weight in a clockwise spin, I struck downward from the left with my lightsword. It was the Dual Blades charging attack, Double Circular.

  The energy blade bit deep into Death Gun’s right shoulder, severing diagonally through the torso until it passed out his left flank. The black pistol was holstered there, and it too was split down the middle by the blade’s precision, exploding in a burst of brilliant orange.

  The severed avatar, ripped cloak, and arc of flame danced beneath the full moon.

  The long, long flight finally came to its end…

  And with a series of heavy thuds, Death Gun’s upper and lower halves landed a slight distance away. A half second later, the long, narrow estoc plunged into the sand between the two of us.

  As I slumped to my knees, I caught a very faint whisper.

  “…It’s, not…over. We won’t…let it end… He will…ensure…”

  The DEAD tag that floated over the severed halves of Death Gun’s avatar brought a premature end to his statement. I slowly rose and looked down at the “corpse” below me.

  Now that Death Gun had lost his tattered cloak that was more a symbol of his avatar than his actual body, there was very little to distinguish him, aside from the skull mask. I gazed into the lens without their signature red color and murmured, “No…it is over, Xaxa. We’ll find your accomplice in no time. This is the end of Laughing Coffin’s bloodshed, once and for all.”

  I turned around and dragged my wounded, battered body west through the desert.

  How many hundreds of steps, how many hundreds of yards did I trudge? Eventually, a pair of small, booted feet came into view, and I lifted my head at last.

  It was a small sniper girl with a scopeless rifle in her hands, and a gentle smile on her face.

  Sinon opened her mouth to say something, but no words emerged.

  She couldn’t even state for certain what emotions were running through her. Waves of heat roiled in her chest. She clutched the Hecate even harder.

  At last, Kirito cracked a slight grin. He put his Five-Seven back into the holster, clenched his fist, and held it out. Sinon raised her own and bumped it to his.

  “…It’s over,” the lightswordsman mumbled, lowering his fist and looking straight upward. Sinon followed his gaze.

  The clouds had drifted away at some point, replaced by a curtain of stars that all competed to outshine the others. It might have been the first time she’d ever seen stars in this game.

  The sky of GGO was always covered in thick clouds, owing to the effects of the apocalyptic war that caused it to collapse. The gloomy sunset coloring stayed constant throughout the day, and even the night sky was a clouded, bloody red.

  But according to a prophecy by a wise old NPC in town, one day the poisons of the earth would be purified, the sands would turn white again, the clouds would dissipate, and the light of stars and starships would return to the night sky. No players took that boilerplate background setting seriously, but perhaps this desert was not the wasteland the players normally traversed, but the promised land of the future.

  Sinon silently watched the glinting of the brilliant night sky, and the wreckage of the spaceships that flowed between the stars like a river.

  Eventually, Kirito said, “We should probably put an end to the tournament now. I doubt the audience is very happy about this.”

  “…Yeah. Good point.”

  Here and there in the night sky, the pale blue cameras blinked in impatient annoyance. Kirito smirked at the sight, then got serious and took a step closer to her. “That eliminates the danger of this tournament. Now that we’ve beaten Death Gun, his accomplice should be leaving you alone. Remember, their goal is to create a legend that anyone shot by his black pistol in GGO dies in real life, not to just murder anyone willy-nilly. So there shouldn’t be any danger with logging out now…but just in case, you should call the police.”

  “But…what am I going to tell them? How in the world do I convince them that there are people plotting simultaneous murders inside a VRMMO and outside?”

  Kirito bit his lip for a moment, then nodded. “Good point… I was hired by someone in the government, so I could have him take care of it…but I can’t just ask for your name and address here…”

  The swordsman’s glance shifted away. He understood that asking for someone’s real life details in a VRMMO was the worst, most boorish of faux pas.

  But it only took Sinon a second to make up her mind. “It’s fine. I’ll tell you.”

  “Huh? B-but…”

  “Seems pretty stupid to get hung up on that now. I mean…this was the first time I actually opened up and told someone about my past on my own…”

  Kirito’s eyes widened a bit, but he soon agreed, “I guess you have a point. Now that I think about it, the same might go for me…”

  If she hesitated now, the shy part of herself would appear and decide not to go through with it, so Sinon hoisted the Hecate onto her shoulder and took a step forward. She put her lips up to Kirito’s ear and whispered, low enough that no one could hear, “My name is Shino Asada. I live in Yoncho-me in Yushima, Bunkyo Ward of Tokyo…”

  Once she had listed her apartment building and number, Kirito turned to her in surprise. “Yushima?! No kidding…I’m diving from Ochanomizu in Chiyoda Ward.”

