It was already noon, but she was still wearing pajamas. Today is Monday, January 20th, and winter vacation is already over, but Suguha, in her third semester of her third year of middle school can attend as she likes. For that reason, she attends only to show her face at her kendo club.
Right now her mind was replaying that memory over and over, and she had already lost track of how many times it had repeated. Last night - in order to warm the frozen Kazuto, she’d burrowed under the covers with him, their bodies inseparably close before falling asleep together. It had taken a mere ten seconds before sleep came, and her weak constitution was now a cause for regret.
“…I’m an idiot! Idiot! Idiot!” she screamed inwardly as she pounded on her pillow with her fists.
At least I could have woken up before him and slipped out, but he woke up first, how can I even look at him now?
Her feelings of shame and embarrassment mixed with her hidden feelings of love, and the stabbing pain in her chest refused to let her breathe. She covered her face with her hands, and suddenly realized that her pajamas still held her brother’s scent, causing another deep throb within her heart.
Anyway, swinging a shinai will wipe it all away, she determined, rising to her feet. In her nervousness, she wasn’t sure if it was better to wear her kendogi, or casual clothes, but she quickly changed and went into the courtyard to practice.
Kazuto was out somewhere today - she didn’t know where exactly, and her mother, Midori, always left for work before noon. Her father, Minetaka, had returned to America just after the new year, leaving Suguha alone at home. From the stand on the first floor breakfast table, she grabbed a cheese muffin, stuffing it in her mouth in an extremely unladylike gesture, while her other hand grabbed a pouch of orange juice, before sitting briefly in the hallway.
Just as she’d taken a huge bite, Kazuto appeared in the entrance hall, pushing his bike and catching her gaze.
“Guu!!”
A piece of the muffin lodged in her throat, and she frantically waved her right hand to drink from her juice - only to realize the straw was missing.
“Uahh, guu~~!”
“Whoa!”
Kazuto ran to Suguha’s side, grabbing the juice and quickly inserting the straw before holding it to her mouth. Desperately sucking in the cold liquid, she was finally able to swallow the trapped piece of food.
“Uah! Dead…This time I thought I was dead for sure.”
“What an impatient girl! Don’t you know you should eat a little more slowly?”
“Mmm ~”
Embarrassed, she lowered her head to look at her feet. Kazuto sat down beside her, bent down and began to untie his shoelaces. In Suguha’s peripheral vision, she watched Kazuto’s profile, once again biting her muffin. At just that moment, he suddenly spoke, “Right, about last night…”
Suguha suddenly choked, and hurriedly drank a mouthful of juice.
“Ah, ah!”
“So um, that is…Thank you!”
“Eh…?”
Hearing these unexpected words, Suguha could only stare at Kazuto.
“Thanks to you, my spirit has been restored. I, won’t give up. I’ll definitely save her, and bring her to meet you.”
Suguha, enduring the pain in her heart, smiled and answered, “Mm. Ganbatte! I, too, would like to meet Asuna.”
“You two would get along very well.”
Kazuto patted Suguha on the head and then stood.
“So, see you later.”
With that, Kirito started to run up to the second floor, and seeing him go past, Suguha popped the last bit of her muffin into his mouth.
— Do your best…to me too…
Reaching the pool in the courtyard, Suguha began suburi. Holding her shinai, she began to move in what could almost be called a dance, and slowly began to warm up her body.
In the past, swinging her shinai was all she needed to clear her mind, but today was decidedly different. What was on her mind seemed impossible to erase, and was now firmly entrenched in place.
— Me liking Onii-chan…is that really ok?
Last night, because of such thoughts, she’d already determined to give up. Deep within Onii-chan’s heart is only that person; this she clearly understood, but that did nothing for the pain.
— But…maybe it’s better this way.
She was divided, conflicted even, unclear as to why she had become so conscious of Kazuto. She, however, was very clear as to when it had begun.
Two months prior, her mother was contacted by the hospital, and she flew to the hospital without a moment’s hesitation, to lean by Kazuto’s side, eyes brimming with tears and smile bright with gladness. Kazuto reached out his hand, responding with a nostalgic tone. Beginning with that moment, a feeling began to sprout in Suguha’s heart. I want to be closer to him, I want to speak more with him, I want to throw myself at him, but this, of course, could not be.
Just staying by his side and watching him is fine as well, Suguha assured herself, as she began swinging her shinai once more. She lost herself in practice and didn’t realize how much time had passed until she stopped to look at the clock, only to see that noon had already crept upon her.
“Ah, I can’t go on like this. I’ve got someone to meet.”
Ceasing her empty swings, she placed her shinai against the side of a nearby pine tree, and picked up her towel to wipe off her sweat. As she raised her head to gaze at the sky, the blue sky peeked through the clouds.
Part 6
I went back to my room, changed, and turned my phone to vibrate. I sat on the bed and opened my backpack, and took out the game that Egil had given me.
«ALfheim Online».
