《Sword Art Online: Stoic Reality》


 PRELUDE

    Cold air swept the room as I stared at a blank white ceiling. I was in a bed, not of my ownership previously, but it was allocated to me for the time being. It was comfortable, softly arcing to the shape of my body as it felt my weight be tested upon it, giving up no sorry fight against my body. Upon my body was a soft, thick, and heavy comforter to keep me warm. It was a strange feeling of bliss that I never often got the chance to feel, as I would usually hop straight out of bed and continue with my day rather than lie like this.


    As I continued to stare, I felt boredom slowly crawl upon me. I rubbed my face to wake myself up more than I had before, but this did not affect me¨Calmost to the point of making me want to be asleep again. It was aggravating¨Cwanting to wake up, yet having feelings that made you want to go back to sleep. I felt a subtle urge to be frustrated about it, but I didn¡¯t enact my frustration. Rather, I would go on to simply exhale, and drag myself out of bed, and unto my feet, taking a moment to absorb my surroundings.


    There was a shelf. It was empty, except for one potted rose, a letter encased in an envelope, and it. We don¡¯t talk about it.


    Next, was a small folding desk that sat alone in a corner, next to an outlet. It hosted a small laptop underneath it, the main thing I used for work and study. Directly on my right side was a nightstand. Well, it was directly on my right, at the head of my mattress. It was as wide as the bed and made of planed and finished bamboo strips. Finally adorning the wall next to the door of this room was a basic closet. It housed my clothes on racks and kept some keep-sakes safe within close reach of myself, but it was all in all¨Ca simple closet.


    With my entire bedroom now re-established in my mind, I waded towards the closet, looking to change out of my pajamas, and browsing the few articles of clothing I had, but found nothing akin to my taste at the moment. Somewhat disappointed, I left the room, shutting the door behind me as I went down the traditional Japanese hallway that connected my room to three others.


    Making my way past the doors, I stiffly pulled myself down the stairs connecting the two floors of this abode. Once down, I met face to face with a girl about half a foot shorter than me with black hair about medium length and black eyes.


    ¡°Oh, good morning, Thomas!¡± It was Suguha, who had her usual high-collared red jacket and blue short-shorts on. It was the outfit she wore most often at home, only trading it for a grey schoolgirl outfit whenever it was a school day¨Cwhich it wasn¡¯t. It was a Sunday. June 29th, to be more exact.


    June. . . the month of pure unadulterated heat, here in Japan. It would shoot up to almost 25 degrees during the day, hitting 27 on the occasional warm front. That, and the heat would be getting procedurally worse throughout the rest of the summer, expecting to hit the 31 mark. With this fact in mind, I made a snarky comment.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you¡¯re not burning to death in that jacket.¡±


    ¡°Why would I be? It¡¯s only 20 degrees in here.¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°Summer¡¯s coming up. ¡®D be a shame to see you get a heat flash.¡±


    My voice was low for that entire conversation like I didn¡¯t want to speak for the duration of our brief exchange. Still, it was not over yet, as I had at no point seen Kazuto this entire morning, and I felt a need to question.


    ¡°Where¡¯s your brother? His door wasn¡¯t open. Is he out?¡±


    ¡°You usually don¡¯t ask about Kazuto. What¡¯s with the new interest?¡± Suguha was right. I rarely did ask about Kazuto, but I had a strange need to ask. Was he out with Asuna? The rest of the group? Or maybe he was full-diving?


    I looked away, at the table as I set myself adrift towards it, replying, ¡°I dunno. Just felt like asking. He¡¯s usually spry by now, but he¡¯s sedentary this morning. Do you want me to check on him? See what he¡¯s doing?¡±


    She¡¯d respond with a more positive tone as she continued to look at me with a soft smile grazing her lips.


    ¡°If you¡¯d like to, you¡¯re more than welcome to check on Kazuto. You  are technically a part of the family now.¡±


    I¡¯d simply nod in response, drifting past her and up the stairs once more before stopping halfway, with my left foot up just one step more.


    ¡°Still doesn¡¯t feel like it. I¡¯m out of place here. You know it, I know it, the rest of your family knows it. I¡¯m foreign.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± she¡¯d simply state. ¡°Just because you¡¯re not from Japan, or related to us in any¡­ meaningful way doesn¡¯t mean we don¡¯t care for you. We all do.¡±


    She¡¯d smile at me again, reassuring me the fact that I was cared for. I¡¯d simply nod in response, with a near-silent  ¡°thanks¡± and continue up the stairs until I reached the room owned by Kazuto.


    I reached my hand up to be just below my eye level, turning it into a somewhat uncoupled fist, and softly  knock-knock¡¯d onto his door.


    ¡°...¡±


    A minute would pass before nothing happened. I peeked down the stairs to look at Suguha, shrugging.


    ¡°Probably out by now,¡± I¡¯d go on to state, setting myself en route for downstairs once more.


    ¡°Have you made breakfast, or is that something we¡¯re going to have to do?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ you slept like a rock, so your breakfast is waiting on the table.¡±


    What time did I sleep too? I had no recollection that it was this late in the day already, so I glanced at the nearest clock in the room with only my eyes to see ¡°9:21¡± written all over it.


    To this, I softly went  ¡°Huh,¡± before continuing to the table again and sitting down to eat.


    It wasn¡¯t long before I had finished the morning breakfast and pleased my stomach. Enjoying myself for another moment in blank-faced bliss. I looked at the same clock I had read before, now reading ¡°9:29.¡± One minute till the clock would strike the halfway mark till the next hour. In a brief moment of exhalation, I would rise to my feet as I did in my bed, and begin a journey adrift to the house bathroom located on this floor. Once at the door, I raised my hand as I did with Kazuto¡¯s door, knocking. Once I confirmed it was empty, I entered, closing the door of wood with metal handles behind me.


    It was elegant, to put it lightly. Elegant in a way that modern housing in 2025 was not usually, considering the droughts of natural material within the past half-decade or so. Bamboo strips akin to my nightstand lined almost every corner of the primary area of the bathroom. The only exceptions of this material were the shower and bath. Of which were tiled in beautifully stained porcelain, but hidden behind a door of wood and paper, shown only by a light inside said room.


    After taking in the room, I walked to the bathroom sink, looking down into the bowl topped by a modern stainless steel rectangle pour-over faucet, resembling bamboo taps only in design.


    Just beyond taking in the bathroom, I leaned down and turned on the faucet, cupping some water in my hands. Once I had a fair amount in my palms, I scrubbed it onto my face, looking up into the mirror, and seeing just how wet my face had become.


    I scoffed like I was looking at a fraud.


    My face looked only a bit like the rest of the Kirigayas, yet I had their last name. My face was of Western descent¨Cmore specifically Canadian¨Cand I had little to no features resembling the Kirigaya bloodline besides my black hair.


    My irises were red, almost  pure red. It was a weirdly special feature of my bloodline, the Trenor bloodline. Every single family member who got married and had kids only did so with someone with beautiful red eyes, just like mine.


    But aside from my eyes, was the occasional scar from scratching myself too much, and the blank expression I wore constantly. That expression, or lack thereof. It never went away, even if I forced myself to smile, frown, or anything. I don¡¯t even know why I didn¡¯t react to anything, in the past, or now.


    "Hey, I''m back!"


    Kazuto. I didn''t know what he had, but I might as well see him. So I dried my mug exponentially quicker than I had walked in and stepped out to see him.


    He had a couple of bags in his hands, with the occasional grocery peeking its head out.


    "Thomas, hey! Help me out, will ya?"


    I nodded, going on to help Kazuto with putting away the groceries.