  “Wait…what?! Then we’re right next to each other,” Sinon nearly shouted, flabbergasted. The only things separating Kirito from her home were Kasuga Street and Kuramae-bashi Street. Kirito’s eyes narrowed a bit, and he grunted.

  “In that case, maybe it would be quicker if I just run over as soon as I log out…”

  “Wha… You?
??re…”

  She was nearly about to ask, You’re coming over? but held her mouth shut in time. She cleared her throat awkwardly and resumed, “N-no, it’s fine. There’s a friend nearby who I can trust…”

  Kyouji Shinkawa, aka Spiegel, the boy who invited her into this game, lived in nearby Hongo, the second son of a medical practitioner. He’d come right over if she called, and he had to be watching the tournament from start to finish, so she knew she’d have to explain why she had been working so closely with Kirito.

  “Plus, he’s the son of a doctor, so he can help in an emergency,” she added as an excuse.

  Kirito noted seriously. “Don’t even joke about that. But…it is a bit of a relief to hear. Anyway, once I log off, I’ll contact my supervisor and have him explain the situation to the police. Even at the latest, they’ll send a car around in fifteen…no, ten minutes.”

  “Hmm, all right. Hopefully they’ll catch the accomplice…”

  “Yeah…”

  He looked a bit worried. Sinon glared at him. “So, you’re going to make me expose my information, and just walk away?”

  “Oh, er, s-sorry. My name is Kazuto Kirigaya. Like I said, I’m diving from Ochanomizu, but my home is Kawagoe, in Saitama Prefecture,” he babbled. Sinon pored over his statement and couldn’t help but giggle, despite the seriousness of the situation.

  “ ‘Kazuto Kirigaya.’ Kiri and to, combined to form ‘Kirito.’ You’re right, that is cliché.”

  “H-hey, look who’s talking,” he said, grinning slightly. He looked up at the cameras overhead and changed the subject. “We’ll need to finish the BoB if we want to log out, though… What’s the plan, Sinon? Do we settle this with another duel, like yesterday?”

  Sinon realized that she had completely forgotten about the rematch with Kirito that had burned such a hole in her. She looked at the beautiful face across from her and thought for a second.

  “Strength comes…not from results…but the process of what you aim for…”

  “Huh? You say something?”

  “N-no, just talking to myself. Listen, you look like hell. I won’t get any enjoyment or bragging rights for beating someone in your condition. We can save the duel for the next BoB final,” she smirked. Kirito’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and he grimaced.

  “Meaning I’m not allowed to convert back to my original game until the fourth tournament happens?”

  “Hey, you can convert as many times as you want. Just don’t assume you can waltz in and beat me that way. Anyway…let’s wrap this one up.”

  “But how? It’s a battle royale, so one of us has to go all the way to zero, or else there’s no winner, right?”

  “Well, it’s rare, but you can have two winners—the first BoB on the North American server was a dual championship. The person who was supposed to win got cocky and fell victim to a grenade from the grave.”

  “Grenade from the grave? What’s that?”

  “When a person who’s about to lose rolls out a grenade, hoping to take down the other person with them. Here, take this.”

  Sinon reached into her pouch and pulled out a black sphere, placing it in Kirito’s upturned palm. She found the detonator timer, sticking out from the top like the stem of a fruit, and set it to about five seconds.

  It was the plasma grenade that she’d rushed to pick up from Yamikaze’s side, once she confirmed that Kirito had killed Death Gun. She’d been ready for this ending since that moment.

  Kirito finally realized what he was holding. His eyes bulged, and he nearly tossed it away on sheer instinct. Sinon put her arms around him and held him tight to stop him from doing so.

  A blinding light erupted between them, melting Kirito’s grimace and Sinon’s grin into a screen of white.

  The total time of the match was two hours, four minutes, thirty-seven seconds.

  The battle-royale final of the third Bullet of Bullets was over.

  The result: simultaneous victory for Sinon and Kirito.

  15

  Sinon was teleported off of ISL Ragnarok, the island on which the event happened, and returned to a temporary waiting zone. She stared at the results board before her, complete with log-out timer, and tried her best to cool down her racing mind.

  The event was over at last, but the Death Gun incident was not. His accomplice might still be lurking nearby when Shino returned to reality. Kirito said that he would have the police dispatched to her place at once, but given that he was logging out at the same time she was, and then had to contact his employer, it would easily take more than ten minutes. She would have to defend herself in that time.

  First she’d check the safety of her apartment, then call Kyouji Shinkawa and have him come over. He might encounter the accomplice, but their weapon in the scheme—according to Kirito, at least—was a syringe full of poison, not guns or knives, so they wouldn’t possibly try to jam a needle into a conscious person in the middle of the street. Still, she would tell him to be careful on the phone, of course.