I hadn’t heard very much, so I read the information booklet. Originally, prior to playing a MMORPG, I would collect information through a number of magazines and forums, but this time I didn’t even hesitate. I opened the game packaging and took out the ROM inside. I plugged the NERvGear router in, and inserted the ROM into its slot. After a few seconds, the main indicator light stopped flashing, turning solid instead.
Sitting by my bedside, I placed the NERvGear over my eyes with both hands.
The formerly shiny NERvGear was now slightly damaged, and paint was peeling in several places. For two years, it had been simultaneously my captor as well as an ever-reliable comrade-in-arms.
— Once again, please lend me strength.
With that in mind, I put the NERvGear on my head and buckled the chin strap. With the frame in place and the goggles down, I closed my eyes.
Anxiety and excitement caused my heart to beat rapidly, as I tried to slow my racing heart beat, I said, “LINK START!”
The light passing through my closed eyelids suddenly disappeared. The transmission from my optic nerves was suddenly severed, and my eyes were enveloped by darkness.
Immediately, a rainbow-colored light appeared, and a shapeless «NERvGear» gradually formed into a logo. The images, which were initially hazy, were for the purpose of confirming the connection to my visual cortex. Eventually, a line of text appeared below the logo to confirm that the visual connection was OK.
Next came the sound test, and multiple strange sounds resonated. The sounds which were initially distorted slowly became beautiful and changed in pitch and harmony, before gradually decreasing in volume and eventually dying away. When this was complete, a line of text appeared to confirm that the auditory nerve connection was similarly OK.
The initial connection procedure continued. Now moving to the feeling of touch and gravity, the feeling of my bed and weight disappeared. As the connection tests continued with various senses, the number of OKs indicated the successful connection. If FULLDIVE technology had improved, then this process should be shortened dramatically, and all I could do was wait for it to finish.
At last, the final OK appeared, and the next instant brought me falling through the darkness into the colors of a rainbow, an illusion of the world. After passing through this series of rings
, I had arrived in a different world.
— Actually, it’s still a little early to say that. Out of the darkness emerged an account registration interface. The main ALfheim Online LOGO gradually appeared, accompanied by a soft female voice.
Following the instructions given, I began creating my account and character. At chest height was a pale and shiny virtual keyboard and I entered a User ID and password as prompted. I had many years of experience before beginning SAO, so this process was of some familiarity to me. Since this is a downloadable MMO game, I would normally need to select the payment method, but I had bought this game and it came with a one month free trial.
Next I chose the nickname for my character. I didn’t put much thought into it, but entered the name «Kirito».
This name was a shortened form of my real name, Kirigaya Kazuto, and there weren’t many who knew that. Those who understood included only the rescue team from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and those with a close connection, i.e. Recto’s president Yuuki Shoujou and that Sugou. Of course, that also included Egil and Asuna, who had yet to wake. Even Suguha and our parents shouldn’t know of it.
In the SAO incident, none of this information had been made public, especially character names. This was because in that world there was frequent fighting between players and the result was often a horrible death in the real world. If unrestricted publication of this information was allowed, it would not be difficult to imagine a large number of lawsuits being filed.
At the moment, the blame for the SAO killings was entirely placed on the head of Kayaba Akihiko, whose whereabouts are currently unknown. Relatives of players are still suing Argus for damages, the consequences of which have bankrupted said company. That is to say, while the company single-handedly supported by Kayaba voluntarily drew the curtain, the still unavoidable torrent of lawsuits was completely in line with the country’s intentions.
With a bit of trepidation I realized the name was known to Sugou Nobuyuki, and because it is a rather well-known name I changed it from its romanized form to its kana form. My selected gender, of course, was male.
Then, the voice advised me to create my character. This is when the player can choose what their character will look like. The many parameters are randomly selected and the system doesn’t explain how they can be changed. What bothered me was that an additional fee would be required to change my appearance. Whatever though, anything’s fine.
There are nine different fairy races to choose from when deciding my character’s role. Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses which can be explained before I need to choose. Salamanders, Sylphs and Gnomes are pretty common to RPGs, but Cait Siths and Leprechauns not so much.
I’m not planning on playing this game too seriously, so anything’s fine with me. So because I liked its initial, black themed equipment, I selected the «Spriggan» and pressed OK.
After completing the initial setup, the artificial voice rang out saying “Good luck”, I was again sent into the vortex of light. According to the voice, I was being sent to the hometown of my race, the Spriggans, as a starting point for the game. The sensation of the ground disappeared, to be replaced by a floating feeling, then by the feeling of tumbling into a new world. Bright light marked the transition, and the new world gradually emerged and gained depth. I was falling toward a village from high above in the darkness.
After two months of time away from FullDive, the stimulation once again aroused my nerves. In this manner, I slowly approached the slender castle at the center of the town-
At that moment.
The scene before my eyes suddenly froze. Defects appeared here and there as some of the polygons disappeared, and a noise like lightning could be heard throughout the world. The resolution of all objects sharply declined, mosaic-like, and the world dissolved and collapsed altogether.
“What- What on earth!?”
Not even the sound of my cry could be heard— I began fiercely plummeting once again. With no end to the vast darkness, I descended toward the ground in continuous free fall.