    During our chore, I decided to speak up, commenting on his absence earlier. "You were gone when I woke up. What were you up to?"


    "We needed groceries, Trey. What else was I supposed to do, grow them?"


    He made a fair point. We didn¡¯t have a specific garden here. To get food, one of us had to get our groceries at a store nearby to us.


    "...Fair enough."


    Polygons fly in hundreds of directions as an ugly creature explodes into thin air. What was once there¨Ca weak boar with a brick wall for a face¨Cwas gone, likely to never come back to this exact same spot as another mob for hours, maybe days.


    The system that governed Sword Art Online''s monsters is the exact same as it is here. ALfheim Online. Well, that wouldn¡¯t be entirely true. I was in ALfheim Online, but I was staged inside the fields of Floor 15, with waving wheat plants glowing in the orange sun.


    It was late in the afternoon. The sun was just starting to become visible through the tall ceiling and farmed grounds of Floor 15 of New Aincrad. It was a sight I relished. I hadn¡¯t seen it in over half a year¨Cthe strange beauty of digital sunsets. That perfect color pallet of orange faded into an estranged yet perfect pink, the ¡°heat¡± of the sun setting onto my face, and warming up my clothes a little.


    My face was like my usual self¨Cbasically exactly as I did in Sword Art Online¨Cand my outfit was the same too.


    A tight black shirt accented with a line of gold in the middle, going all the way down until the end of the shirt. Three golden X stitches kept the shirt tight against my polygonal skin and toned chest, and a bit more golden linework at my collar, which almost hid the full extent of my neck.


    Behind my back, was a low, average-length scabbard of gold on a black background, which staged a sword of a mythical black material .  The blade was black, darker than the night sky. The handle and guard were black and nearly annoying pure red, respectively.


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    A pair of black pants with golden lines on the front and back of my legs were hidden at my waistline by a thick black leather belt with my solid black item pouch. On the bottom of all of that, was a pair of simple black boots with nothing fancy on them.


    But that''s just what was underneath. Atop my entire outfit sat a lengthy red cloak that when wrapped around me showed only my head and boots, leaving everything else under it a mystery to most.


    Oh, right, my head. I chose Cait Sith as my race. Surprising, isn¡¯t it? The guy who doesn¡¯t display emotion decides to be a catboy in a video game. ¡­It wasn¡¯t for the ears. It was for the movement abilities. Cait Siths have the highest movement state in ALfheim Online, and the ability to wall-run for lengthy periods made it my optimal choice for my play style.


    ¡°Zenith!¡±


    I heard my avatar''s name being called out, feeling the oddity of a cat ear pointing in the direction of my caller. I swore I could recognize the voice, but I looked behind myself just to double-check.


    As my torso to my head twisted to look behind the direction my feet were pointing in, my gaze met with Kazu- Kirito¡¯s eyes. The black nothingness within his irises called out my name as they continued to gander at me. His flat black hair just on top and a wide grin made almost everyone seem to smile.


    ¡°Hey. What do you need?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, I just wanted to see what you were up to. You seem lonely all by yourself, anyway. Wanna change that?¡±


    ¡°Maybe another day,¡± I uttered, declining his obvious offer to have digital drinks tonight.


    ¡°Besides. It¡¯s¡¯a school night.¡±


    Kirito sighed, slumping his shoulders like I was the biggest party pooper in all of Japan.


    ¡°Right¡­¡± He¡¯d only whisper.


    I looked at him as he walked up to me. Shoulder to shoulder now as we faced the falling sun¨Clike watching an angel fall from their graceful podium.


    To break the silence of brothers that weren¡¯t meant to be, I asked Kirito a question of reflection.


    ¡°What do you think, about all the stuff you and I have gone through?¡±


    ¡°Stuff happens. Some people make the best of it, some people don¡¯t.¡±


    I snorted at his response.


    ¡°You make a fair point. But you made significantly better of what happened."


    "..."


    A moment of silence passed. Kirito standing next to me as the Alfheim moon rose from its hidden chambers. The light glimmered showing blue onto our backs, setting in with the cold.


    It was strange to stand with a man I called my brother. My real brother was dead¨Ca mere memory now,¨Cbut both shared qualities of one another.


    For example, their proficiency in computers was unbridled by anyone else I had known within the past while. Another thing was the appearance. Sometimes if my vision was fuzzy, I''d see Kazuto as my own related flesh and blood. But when I''d rub my eyes to clear my vision, I would come to see that he was the same Kazuto I remembered seeing daily for the past three months, instead of my brother.


    "You got any plans, bro?" Kirito asked me, putting his left arm over my shoulders and neck, and pulling me in.


    "Go back to my spot and sleep. That''s about it, really."


    "Hey, you do you! I''ll catch you on the flip side!" He waved his hand around a little at my shoulder before pulling me in closer and just under his head, digging his knuckle straight into my skull, between these stupid cat ears.


    After finally escaping his grasp, I pushed him away, blowing a bit of wind out my nose.


    "See you later, Kirito."


    He smiled at me, waving as the black-grey wings on the back of his avatar began to flutter. Soon enough, he was granted flight, and his body shot away to the North where the town was, and I was alone again. All alone in that field.


    Having suckered up myself to finally move, I began to feel a little part of my back begin to twitch and move. As I continued, I felt the golden wings of Cait Siths emerging from my upper back, moving ever so slightly. Knowing that the wings were finally there, I twitched those areas more and more until my body lifted from the ground and set my feet dangling amid the air.


    "And¡­"


    I shifted my body forward ever so slightly. The weight of my figure began to point my chest down to the floor when all of a sudden¡­


    "GO!"


    FWUSHHHHHH!


    The wind blew past my face and wriggled my hair as I forced my acceleration to the maximum. The feeling was oddly immense. I could look down and see a blur of blue wheat blades until I reached the end of Aincrad, flying just outside that big, dark gray egg-shaped castle. It was always a weird feeling to see Aincrad¨Cor rather New Aincrad¨Cfrom beyond the floors. You would have never really truly understood the scale of that castle until you looked at it from the outside.


    "I''ll see you soon, kid," I uttered to myself.


    About 10 minutes would pass before I saw the resemblance of my player home¨Ca white, rectangular concrete house topped with a torch-lit patio-style roof¨Camong a short string of other houses akin to it, but varying in complexity. It was a little crop that myself, Asuna, Lizbeth, Kirito, and Klein had purchased as we lay in wait for the rest of the floors of New Aincrad to open up so we could attain our original player homes. Not to mention the fact that we couldn¡¯t even bait the castle by flying up the side. When you¡¯d reach the ceiling of the final unlocked floor on the outside, you¡¯d have your wings disabled for a minute, sending you into freefall. It was needless to say, but every time I entered that freefall, I swore I felt warmth on my pants  from the other side.


    I finally closed in on the lawn of my current in-game abode and being about 25 feet overhead, I called my wings away, sending me into a brief fall. I managed to catch myself on the balls of my feet, putting a hand down to relieve a bit more of the fall. Players in Alfheim are lighter than they are in the real world, but it was still instinct at play. The human mind always tries to anticipate a fall with your hands first, anyway.


    I put my body up into a vertical position once again and began to go step by step to my front door, hearing the subtle crunching of grass blades under my feet. Once I had arrived at the entrance¨Ca brown wooden door with a golden handle¨CI put my hand on the doorknob and opened it to a room of simple furnishings.


    The first thing of note was the layout. It was essentially two connected squares, with one being ever so slightly smaller than the other, and is designated to the kitchen.


    So, I slept in a bed in the common space.


