Sword Art Online - Volume 6 - Phantom Bullet

  “…Good afternoon…sorry to keep you waiting.”

  “It’s nothing. I just arrived too—speaking of which…why does it feel like…”

  At this moment, Kirito finally noticed the students that were watching from near the school gate. He looked around and said,

  “…Everyone’s looking at us…”

  “Pl…please…”

  Shino’s voice had some reluctance.

  “Wouldn’t other people be noticing if you park your bike at someone else’s school gate!?”

  “I…is that so? Then…”

  The boy suddenly gave off a teasing smile. Shino had seen that smile a few times in the virtual world.

  “If we continue to stay here, would the discipline teacher run over here to make a ruckus? That seems interesting.”

  “Do…don’t kid around!”

  In fact, the teachers may really come over. Shino instinctively turned back to look at the school gate and then said softly,

  “Hu, hurry up and go!”

  “Okay okay…”

  Kirito handed the light green helmet that was hanging onto the handle to Shino as he continued to smile.

  This guy’s inner world messes me up like a mischievous imp, just like how it was like in GGO. I can’t be fooled by his appearance—Shino told herself deep inside her heart as she received the safety helmet. She tilted her bag sideways and put on the half helmet. She then stopped as she didn’t know how she was to buckle it. At this moment…

  “Excuse me a for bit.”

  Kirito reached his arm over and quickly hooked her helmet up. Shino’s face again felt hot as she hurriedly pulled the mask down. She was already starting to wonder how she was going to explain things to everyone the next day.

  “…Sinon, well…is your skirt alright?”

  “I have sports shorts underneath.”

  “No, that’s not the problem.”

  “You can’t see it from the front seat anyway.”

  After taking a potshot of revenge, Shino quickly sat down on the back seat of the bike. As she would often take the back seat of her grandpa’s Coyote Honda 90, she was used to it.

  “Then…you better hold on tight.”

  Kirito twisted the key, and the rare internal combustion engine let out a loud roar. Shino again shrank her neck back. However, the vibration that reached her waist and the smell of the exhaust gases were truly memorable as she couldn’t help but smile. She then wrapped her arms around Kirito’s slender body.

  It would be a little troublesome for her to head from the Bunkyo area of Yushima to their destination, the central area of Ginza, if she had to take the subway. It would be easier to move around above ground.

  They drove from Ochinomizu, to Chiyoda highway before reaching Koukyo. The bike moved slowly around the moat[1] for safety reasons, but luckily, the weather today was fine, and the wind that blew past her face felt rather comfortable. After moving through the major gate, they went through the Uchibori highway then Harumi Avenue, turned left, went through the JR bridge, and then arrived at Ginza Yonchome.

  Even though the speed they drove at could be considered a huge difference from riding on the three-wheeler buggy and getting away from Death Gun, they still spent less than 15 minutes to reach the destination. Kirito immediately parked the bike.

  Shino was holding the helmet in her hand as she was led by Kirito to a high-class cafe she had never been to before. The moment she pushed the door aside, the waiters in white shirts and black ties bowed deeply to them. Shino couldn’t help but panic and looked somewhat embarrassed.

  On hearing the waiter ask if it was for two, she felt whether it was like…and panicked even more. However, a voice without restraint suddenly was heard, breaking the entire high-class atmosphere.

  “Oi~ Kirito-kun, over here!”

  “Ah…we have an appointment with that guy.”

  As Kirito said that, the waiter indicated that he understood without changing his expression, bowing as he walked forward. The shop was full of rich housewives who were going shopping, and their high school uniforms looked very obvious. Shino could only curl back and gingerly walk on the floor that was polished to an abnormal shine.

  A tall and skinny man, who was wearing a high class deep blue western suit, a patterned tie and black-framed spectacles, got up from the table where both of them were headed. Shino heard that he was a civil servant, but besides giving off that white-collar presence, he did look like a scholar too.