  The large countdown ticked away with astonishing speed. Only ten seconds until she was logged out.

  She checked the results screen one last time. At the top, Sinon’s and Kirito’s names were sparkling. It was the ultimate goal of any GGO player to be listed in that spot, but sadly, she was certain that the honor would be stripped from her. Too many fishy things happened to reach that point. She’d have to wait until the fourth tournament to reach her goal.

  Stuck in third place was Death Gun’s registered name, Steven. Oddly, he spelled it “Sterben,” which perhaps meant it was supposed to be pronounced slightly differently. The cloaked man’s true identity, of course, was “Death Gun,” and his character name was nothing but a piece of camouflage.

  In fourth place was Yamikaze. No doubt many players had bet on him to be the champion, which meant the betting market had to be in a state of chaos now. A list of famous names stretched down from fifth place onward, including Dyne and Xiahou Dun—ending with twenty-eighth place.

  At the very end were two players who’d been disconnected: Pale Rider and Garrett.

  So Death Gun had claimed two victims after all. That probably meant he had two accomplices. What kind of a group had to come together in a VRMMO, and what did they need to go through, for three people to undertake such a horrifying crime spree?

  When the countdown reached zero, Sinon was feeling not the elation of victory, but a deep, freezing chill.

  A momentary floating sensation came and went, and Sinon was Shino again, lying alone on her real bed.

  But in fact, she might not be alone. She reminded herself not to open her eyes or move all of a sudden. She kept herself utterly still and her eyelids closed, trying to sense her surroundings through other means.

  There were a few different sounds she could hear. First, her own breathing. Next, the quick thumping of her heartbeat.

  The low thrum near the ceiling belonged to the heating cycle of her air conditioner. The dripping was from the tank of her humidifier. Outside the window, the gentle rumble of street traffic. A stereo subwoofer from some other apartment in the building.

  That was it. No other sources of unfamiliar noise in the apartment.

  She took in a slow, long breath. The only smell her nose picked up was the gentle scent of the herb soap on top of the dresser she used as an air freshener.

  Nobody else is in my room, Shino thought, but she couldn’t open her eyes quite yet. She couldn’t eliminate the fear that someone might be standing just on the left side of the bed, staring down at her.

  In fact, it didn’t even need to be in the room. There was the kitchen, the bathroom…the veranda…Even in her tiny apartment, there were plenty of places one could hide if they wanted. In fact, he might even be hiding under her bed. It was awful. She didn’t want to move.

  Meanwhile, Kirito—Kazuto Kirigaya—should be calling the police through his government contact. In another fifteen minutes, she’d hear the police siren. If that was the case, it
might be smartest just to stay put and wait.

  She had just shut her eyes tight, prepared for the long wait, when her old-fashioned heater ran out of juice and spit out a burst of unheated air that brushed Shino’s exposed thigh. A chill ran across her skin, and she suddenly felt an ominous itch deep inside her nose.

  She was only able to resist for two seconds. The space between her eyebrows and the bridge of her nose crinkled up, and her traitorous respiratory system emitted a small but undeniable achoo! Shino froze up, waiting for a reaction from somewhere else in the room.

  Still, nothing moved.

  Shino slowly, carefully lifted her right eyelid. The dimmed room glowed dully from the streetlights coming in through a crack in her curtains. She checked the state of the room, first within range of her eyeball, then with the turning radius of her neck.

  For now, she didn’t see any human figures. She gingerly, silently took off the AmuSphere and placed it next to her pillow. She sat up with nothing more than her stomach muscles and took a quick look around the room.

  It seemed like everything was exactly as she’d left it when she full-dove a few hours earlier.

  The mineral water bottle was on the table. Next to it was a large stereo. Her schoolbag was on the floor. None of them had been moved.

  Shino pushed off the sheets and moved to the edge of the bed, swallowed, then leaned over to look under the bed. Nothing there, of course.

  She looked up through the crack in the curtains to confirm that the lock on her window was firmly in place.

  Next, Shino set her feet on the floor and craned her neck as far as it could to peer into the kitchen. But it was far too tiny of a space for anyone to be hiding in it.

  She stood up and walked over to the wall, stifling her footsteps without realizing it, and hit the light switch. The room was suddenly full of white light that spilled down to the entranceway on the other side of the kitchen.

  If she squinted her eyes, she could see that the lock on the door was still horizontal. She stayed right where she was, trying to sense anything from the one place in the apartment that was separated by a wall—the bathroom. There was no sound coming from it. She tiptoed from the main room to the kitchen.