    The house was small, and kind of cramped when Lisbeth, Silica, Kirito, Asuna, and the others were all here, but it was still comfy. I never really offered any parties, they¡¯d just come over to hang out. I didn¡¯t really have a reason to kick them out, either. They¡¯d usually just ask me questions or crash out at my place when they¡¯d sleep log out.


    To start on the furnishings, there was a simple living room setup that sat in the middle of the common space. The couch on the back side of the house was black, and a wooden coffee table with a single book sat in front of it.  Pale Fire. One of my favorite novels. I had managed to import the asset into the game with the permission of both the GM and Yui¨CKirito¡¯s AI daughter..thing. It was a hell of a task, transcribing every single printed word into a file format, and into Japanese, just in case my friends had a sudden knack for reading.


    Oh, and not to mention, the one black recliner that sat opposite on the right corner of the table.


    Directly next to the door, pushed against the wall, was my bed. A simple, white-sheeted bed sat low on the floor. It was comfortable, rather obviously. I had already put in the exact parameters I liked for my sleeping experience. Every single thing in this house was simple but tailored exactly to my liking. I was numb, sure, but I still had my complexities.


    I groaned, whipping open my menu, putting my cloak away to leave my normal-ish appearance, and simply splayed myself on my bed.


    A groan escaped from my throat. Exhaustion that had been piling up from the past hours of hunting and killing mobs over and over again.


    I felt my tail softly whipping itself around my left side, before it then came to stop, resting on the bed.


    I stared up into my clay-like concrete ceiling just like I did this morning in real space. It was like coming back to that exact moment once more. And there, I breathed out a sigh.


    But my peace was short-lived.


    Knock-knock, knock.


    ¡°Zenith? It¡¯s Asuna.¡±


    That sweet voice rang throughout my ears as it had done so many times before. It was like listening to the sounds of morning birds. Pure utter bliss. But as to why she came to me, instead of going to Kirito¡­ It¡¯s beyond my reasoning, maybe hers too. So, I suckered myself up, and let her in.


    ¡°It¡¯s unlocked. I just got here,¡± I announced, not bothering to get up to look at the door as it opened, then closed. That brief moment of moonlight that entered my home, cast a shadow of Asuna on the back wall.


    I looked at the shadow, then at her. Asuna¡¯s hair was a perfect aquatic blue, which seemed to never end unless you looked at her waist. Her eyes were the same color, large and welcoming as always. She had a gentle face, elf ears on either side, and a smile that caressed even my black heart.


    She had an outfit reminiscent of a dress, with separations on her arms and wrists, and everything accented in blue on a white background. She also had dark blue thigh-highs, with a simple white band around the top. And, a pair of white boots with basic accents to finish. She was¨Cto most¨Cthe definition of pure beauty back in Sword Art Online. And that was still true, even two years after she could see her 17-year-old face in the mirror now.


    ¡°I see you¡¯re being as lazy as ever,¡± Asuna teased, turning on one of the lights with a purple menu that appeared with a wave of her left middle and index finger.


    ¡°I¡¯m not lazy. I just didn¡¯t feel like going out for drinks.¡±


    She scoffed, smirking in response.


    ¡°Yeah right.¡±


    She then set herself adrift towards me. Well, more accurately, my bed. She took herself and sat directly next to the pillow that my head lay on, looking down at me.


    ¡°You look so different as a Cait Sith, you know that? Like a completely different Thomas.¡±


    ¡°Is that supposed to mean something, Asuna?¡±


    She only smiled and planted her left hand on my head, which made my ¡®ears¡¯ instinctively move to accommodate her.


    ¡°Nope. Nothing at all.¡±


    I stayed exactly where I was, almost letting her do as she pleased, but all she did was smile at me and rub my head. Not even bothering to interrupt this estranged silence for three minutes straight.


    ¡°Why¡¯d you come here anyway? To talk my head off while I stare in jealousy, to admire my weird look as a Cait Sith, or¡­ something else?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ no. I had a question. A more serious one.¡±


    She stopped, almost as if contemplating if she should even ask what could come next out of her mouth. As if it would cause something in me to go ballistic¨Cwhich she has seen before.


    ¡°What happened to your parents?¡±


    I looked at her for a moment of pause before uttering another sound from my mouth.


    ¡°That¡¯s it? That¡¯s all you wanna know?¡±


    She nodded, witnessing me get up from my bedded shackles and pace over to a ladder connected to a wooden hatch. I grabbed the sides of the ladder, stepping up, and up, and up, until¡­


    ¡°You comin¡¯ or what?¡±


    Crickets chirp in the dark moonlight. Some 10 miles away, Alne¨Cthe main city of Alfheim¨Cshows its nighttime lights. It was practically a beacon from here, tracing rays for miles and miles more, with its iconic tree sitting in the middle. Another two miles away, was a small player-run renegade village where I¡¯d often go for my simpler needs, or just to take in the air.


    I was sitting on a couch on the top of my patio-like roof. My hands were simply cupped together in my lap as Asuna took her seat in front of me¨Canother couch exactly like it, and the one downstairs.


    ¡°How much do you want to know?¡± I simply asked, staring at her with a blank expression.


    ¡°As much as you¡¯re willing to tell me¡­¡±


    It was surprising to see this request from her. She¡¯d often never ask me much of anything. I always thought she was just afraid to tick me off in the wrong manner, but this? This was new.


    ¡°Alright, but I''ll only say it once."


    She simply nodded, priming her ears for listening.


    I looked at the floor, trying to find the correct words to start my story, before¡­


    ¡°You know I¡¯m not from Tokyo. Neither were my parents. We all came from this spot in northern Canada called Yellowknife. It was nice. Some nights in Winter, you could watch the northern lights, like¡­ God had summoned tendrils of light to grace my eyes on those cold-ass nights.¡±


    I felt a wink of a smile, but it was futile, as my face returned to stoicism.


    ¡°But we had to move when I was ten because my father got an offer from Kayaba. I didn¡¯t want to go away. I remember sobbing as I watched my friends turn to ants in my mom¡¯s back window. All my friends were gone at that moment. Never to see my face again.¡±


    ¡°And when you got to Japan..?¡±


    ¡°I was kinda like I am now. Quiet. Self-kept."


    I shifted a little on that couch, leaning over to rest my head on the armrest, my body lying on the cushions.


    ¡°I woke up from Sword Art Online with no one at my side."


    She seemed to shriek at how calmly I said it. Like she had expected me to be shocked or at least distraught, but¡­ nothing came to my face. Just the simple, continued stoic expression.


    We both sat there for what seemed to feel like a literal eternity, exchanging the occasional glance. Asuna looked distraught like she was talking with a completely different person than the one that she had become friends with.


    ¡°Chilling, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    She nodded in response.


    ¡°You can leave now. I''ve got to go to bed, anyway."


    I rose to my feet, rolling my head along my shoulders as I made my way to the open hatch in the corner of the roof. But before I could make it, I felt a hand tug on my wrist, forcing me to a stop. I looked at the hand, then the person connecting to it. It was Asuna, looking up at me with an almost begging face.


    ¡°Please¡­ Let me help you¡­¡±


    I was stunned. I casually told her a story of how everything I had was gone and now, she¡­


    ¡°I want to protect you, Thomas¡­ You¡¯re the final pillar of your family! I can''t let you go¡­"


    I felt this idiotic face of surprise rub onto my face. My mouth was agape and her eyes glimmered in moonlit tears. She was moved, ever so clearly.


    To this, I only smiled ever so slightly and spoke once more.


    ¡°Alright. Just don¡¯t forget about the man you dedicated yourself to, okay?¡±


    She smiled, practically dragging me into her arms. The embrace she pulled me into was warmer than anything I had ever felt. Warmer than a midnight campfire, warmer than the sun, warmer than any conceivable indoor heater. And during the embrace, amidst gold-blue moonlight, she spoke two words.