  As they sat at the table where the man indicated, warm towels and the leather menu appeared in front of them.

  “Here, help yourselves.”

  Shino flipped the menu open as if she was prompted by the guy’s voice, and immediately couldn’t say anything. Let alone sandwiches and pasta, even the desserts had 4 digit numbers behind them.

  Just as Shino was so shocked that she didn’t know what to do, beside her, Kirito snorted coldly and said,

  “It’s better not to be nice with him. We’re spending money from our hardworking citizens.”

  The girl glanced over and found that the bespectacled guy was smiling and nodding too.

  “The, then…I’ll order this rare cheese cake with cranberry sauce to go along…and also Earl Grey.”

  Shino ordered these as her heart was going green ‘Wow, 2200 yen[2]!’. Unexpectedly, Kirito, who was beside her, said—

  “I want baked apple pudding, mont blanc and espresso.”

  Those unbelievable things were said. Shino couldn’t even imagine how much money that would cost.

  The attendant bowed and walked away.The bespectacled man reached into his pocket and took out a black business card holder. He took a business card from the holder and then handed the business card to Shino.

  “Hello. I’m Kikuoka from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Technology.”

  He said his name with a steady voice. Shino hurriedly took the business card and bowed back.

  “He, hello…I’m Asada…Shino.”

  The moment she said that, this man called Kikuoka gave an ominous look and said,

  “It’s because of our carelessness that we caused Asada-san to be in such a dangerous situation. I’m really sorry.”

  “No…no worries. You’re too kind.”

  As Shino hurriedly lowered her head again, Kirito interrupted from beside her.

  “It’s better for him to apologize. If Kikuoka-san was able to investigate more thoroughly, we wouldn’t have to meet such danger.”

  “…I’m really sweating now that you mention that.”

  Kikuoka lowered his head like a kid being lectured, but then lifted his eyes and continued,

  “But Kirito-kun, you never expected «Death Gun» to be a group of people, right?”

  “That’s true…”

  After saying that, Kirito leaned on the chair which looked like an antique, which then let out a creaking sound.

  “Anyway…tell us what you know up till now first, Kikuoka-san.”

  “Of course…but it’s only been 2 days since we knew of their crimes. It would take some time to explain everything…”

  Kikuoka took the coffee cup that was right in front of him, took a sip, and then continued,

  “While I said that there was a group, there were actually only 3 members. At least from what the leader Shinkawa Shoichi said, they had three people.”

  “That guy called Shoichi was the mantle guy who attacked Sinon and me in BoB, right?”

  Kikuoka gently nodded his head at Kirito’s question.

  “I guess that should be right. From the confiscated AmuSphere records we got from his house, we were able to check that he did log into Gun Gale Online at that time.”

  “House…that guy called Shinkawa Shoichi, what kind of person was he? Was he the mastermind?”

  “…To explain all that, we have to start from the SAO incident in year 2022. But before that…”

  The waiter just so happened to arrive at this moment as he p
ushed the trolley with lots of plates of food on it. After waiting for the waiter to arrange these plates onto the table and leave, Kikuoka then gestured Shino not to hold back.

  She didn’t really have much appetite, but she should still be able to eat it. After saying ‘itadakimasu’ with Kirito, Shino took the gold fork.

  She sliced a bit off the milky white block that was dyed in bright red sauce and placed it inside her mouth. Besides the heavy taste of thick cheese spreading in her mouth, the cake itself melted inside. Surprised, Shino immediately had the thought to ask for the recipe, but thinking about it, she knew that even if she asked the shop, they wouldn’t reveal it.

  Unknowingly, she ate about half of the cake before putting her fork down and picked up the red teacup. She took a sip of the warm liquid that had a little orange tang in it, and the tense feeling deep inside her was eased.

  “It’s really nice…”

  Shino muttered. On hearing that, Kikuoka happily said,

  “Normally, food should accompany happy topics. But it’s alright. We can come over another time.”