“What do I do now?! AHHHHHHHH!”
My screams were absorbed into the darkness of the void before gradually disappearing.
Chapter 2
Part 1
A huge moon hung in the cloudless sky, the forest below shaded blue-green in the moon’s light.
ALfheim’s night is very short, but there’s still some time before dawn. Normally, such a dark forest would be a cause for concern, but it’s that same darkness which makes retreat possible.
Lyfa, hidden in the shadow of a giant tree, raised her head to look at the starry sky. For the moment, there doen’t seem to be any ominous presences in the sky. Lowering her voice as much as possible, she spoke to her nearby teammate, “When your wings recover, we’ll take off immediately. Prepare yourself.”
“Ah— but I’m still dizzy…”
Her partner answered in a very reluctant tone.
“You’re still feeling sick? Don’t you feel embarrassed? You ought to get used to it.”
“Even if you say that, scary things are still scary…”
Lyfa sighed with frustration.
Squatting next to the tree was a teenage player named Recon, also Lyfa’s friend in real life. They had started playing ALO – ALfheim ONLINE - together. In other words, he and Lyfa have played this game for almost a year. However, no matter how much time passes, Recon was still unable to overcome the feeling of vertigo while flying. In ALO, strength in air combat is the only measurement that matters, but after only one or two scuffles, he would already be exhausted. This made him somewhat unreliable.
Even though Recon was like this, Lyfa didn’t hate that part of him. Or rather, it was more like she just couldn’t ignore this “little brother” of hers. His appearance often exposed a delicate body with bobbed yellow-green hair, long ears which hung down toward the ground, and an expression that made you think he was just about to burst into tears. Although it was randomly generated, his appearance in game bore a close resemblance to reality. When Lyfa first saw him in game, she couldn’t help but break into laughter.
For Recon as well, Lyfa looked too much like her real appearance. As a Sylph, she had well-defined, very neat eyebrows, beautiful eyes, and a slightly large-boned body for a member of her race.
Originally she had wanted a character that would be considered more «Graceful». Her current appearance was not only in keeping with this desire, but could also be considered extremely cute. However, she could be considered fortunate. Many people were not so lucky, and in order to be satisfied with their appearance they chose to pay additional fees to reconstruct their character. Compared to these people, Lyfa had absolutely nothing to complain about.
The additional payment did not affect a character’s performance at all, but Recon had played around with his eyes until they matched his sense of aesthetics; he’d thought their balance was off.
Lyfa held Recon’s equiped BLAST ARMOR from the back and pulled. Looked at his four transparent wings surrounded by a thin green phosphorescence, indicating that he could fly again.
“Well, you can fly again. It’s time to fly out of this forest.”
“Eh ~ we’ll definitely get chased again. Let’s rest for a bit. Rest~”
“Naive!! There’s only one Salamander there who’s any good. If we’re careful, we won’t be seen. Neither of us can afford another air battle, so just bite the bullet and fly!”
“Ohh…”
Recon reluctantly answered, holding his left hand up in the air. A translucent joystick - the remote control used for flight - appeared in his hand. The front-end held a small ball; this was ALO’s assisted flight controller. As Recon pulled the controller toward himself, four wings extended to the sides, growing brighter as they lengthened.
After seeing this, Lyfa began extending her own wings, flapping them two or three times. She did not use the control stick. This was a high level skill called «Voluntary Flight», proof that the user
was a first-class warrior in ALO.
“Well let’s get out of here!!” Lyfa whispered.
As her wings fully extended themselves, she kicked off the ground, racing toward the moon. Her field of vision gradually widened until she saw all of ALfheim stretched out before her, offering the sense of endless freedom.
“Ah…”
Flying toward distant heights, Lyfa gave a cry of joy. What she felt now was irreplaceable. She let out a whoop. Since ancient times, man has had the desire to fly like a bird. This had finally become a reality in this fantasy world.
The flight time limit set by the system was the only thing that marred this experience. To fly as freely as the heart desires would be worth paying any price.
Originally, this was the wish of all players fighting in ALfheim: to reach the top of «Yggdrasil» before any of the other races and enter the legendary aerial city. There, one would transform into a real fairy, «ALF», lift the time limit on flight, and become the ruler of a truly infinite sky.
Lyfa had no desire to acquire rare items or increase her status. The reason she fought in this world was for just this one thing.
Lyfa aimed toward the full golden moon which had not quite set, using her glass-like wings. Particles of light scattered behind her like a comet dragging a green tail through the night sky.
“Ly, Lyfa-chan~ Waaaaait for me~”
—Weak sounds from below called Lyfa’s attention back to reality. She stopped and looked down; clutching his controller, Recon is desperately chasing after her. The maximum flight speed is relatively low when using system assistance, and if Lyfa were serious, Recon would never be able to catch up.
“Hurry it up! Do your best!”
Lyfa spread her wings and hovered while waiting for Recon. Raising her head to look at her surroundings, in the distance, at the far end of a sea of trees, she saw Yggdrasil, towering above the darkness. From this fixed point, even the direction of Sylph territory can be more or less determined.