    ¡°I won¡¯t."

 Chapter 1: The Summoning

    Kuh-tun, Kuh-tun, Kuh-tun, Kuh-tun.


    I felt the iron wheels of the train car trod over minute gaps in train tracks under my feet, going just under 100 kilometers an hour. Watching buildings whizz by depending on distance wasn¡¯t a view I¡¯d get to see often, especially not in real space. Because I usually just traveled to school with Kazuto via hitching a ride on the back of his bike.


    The train car was empty, as well as the next one and the one after that, all the way down to the opposite side of the train. In summary, it was just me and a few railmen on board.


    This site wasn¡¯t often, but what was even less often was getting on this rail line, the Chiyoda line, headed towards the Setagaya ward, southeast of where I lived.


    Aside from my heading, I was leaning my weight on my left shoulder on an ad board displaying bright colors that lit the left side of my face as I stared out into Tokyo¡¯s cityscape.


    Over the past six months, things have been improving to a degree. The friendships I had gained from meeting Kazuto¨Cincluding Lizbeth, Silica, Klein, Agil, and arguably most importantly, Asuna¨Chad been strengthened from just a sort of ¡®people I talk to¡¯ status, moving up into ¡®actual friend¡¯ territory. My mood was raised almost to a new record within the past year: a very,  very  slight smile of happiness, seen in part only by Asuna.


    As I kept myself in ponderance, something jumped out at me as the entire interior train wall flashed with color. Circling a sleek object designed to go around a left ear and behind a head. Under the item was the word "AUGMA" and a release date of late Winter, which, coincidentally, was just a couple of months from now.


    After getting off the train, I took a brisk walk through Chiyoda, making lefts and rights, crossing crosswalks, and glancing at the walls displaying a fresh new product, but as a massive captivating screen, drawing others in. It was hard for me to pull my eyes away at first, but after kicking my brain back into gear, I was on my way again.


    The entire walk took upwards of fifteen minutes, but before I knew it, I was face to face with a large building plastered with glass walls and pearl-colored concrete to fortify the structure.


    Two sliding doors opened for me, letting the scent of disinfectant nearly shatter my sense of smell upon the first whiff. The light breeze from the door made my coat sway a little bit, but it was nonexistent inside the building. Looking around the hospital brought back memories of my rehab almost a year back, not to the hundred-or-so interactions of a certain nurse taking good care of me at my most vulnerable point.


    I had a requirement to be grateful to this facility. If not, I felt as if the particular nurse would hunt me in my sleep.


    After consulting the front desk for a minute or so, I was instructed to go up an elevator, down the hall, and swipe the card in a specific room.


    As the door slid open with mechanical ease, my eyes met with those of a beautiful woman. Plump features where it mattered most, a face gentle yet like one of a panther, all wrapped neatly into a nurse''s scrubs.


    "You''re late," commented a male voice that was lying on one of the two gel beds. "Which is a surprise."


    I recognized it instantly as Kazuto and shot back.


    "Whoo. Let''s get this over with.."


    "Hold on, Trey!" I stopped, hearing my middle name commanded to me by a pretty voice.


    My full name is¨Cor rather was¨C"Thomas Trey Trenor," a trope carried down throughout my family history. For upwards of 300 years, naming the men of the family with three T''s as their initials was a common tradition. As unromantic as the middle and last names "Trey" and "Trenor" were, the initials were easy to jot down. Only taking one horizontal line and three vertical lines underneath to complete all three initials. This was the only perk.


    Aside from that, my name wasn''t easily pronounced by those who spoke only Japanese. To compensate, I personally translated it to "Tamasu Tarei Torenoru," which  definitely rolls off the tongue well. Not to mention my in-game name, which was usually pronounced "Shineffu."


    The nurse with fine features walked up to me, a great smile framing just above her chin.


    "Look at you! You''ve gotten taller!"


    Or she got shorter, considering the fact that my height hadn''t wavered from around 174 centimeters since I was 15.


    "Can''t complain," I simply said before jolting slightly as she felt my right forearm.


    "Damn, kid! You''ve got some muscle on, too!"


    I instantly glanced down at the nametag on her scrubs and recognized the name. Hell, I knew who it was before she even walked up to me. It was my former rehab nurse and caretaker before I got taken in by the Kirigaya family, Nurse Aki. Despite my resilient nature to emotions, she has this weird power to pull me in and get me affectionate for no apparent reason.


    "Eat heavy, lift heavy, I guess. Sooner or later, I''ll be as big as "The Wall." What do you think, bro? Think I could take Agil?" I pounded from Aki to Kazuto, only him knowing who "The Wall" was. I heard a brief moment of laughter before a cough interrupted him, then it was back to silence.


    After mumbling to myself for a moment, I looked at Aki.


    "Have you been told what we''re in for?"


    "Oh, just some network research thingy. As far as he knows, your brother said he would be in for a few hours. You, though¡­"


    "We''ll be in for the same period of time. We''ve got a little bit of a plan sorted out."


    Said plan was light on preparation, but it would be for the time being until we could get more information about our target.


    Aki took a step back from me, beaming with a smile.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s good to see you again, kid!¡±


    ¡°You too,¡± I replied, stepping deeper into the hospital room, finally noticing that the door had closed long ago.


    With the upper half of my body stripped to bare skin, Aki briefly admired how far her patient had come from being some scrawny kid¨Cthat kid being me. I snapped her back to reality, asking her to hurry with the setup.


    Before I knew it, I was lying down on a gently cooled gel bed with a dim tint over my vision. I had the Amusphere that Kikuoka had prepared for me on my head. A soft chime sounded in my ears, signaling to me that it was ready to begin.


    After my eyes briefly danced at the ceiling, I took a deep breath and then gazed at Aki.


    By now, Kazuto had turned into Kirito on the other side. Knowing him, he was probably faffing around with the fact that his avatar was heavier than it was in The Land of Fairies.


    ¡°Anything else I need to know?¡± My monotone asked, probing any last details I could get out of the only woman in the room.


    ¡°Nope, that¡¯s everything! And just like Kazuto, don¡¯t worry about over here!¡±


    That statement just made me worry. Kazuto had legal protections because he was a minor, but me, on the other hand? Being 18 meant I was basically fair game if my basic understanding of Japanese Intercourse Law was anything to go by.


    Brushing that aside, I stared at the ceiling tiles again and said the command that severed the link from my real body.


    ¡°Link Start.¡±


    Rain clattered against every surface it could get to. Path traced light reflected and refracted in hundreds of ways per second across my vision, spanning almost every possible color. Every step I took crashed into a shallow puddle, spilling a little bit of water around the bottom of my combat boots.


    Tens of people passed me by every few seconds, talking to nobody in front of them. Most of these people were in voice chats with their squadrons. Chatter wasn¡¯t the only thing in my ears, though. All around me, I heard multiple genres of music at one time, as clubs, bars, and street vendors were collectively competing for my attention with catchy music and blazing lights.


    This was CCD Glocken, or the Cyber City District. Every square inch of this area was coated in a dystopian undertone as if the city hated you. For some, the world alone drew them in. For others, it was the gunfights in other districts. And for very few, it was a combination of every single possible element of this world. For them, it went on to create intoxication and addiction to Gun Gale Online.


    My eyes had no interest in engaging with virtual gentlemen''s clubs, so they stayed on a black menu in front of me.


    I had walked out of my avatar''s apartment building, which was more like societies in itself. Scattered around Glocken, large vertical structures erected from the street, with a primary color for the exterior. There were six in total planted in each primary district.