  “I, I see…”

  Kirito continued to eat the golden brown mont blanc in front of him, and at this pointed, laughed and dampened Kikuoka’s mood.

  “I’ll advise you not to. This guy’s «topics of interest» are either dirty or disgusting.”

  “That, that’s too much. I’m rather confident in my travel experiences in southeast Asia…oh well, let’s talk about this first.”

  Kikuoka took out a tablet PC from his office bag, and then touched the screen with his long fingers.

  Shino’s body tensed up slightly as she got ready to hear what this person, who looked like a teacher, had to say.

  Of course, she wanted to know all about this «Death Gun» incident. However, at the bottom of her heart, there was a slight voice muttering that she didn’t want anything more to do with this.

  Perhaps a certain part deep within her still trusted Shinkawa Kyouji. Even when that terrifying syringe was placed at her neck, Shino still couldn’t hate Kyouji completely, and neither could she give up on all her feelings for him. That person wasn’t the real him, something that hacked into his mind caused him to do this—Shino still believed in this saying.

  It’s been about 40 hours since what happened on Sunday night.

  That night—as Shino was prompted by Kirito to go to the bathroom to wash her face and change clothes, the police arrived at her house.

  Shinkawa Kyouji, whose head suffered heavy trauma and was vaguely conscious, was immediately arrested and then sent to the hospital by ambulance.

  For safety reasons, Shino and Kirito were sent to another hospital and made to take a mandatory checkup. The doctor on duty told Shino that she didn’t have anything other than a few bruises. Soon after, the police started their investigations in the hospital, and she tried to clear her mind that was still blurred by a layer of confusion, and told the police exactly what happened inside the room.

  She herself didn’t notice it, but the doctor diagnosed that her emotional stress level was at its limit, so the police’s investigation stopped at about 2am in the morning. Shino then spent the night in the hospital room, and after waking up at 6am, she refused to accept the doctor’s proposal to return to her apartment and instead went to school.

  Just like that, she groggily went through Monday, which was yesterday. Even though Kyouji continued to skip school, he should still be registered to the school, so Shino thought that the school would know about it. In the end, nobody was talking about it at school.

  As Shino ignored Endo and the rest completely and went back to her apartment, the police was already waiting for her at the door. After changing, Shino and the police went to that hospital yesterday, and Shino took a second diagnosis from the doctor. This time, Shino asked a lot of questions about Kyouji, but the police told her that Kyouji was alright, but he kept quiet while being interrogated.

  Because of «security reasons», the police wanted Shino to remain in the hospital. After eating her dinner and bathing, she made a short call to her grandparents and mother at her old home before sleeping in the hospital room the hospital had prepared for her. The moment she laid on the bed, Shino immediately sank into a deep sleep, and her memory was cut off from there. It felt like she had a long dream, but she couldn’t remember anything about it at all.

  On Tuesday, which was this morning, the policemen again escorted her to her apartment. As she was dropped off, the police told her that her questioning would be over. Even though it was a good thing, how would she know about developments from now on…Shino thought as she got ready for school. Just when she was cutting a tomato for breakfast, her phone suddenly rang. It was from Kirito. The first thing he asked was whether Shino was free after school, and Shino instinctively answered yes.

  Just like that, Shino sat beside Kirito and waited for his «associate»—the man who was a civil servant to speak.

  Kikuoka turned to look up from the tablet PC and then lowered his volume, probably scared that other people may hear it, . “The General Hospital Director’s elder son Shinkawa Shoichi was frail and sick when he was young, and often moved between his house and the hospital ever since he graduated from middle school. He even enrolled in high school a year late…thus, his father had already given up on letting Shoichi take over the family business and pushed this burden onto Kyouji, who was 3 years younger than him. The director then started getting at home tutors for Kyouji and would sometimes even teach him himself, and would leave Shoichi alone. Shoichi wasn’t filled with expectations, but his younger brother was forced into despair because of the huge expectations…that’s what their father said when he was questioned.”