    Inside each of these massive buildings¨Cknown as Vertically Integrated Cities, or VICs¨Cwere well over 500 apartments and countless street vendors. They were effectively doing the same as vendors on the main streets of Glocken.


    I owned a penthouse atop the second VIC within the entirety of Glocken. I had the credits to do so because of my placement in the previous Bullet of Bullets. Not to mention my consistent revenue stream from hitting major player bounties.


    Within 15 minutes, I reached the center of Glocken, the general''s office. I knew that Kirito would spawn here, as it was his first time within GGO, but to my surprise¡­


    "Where the hell is he?" I wondered to nobody. All around me were well over 100 people, which would make this significantly more difficult.


    After probing questions to a couple of people, I had no leads. They mentioned this girl with black hair, but it wasn''t Kirito. The Seed Package wouldn''t allow for players to have the opposite sex of which they actually were. This was determined with a brainwave scan, in which the system decided whether the user was male or female, and rarely ever failed. If it did, the user was one of two things: a tomboy or a straight-up trap, in the scenarios only I experienced.


    I scratched the back of my head, still confused about where Kirito could have wandered off to, and decided to start walking again.


    If I were going to find Kirito, I would have to think like Kirito.


    I wandered around city streets for well over thirty minutes. Not a single person I saw resembled anything close to Kirito. By now, I had walked almost all of the streets within a quarter mile of the center of the general''s office. I had managed to spot a girl with alluring blue hair framing the sides of her face. After asking her about Kirito, using the description of "wears all black" and "has short hair," I got nothing more than a shrug before she went on her way.


    "Dammit¡­" I cursed under my breath, pinching the bridge of my nose.


    I saw the cold black street stricken with water and my avatar as I looked down. I had personalized my face to resemble my own, but not by much. Someone who compared me and my avatar would only see the occasional similarities, as my appearance was significantly more Japanese. Not to mention, my hair was red, the color the same as my eyes. Running theme, blah blah blah. My clothing and armor were nothing short of sub-par. It was top-grade but light in weight.


    Most, if not all, players had extremely stylized clothing to go along with the dystopian setting. The motto for battle-fashion for GGO was¨Cabove all else¨C"Substance over Style," and took heavily after neo-militarism. It was a game set in an age of horrid conditions for conventional life. It just made sense that most went with a sharp, futuristic look.


    I was no exception but with a greatly reversed approach. Most of my clothing was black syn-leather. Across multiple surfaces in my clothing, diagonal red light strips were stretched across the shafts of my limbs. Under the jacket was thin, bullet-resistant armor and a plain black shirt.


    As I looked back up around the crowds, I noticed a few people staring at me. I felt like I knew why they were staring for a variety of reasons. Still, I decided to walk away anyway, not to attract any more attention.


    ¡°Hey, Zenith!¡± Called a female voice.


    I whipped around to see a girl with long brown hair running towards me. She had the friend indicator next to her name. She also had the same fashion sense as me but decided on a heavier armor-based look as opposed to my leather. It was based more on an edgy orange than black and red.


    ¡°It¡¯s been forever since I¡¯ve seen you! Where have you been?!¡±


    I scoffed, ¡°Life.¡±


    This was Leona, my only friend who played GGO regularly. Real name: Oyogu Sakana¨Cor ¡°swimming fish.¡± Apart from playing the same VR-MMO-RPG, we shared a few things. Firstly, we were trapped in Sword Art Online, dubbed ¡°SAO Survivors,¡± just like the rest of my friends. This also meant that we went to the same school together and had quite a few classes with one another. She was also the same age as me, almost down to the day, but she was a little older. The final similarity was, surprisingly, our interest in music. I played drums, she strummed guitar and sang.


    "You know that was a serious question!"


    "Yeah, yeah," I swiftly replied, pulling the edge of my right lip into a soft grin.


    "Anyway, I''ve just been busy. Sifting through apartments, school work, columbarium visits, the youzhe." I kept walking as a slightly shorter Leona walked beside me.


    "Right, right- Anyway! You''re gonna sign up for the BoB, right!?" Leona asked with anticipation. She was excited to see if I would enter into the Bullet of Bullets 3 tournament.


    "''Course I am. Placed third last time, might as well shoot for first this round."


    She jumped a little bit, getting the answer she was hoping for.


    At this point, our avatars were soaked in virtual rain. We felt biting cold seep into our fingers and stuffed our hands in our respective jacket pockets. Our hair was slightly soppy as if it were a mop. We quickly made haste for a short glass overhang next to the city street, a bus stop.


    Our conversation went on for longer than I expected. Leona and I had talked for long enough that an NPC-operated bus had come to pick us up. We noticed it was going for City Hall, which was lucky.


    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Speeding streetlights came to an abrupt stop. The bus parked itself on the side of the road, allowing the doors to splay open. We had made it to City Hall just within the nick of time, too.


    City Hall was an intricately designed building. The exterior was covered in intersecting lines marking its glass sides as it stretched miles into the sky.


    The buildings within a mile of city hall stretched almost as high but quickly tapered off. Each one was seamlessly integrated with displays that spanned from street corner to street corner. From asphalt road to asphalt road, even. It was dangerously calling back to real life, of visuals I had seen not an hour ago.


    I wiped the thought away as soon as it came to me. It was a useless detail but all the more coincidental, in a way.


    ¡°Whatcha thinkin¡¯?¡± Leona probed me, leaning forward to get a better look at my face as we stepped out of the bus, side by side.


    ¡°Nothing, nothin¡¯. Those boards in ¡®RL¡¯ are getting damned close to this setting.¡± I glanced around one more time, catching a glimpse of two girls standing together.


    One had blue hair, while the other had black hair, but neither of them was particularly meaningful. I shrugged at a non-existent thought, making my way to some of the same terminals that the two girls were at.


    I stepped in front of the terminal, greeted with rain-slicked black topped by thin white text. It was in perfect Japanese, likely because of the interpreters that ZasCar had hired for the Japan server of GGO.


    My hand nearly instantly went for a small box in the top right of the panel. As I tapped it, I received confirmation that an action had been taken and began to sign up for the BoB. What I had just done was disable the visibility of the terminal to everyone other than myself. Despite not being a techie like Kazuto, I enjoyed my privacy to its fullest. As much as I was surrounded by electronics these days, I took precautions to lessen snooping without my informed consent to do so.


    In fact, within the past ten years, internet traffic has been researched throughout all the primary ISPs of Japan. Around 2015, every residence with an internet connection faster than standard broadband received a notice in the mail informing them of a study. Upon receiving the letter, customers were given the option to opt out of the study online or over the phone, but those who stayed would learn some valuable information.


    Over the next year, internet traffic was monitored throughout thousands of buildings in Tokyo and well over two hundred smaller towns farther inland. At the end of the study, it was found that over 75 percent of internet traffic was solely dedicated to ¡°Personalized Advertisement.¡± These personalized packets contained significantly more data than anyone had ever imagined, going as far as estimating weight, sexual orientation, and even predicting when pregnant women were going into labor.


    As soon as the study was published, regulators were concerned with consumer safety and quickly enacted multiple privacy laws. Those within the political tech space determined that Japan had made its privacy laws significantly tighter than America¡¯s or Canada¡¯s overnight.


    Once my information was entered into the terminal, I tapped a button and saw the screen turn into nothing but a check mark. It then went back to the normal home page.


    ¡°Are ya done?¡± Leona probed me, smiling.


    ¡°Yep, I¡¯m gonna head inside. Are you coming?¡±


    ¡°Well, of course! I gotta see you whoop some ass!¡±


    Leona continued to smile as she replied with excitement and followed behind me into the City Hall into an elevator inside.


    After a short ride of a virtual dropping sensation, I was in the main room of the Block D tournament bracket. Within my immediate vision, it was dim. The only sources of light were vertical neon strips along the walls and the hologram TVs. Said holograms proudly displayed the BoB tournament logo, as well as a friendly reminder of what tournament bracket this room was dedicated to.


    We walked in, immediately feeling the gazes of well over thirty burly men probing us. They all had futuristic military outfits, guns splayed on their chest, back, or hip, and an aura that said, ¡°Go away.¡±


    Aside from the rain and neon, this felt like the true GGO. They are just a bunch of idiots trying to make it to the top. Thankfully for me, I was already there, but I had also topped many others who tried to stop me. In the end, they had every right to hate me.


    Leona and I decided to take a seat in the middle of a lonely booth. Just above the back of the seat, red neon lights contrasted with the purple as we sat down, surrounding us in a blood-like light. In front of us sat an A4-sized metal sheet with a glass front. It was a menu with a display on it. After scrolling through it, I decided on a costly beverage to soak my tongue with. The drink immediately popped out of the table after a hole opened and something lifted it.


    In front of me sat a bourbon glass with an inch of brown whisky at the bottom and a helpful scoop of white ice cream. Leona surprisingly already picked out the same thing and was mushing the ice cream down with a titanium spoon, mixing it with the whiskey.


    I glanced at her for just a second, before grabbing a spoon from the middle of the table and doing the same as her. At the same time, I waved my left hand down to open my menu and fiddled around for a bit to check the tournament bracket.


    After selecting the D-Block bracket, I quickly skimmed for my handle. After finding it, I checked who I was up against first.


    ¡°Never heard of that¡­ Nor does it match.¡±


    ¡°Hm? What doesn¡¯t match?¡± Leona asked me with innocent curiosity.


    I looked at her momentarily, unsure if Kirito had told Leona¨Cor rather, Oyaga¨Cabout the Death Gun assignment today.


    ¡°Nmm.. It¡¯s nothing. Just fresh names on the bracket.¡±


    ¡°Oh, well, I don¡¯t doubt you¡¯ll kick their behinds. Besides, you got third in the last royale anyway!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but you can never know with the new tech people use these days. I¡¯m a speed-strength build, everyone knows that. I¡¯m just waiting for the day some guy finds a way to get some stupid infinite VIT glitch and get in here.¡±


    I rolled my eyes, not wanting to consider the thought any further.


    Glitches and bugs in VR games were ridiculously hard to find for various reasons. I didn¡¯t know the exact reasons as to why, but I had my speculations and good enough inference from Kazuto. First is the human factor. God only knew how many overseen bugs there were within the code of a human programmer. As opposed to a programmer assisted by an AI of some sort who was able to catch these bugs early on, human programmers alone would have to go through trial and error to resolve issues. That wasn¡¯t to say that AI assistance was perfect, either. There were numerous occasions in which AI  didn¡¯t catch obvious bugs and caused major problems for developers.


    The second was rarity. Within VR games, so many variables are going on with the player at one time that are difficult to control. The variables were nearly endless: height, weight, build, inter-pupillary distance.


    And third, very few had the time to glitchhunt.


    ¡°I doubt anyone is going to find anything. They¡¯re American devs, so they triple-check themselves! And they¡¯re the same blood as you!¡±


    I just gave her this look that said: "Are you kidding me?¡± She nearly immediately retracted her comment.


    At the same moment, a woman''s voice came across the sound system.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, the time is now. Soon, the third Bullet of Bullets will begin.¡±


    After her final word, hundreds of shots were fired within the same moment. Cheers and jeers from those within the room also made their notice but were soon drowned out again by the loudspeaker.


    ¡°All participants will be teleported to their respective battlegrounds within thirty seconds. Prepare yourself!¡±


    More shots were fired over the next thirty seconds. I simply scoffed and looked at Leona, who gave me a confident smile.


    ¡°You got this, Zenith!¡±


    I thanked her, then saw as my vision turned blue, then black.


    Nothing surrounded me upon first inspection. Upon my second, I discovered a hologram floating in front of me. The details on it were brief, but it contained useful information: a countdown of when I and my first combatant would be teleported to a randomly generated battlefield, the type of said battlefield, and my opponent.


    I waved my menu open and selected a gun, a sidearm, and another weapon to be equipped on my character.


    The rifle I had selected was an H&K416, specced with an iron sight removal, a shorter stock, and a highly skeletonized exterior made of 16 gauge titanium plating. There was one specific reason for me to choose these frankly bizarre quote-unquote ¡°upgrades:¡± speed. With the removal of weight comes the increased ability to handle weapons, which was true both here and in real life. Titanium added to this benefit, being denser than standard iron steel.


    The iron right removal was also preferred since my playstyle was more often seen to be berserk. This is to say that I would shoot while I ran: run¡¯n¡¯gun if you will. The shorter stock was also taken off by preference since I wanted a snappier feel to waving the gun around while it was pressed against my shoulder.


    The pistol I had equipped was a simple G17. Semi-square design, easy to move around, and small enough to fit into my side holster. I like this pistol a lot, not solely because of the ease of use but also because of how many hours I had put into this gun alone. It had to be well over 500 hours, not to mention the skeletonization mod I had also put onto this gun.


    I also (surprisingly) had a third weapon, but it was merely a backup item in case my rifle or pistol failed me. It was holstered on the inside of the right holster of my jacket, out of sight from even the nosiest of players. I rarely ever heard of people talking about the third weapon, despite me having pulled it out a couple of times in normal combat as a final resort.


    I stared up at the countdown again. It was just 10 seconds until I would be teleported, and the battle would soon commence. I read the name of another player on the hologram in front of me.


    ¡°Killtaker¡­¡±


    It''s an ironic name, simply enough.


    As the number slowly ticked from five to four, I readied myself for what would come next.


    Three.


    Two.


    One.


    Teleport.


    I opened my eyes to a wide field. The sky was blue, but an orange haze sat around everything. The place I had spawned in was randomly generated by the system, being of the ¡°Fielded Plain¡± variety. This type of terrain existed outside of Glocken, but this specific area did not.


    Directly behind me stood a transparent red wall indicating the border of the playing field. This wall extended a kilometer either way, both in the way I currently saw it and perpendicular to it, creating a box that was a square kilometer in size. The only reason I knew this was from my last experience in the previous BOB, having been caught off guard by the strange barrier.


    I looked back towards the open field and began sprinting. I knew that the player going by the alias of Killtaker had to have already been on the move. Getting the jump on someone was a valuable token in any world, meaning you had the immediate advantage of surprise and getting the first shot in.


    I continued my full sprint, checking my 9 and 3 every couple of seconds for a bullet line. But out of nowhere, from my back right, a pale red line zipped across open air, and immediately after¡­


    Whoo-achyoo!


    A bullet the size of a pinky finger divided the air into two. I was forced to immediately stop and drop into a prone position on my back. Many more pale red lines were chased by bullets, burning the open air with the scent of lingering gunpowder mixed with burning metal.


    Just by the smell alone, I could tell he was close, likely less than fifteen meters out, not to mention the immediate shouting that followed.


    ¡°Fuck, how could I miss?! He¡¯s fucking glowing!¡±


    I smirked a little and waited a bit longer. The tall grass around me acted as a good hiding cover, but I knew it wouldn¡¯t last for long.


    I shortly heard the snap, clatter, and thud of a magazine releasing from a gun and falling onto the ground.