  Kikuoka paused at this moment and wet his lips with coffee.

  Shino looked at the table surface and tried to imagine how the «parents’ expectations» would be like. But no matter what, she just couldn’t imagine that happening.

  Even though both of them were so close, she had never noticed that Kyouji was under so much pressure. I just kept caring about my own stuff and never actually thought of interacting with others truthfully—as Shino realized this again, her chest felt a sharp pain.

  Kikuoka continued,

  “—But even in this situation, the brothers were rather close. Once Shoichi dropped out of high school, he turned to the internet as his heaven and started playing MMORPG, and this interest of his affected his brother. After that, the elder brother ended up being a captive of «Sword Art Online» and was in a coma in his father’s hospital for 2 years. Once he survived and returned, Kyouji viewed him as some sort of idol…or even treated him like at hero.”

  At this moment, Shino noticed that Kirito beside her sounded somewhat tense as he breathed. However, Kikuoka’s deep and calm voice then continued,

  “Once Shoichi survived, he did not mention about what happened in SAO for a while, but after he ended his recuperation and returned home, he started bragging about how he killed many players in that world, how many people were scared of him, this real killer…to Kyouji who wasn’t doing well at school and threatened by the upperclassmen, what Shoichi said didn’t irritate him, but even made him feel relieved and satisfied.”

  “Well…”

  Shino spoke softly. Kikuoka lifted his head and tilted his neck as if to prompt her to continue,

  “These things…were said by Shinkawa-kun, no, Kyouji, right?”

  “No, these were based on conclusions made from the older brother’s testimony. Shoichi continued to talk during the police investigations, and even had guesses about his younger brother’s heart. However, Kyouji was completely different from his brother and remained silent even till now.”

  “I see…”

  Shino really couldn’t imagine what kind of plane Kyouji’s soul was floating on. She even felt that if she logged into GGO, she could see Spiegel waiting there at the bar where they meet up…even though it’s not possible.

  “Ah, please continue??
?”

  Kikuoka nodded his head after hearing Shino’s words and then again glanced at the tablet PC.

  “We have no idea what was the key factor that made the two brothers head down the «road of no return», so we can only guess…but Shoichi should have started playing Gun Gale Online on Kyouji’s suggestion. Shoichi didn’t have any phobia about the VR world that many survivors of SAO would have, but he wasn’t that enthusiastic when he started playing. He noted that instead of practising his skills by fighting against monsters, he might as well wait on the streets to observe other players and imagine ways of killing them. However, ever since he got the «Invisible mantle» from the RMT[3] system, everything changed.”

  “RMT…”

  Shino couldn’t help but say it out. The mantle which Death Gun had, the «Metamaterial Optical Camouflage» ability, should be a really rare item that boss-like monsters would drop at a really low percentage. The price should be much more expensive than the Hecate II.

  “Well…I guess that must be really expensive…”

  After she said that, Kikuoka nodded his head, and then shook his head with a look of disbelief.

  “It’s said to be an estimated value of more than 300,000 yen. However, Shoichi’s would get 500,000 yen in allowance from his father every month.”[4]

  “That means…that large sniper rifle and the Estoc that was made from the rare material were bought through money…good thing that SAO didn’t have a trading area or a RMT…”

  As Kirito muttered this, he didn’t look like he was joking at all. Also, Kikuoka nodded his head seriously and continued,

  “That’s true—ever since Shoichi could make himself disappear with that mantle, he had been practising ways to obscure himself from others. At this moment, he merely felt that it was interesting to tail someone from behind…however, on a certain day, he found that the person he was tailing went into the presidential estate to operate a game terminal. Kyouji had an idea and took out his binoculars to try and look at the screen from behind a pillar. And then, he immediately found that person’s real name and address and other personal particulars in the real world…”