    It was time for action. Within half a second, I was already back on my feet and running. I grabbed the H&K from my back, pressing the stock against my right shoulder, and took approximate aim. It wasn¡¯t going to be perfect shooting, but it was all I needed to get the job done.


    When I was within ten meters of Killtaker, I opened fire, continuing my sprint with a murderous thousand-meter stare. He was immediately punctured by a bullet in his shoulder but already had the gun ready to fire again by the time I was just eight meters away.


    I had to make a hard decision within half a second, but intuition already took over. My left hand was magnetized to the inside of my jacket, and I grabbed a cold metal rod. I pulled the rod halfway out of the jacket when my index finger flicked a switch.


    By this time, two bullet lines were already pointing straight at me. By my estimation, it seemed that Killhunter hadn¡¯t yet registered my move into my jacket, which was exactly what I needed.


    The two bullet lines faded as bullets themselves finally trailed them. With one flash at the end of my hand and an arc commanded by my entire arm, both of the bullets disintegrated with a loud electronic growl.


    A blade composed entirely of electricity extended from the rod in my left hand. The blade measured three feet in length and was what is known as a  Photon Sword.  Many had wiped the idea of the use of a sword in a world of guns completely out of existence, but others, such as myself, saw the immaculate potential for builds like no other.


    ¡°No fuckin¡¯ way, man!¡± Killhunter cried out before his avatar dropped to the floor with a glowing red hole in his forehead. My H&K had fired the final shot on the battlefield.


    After holstering my equipment, a large holographic sign of congratulations appeared above me, along with synthetic fanfare. I sighed, letting out a breath that I hadn¡¯t noticed I was holding in. After I cursed under my breath, I noticed my vision going blue again, indicating that a teleport was imminent.


    When I opened my eyes again, I noticed people chattering about a sword. I was initially clueless about what it was for when I immediately realized it was about me.


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t that Zenith?¡±


    ¡°I-I think it was! You hear about that girl over in the F-block?! She was doing the same thing!¡±


    ¡°No way, man! They¡¯re crazy!¡±


    All I did in response was slowly slide down the seat just to where only my eyes peaked above the table.


    Out of nowhere, in particular, I heard a cold, deep voice.


    ¡°Are you the one?¡±


    The voice was deep, deeper than any voice I had ever heard, even mine. My eyes instantly darted towards two red dots across the table. Connected to the red dots like eyes was a metal mask. The mask entirely covered the face of the supposed avatar behind it, who was illuminated by purple and red lighting. A black cloak surrounded him.


    ¡°I said, are you the one?¡±


    ¡°The one who what?¡±


    I felt myself sit up. My body was challenging this mysterious masked player, probing him for more detail. Another couple of seconds of silence passed as he carefully chose his words.


    ¡°Are you the one, known only by his sword?¡±


    I slid out of the booth and stood directly before the masked player. He was shorter than me by a fair amount. I¡¯d peg him at 5¡¯2¡± if I had to.


    ¡°What does it mean to you?¡±


    ¡°More¡­ than you could ever surmise. I also know¡­ that the ¡®Black Swordsman¡¯ is here.¡±


    ¡°Then why the fuck are you probing me, huh?¡±


    The player¡¯s eyes only blinked irregularly as he lifted his left wrist. He pulled the sleeve of his cloak back to his elbow, which was as black as night.


    Within the skin on the elbow, I saw symbolism that would shake any player of  that  game to the core.


    An old western-style coffin opened ever slightly. Outside of the darkness within the coffin, an arm without flesh or muscle reached out, pointing down. Only an ugly face with a grin of pure malice sat on the lid.


    P.T. Adamczyk - I''m a Netrunner | Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (Original Score) </a>


    I was stunned, but my face was unmoving. I blinked a couple of times as I managed to hold myself together with splinters and spit.


    I had surmised something ever since I heard the voice of this same alleged player screaming of judgment and foolish actions. I never thought that my speculation would be true.


    This player- no, this  person  was a member of the first unofficial red guild from Sword Art Online:


    Laughing Coffin.


    During my time within SAO, I had gained an amass of memories, like framed pictures dripping with blood. The two years that over 6,000 former players of that game of death took its toll with very few exceptions. Among those exceptions were those who actively took part in the sin of murder. The murderers with the highest profile throughout all of SAO was the non-official red guild, named Laughing Coffin.


    LC was known for their maniacal methods of torture, then murder. Their leader, PoH¨Cbetter known as Vasago Kazarusu to the Virtual Division¨Chad a history both within Japan and the United States. Overseas, he was a troubled kid, but that¡¯s about as much as I could hear, due to NDAs that Kazuto had signed, but not me.


    All in, PoH was a nasty individual, both then and now. It was only a matter of time before LC came back to bite me after what ¡°we¡± had caused them.


    One night, just over thirty players from top guilds, as well as a few solos¨Cincluding myself¨Cbanded together to form a raid party that would bring the end of Laughing Coffin. All in, the raid achieved our final goal of either imprisoning or having members change their ways was a success, though barely. Over 20 of Laughing Coffin¡¯s members were dead after the fight, leaving just eight to be imprisoned at the Black Iron Palace on the first floor of Aincrad. I killed three of them. Their blood still stains my hands and my mind. Caked, dried, then bonded with super glue. Never to be the same.


    ¡°Wow,¡± I muttered huskily. ¡°You must be stupid to show me that.¡±


    ¡°This¡­ was to show you what you¡¯re up against.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, right. Try me, asshole.¡± I snarled back, keeping a low voice.


    The man in the cloak just snarled.


    ¡°We¡¯ll see, Zenith.¡±


    The cloak just turned around and walked away, disappearing into the dark crowd. I was surprised that I didn¡¯t follow after him.


    I took a moment to sit back down, only to notice that I hadn¡¯t breathed for that entire time. I looked down at the floor, breathing heavily as my eyes trembled. I had to put my fingers up to my neck to ensure that my heart was still beating, but this was just a false sensation.


    Taking a moment to reason that if my heart had stopped, I wouldn¡¯t be in GGO, let alone still registering information given to me by the Amusphere. Only then did I manage to control and calm myself, returning to normal¨Cor something close to normality.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m back!¡± A cheery voice rang out to me on my left. I whipped my head over to see that Leona had logged in again, and her body stopped flashing blue.


    ¡°I had to take a leak. Woah, what happened to you?¡±


    I didn¡¯t account for the fact that I didn¡¯t control my facial expression yet. After shaking my head and returning to a neutral expression, I looked at her again questioningly.


    ¡°Why, what¡¯s up? What do you think happened?¡±


    ¡°Y-.. you looked scared. That¡¯s rare, even for you.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t wrong. The only emotion I regularly displayed was none at all, meaning that she had every right to be concerned about my well-being.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine. Just forget about it.¡±


    She stammered, then agreed to do so.


    As she fell silent, I leaned back in the seat, looking over at her with my head cocked to the side and arms resting on the top of the seat on either side.


    ¡°How long do you think it¡¯s gonna take me? To get to the prelim-final, anyway.¡±


    She made an ¡°mmm¡± of thought, scratching her chin as she had a thinking look on her face.


    ¡°Maybe half an hour, considering your speed?¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± I simply responded.


    ¡°What do you think?¡± I asked Kazuto, leaning on the side of a doorway.


    ¡°Think about what? Death Gun?¡±


    I nodded to his question back at me.


    Kazuto and I were logged into a virtual environment being run on his desktop computer. At first, it was just an ordinary white room, but I had taken the time to log in on a few occasions and spruce up the atmosphere with models and assets available for free on the internet.


    As of right now, the environment looks like a clean, modern apartment with an air of traditional Japan in central Tokyo. Not too big, but not too small, either. It was good enough to host a party of five.


    Kazuto was lying on the couch, scrolling through a menu that was invisible to me. He had a full view of his dual monitor setup back in his room in this virtual environment, making most collaboration between him and me a breeze. Not to mention, Yui was here, too, sitting with Kazuto on the couch.


    I exited the doorway and made my way over to a window facing outside the virtual room, which was connected to a live three-sixty-degree view of Tokyo. It was a little bit blurry but easily lit up the room with multi-colored advertising that contrasted with the warm whites of the room.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, man. All I do know is that we¡¯ve got to find out who it is.¡±


    ¡°We have to remember who it is. Not too many people within Laughing Coffin line up parallel with what Death Gun gives off.¡±


    ¡°And it¡¯s not any of the dead, that¡¯s for sure.¡±


    I just made a small grunt, questioning if Kazuto believed in ghosts before wiping it away as nonsense.


    ¡°We¡¯ll find out tomorrow, Thomas. I know we will.¡± Kazuto looked at me with a smile of reassurance. I didn¡¯t see it, though.


    ¡°I guess,¡± I sighed, looking out the window as my eyes narrowed.

 Chapter 2: Make This Right

    |||||||||||||||||||| - Why She Is Hiding in the Other Man''s Eyes </a>


    Every night in my bed, for the last 99 days, I have dreamed of climbing a castle. The castle is made of pure black steel. Each floor is stacked, one on top of another, supported by four massive pillars. On each floor, there exists an environment similar to those found in nature. Forests dotted with ponds and lakes, frozen wastelands where only a few can survive, and deserts pushing people to their limits.


    The extreme floor was rare, but challenging to navigate. It set a precedent for what was to come next.


    They say the journey matters more than the destination. I would agree, but with a heavy heart.


    The castle I dreamed of climbing was Aincrad, but not set within the newer, safer Alfheim Online. My dreams were set within the horror of Sword Art Online, every single one stricken with blood.


    As much as the horror tugged at my heart and mind to quit dreaming, I couldn¡¯t stop to deny the beauty of the journey that Sword Art Online had taken me through. The scars that had taken form on my figure¨Cboth literally and metaphorically¨Ccrafted me into the person that currently stood before a massive, spiraling staircase.


    The staircase spiraled slowly, but the width of the stairs made it appear much more frightening than I thought before I approached. Each step was sized uniformly from the pillar to the spiraling edge on the left, ensuring one¡¯s safe travel upon every facet of the castle.


    Obsidian step by obsidian step, I made my way up the staircase. It was well over a one-hundred foot climb on these steps alone, but that was nothing in comparison to the sheer mass that was the castle of Aincrad. Every staircase I had conquered up to this point was the same height and took just under three minutes to climb. Time didn¡¯t necessarily matter, not here, anyway.


    Just ten feet from the top, I saw red rays of light shining through an open hole above me. I also saw clouds¨Cthe first instance of sky beyond looking out to the horizon. It was at this moment that I finally knew, even though I had only dreamed of it, I had made it to Aincrad¡¯s pinnacle. The ultimatum of the castle was built on 100 layers stacked like a cake. And now, I was there.


    I climbed for another twenty steps and looked to the direction the light was coming from.


    What I saw far in front of me was nothing short of immense beauty.


    Large square stones paved a pathway straight ahead with stone bridges every three hundred feet. Flower beds, ten feet by twenty feet were spaced just five feet apart, spanning a flat, perfectly cut grassland. A radius of oak trees just a kilometer away. And the most apparent thing of all: a tall castle. But this was no conventional castle, either. This castle was very familiar to me, but not because I knew it. This castle¨Cno, palace, was red with its structure divided up into circles connected by pillars with a conical shape.


    This was the Ruby Palace: the pinnacle of Sword Art Online. My eyes had now become glued to the bright red palace that scattered the sunlight. I could feel a fire in my eyes, not of light, but desire to conquer it. But ultimately, I know I couldn¡¯t.


    ¡°Impressive, isn¡¯t it?¡± I heard a voice not too dissimilar to my own call out behind me. I turned around in response and discovered the appearance of someone also similar. Short black hair, red eyes with a fire of desire, and a red cape swaying in the winds.


    The man walked up to me, bearing striking resemblance.


    To myself.


    "Yeah¡­ Who knew this was up here the whole time?"


    "Kayaba, obviously." The man scoffed, then gave me a hearty pat on the back.


    "C''mon, it''s time."


    "-ake up!... Trey, it''s time to wake up!"


    My eyes immediately snapped open to the sight of Suguha''s puffed cheeks. It took me a moment to realize what had happened since my dream ended¡­or morphed into her voice.


    "What? No time to salivate in joy? C''mon¡­" I teased lightly, sitting up with the sheets falling off of my midriff. Suguha saw me without a shirt and immediately headed for the door.


    "Kazuto''s downstairs, don''t make him wait!.."


    I sat in silence for a moment before I coughed out an "okay" in response.


    Before I knew it, I was downstairs with a jacket, pants, and toque all in the same color¨Cred¨Cand headed for my brother, impatiently tapping his foot.


    ¡°Thomas.¡±


    ¡°Dude, we have a solid five hours ¡®till the tourney! We¡¯ll head to the dive, but I¡¯m getting a bite before we jack in, alright?¡±


    Kazuto groaned  loudly  at my desire for food before an operation this critical. We had this dynamic even back in SAO: I wanted food, but Kazu always wanted to just get something done,  then  get food.


    Either way, we were soon enough headed towards the hospital once again for the second, and hopefully final dive into this sticky situation.


    Shino pulled the bag up onto her back and thanked the small shop owner. She had just bought a cup of yogurt. She was expecting it to be her meal before taking part in the Bullet of Bullets as Sinon.


    She had aspirations for this big battle set on an island from ages past, on ISL Ragnarok. She had been there once before, but now she had a challenge to look forwards to, but before that¡­


    "Asada~! Aaaasadaaaa!"


    Her name was called from an alley directly connected to the street market, but mostly obfuscated from view.


    Shino knew in an instant she shouldn''t gone this far from home just for a cup of yogurt. Either way, she couldn''t fight it now, and stepped into the alleyway, hoping to get it all over with.


    "Asada! So good to see you¡­" Endou''s voice leered at Shino in an attempt to threaten her. Shino almost immediately knew what Endou was trying to pry from Shino: money.


    "I know what you want," Shino stated, not letting Endou get another word in. "And I''m not letting you get it."


    This situation happened time and time again: Endou threatened Shino for money that she didn''t intend to give to her. The start and current point of these robberies was nothing short of a long story, starting even before Shino was a tween.


    Shino had chosen to take the route of being strong with her choice of words on this occasion, but she knew it was fruitless.


    "Oh~? The little bitch wants to play tough this time? Hey, what are you doing here!?"


    Endou''s eyes had leaped from Shino''s figure to just right of her. The face pummeled by makeup burned with anger at someone who didn''t look Japanese.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "What, a man can''t walk past a holdup without getting chastised?" The man on the left spoke in a clearly-joking monotone. The man''s hair was as black as night, his eyes were red like blood, and his outfit was entirely red.


    "I mean, your tactic clearly isn''t working. Your supposed ''bitch'' hasn''t given up a thing." The man began to walk up towards, briefly inspecting Shino before locking eyes with Endou. For the brief moment that the man looked at Shino, she thought that she knew the eyes that man wore. She had never seen irises with such vivid color in  that  hue. There could be  one  person, but that was incredibly unlikely. Coincidence, even.


    "Why you-!" Endou hissed and readied her left fist, clenching it tight enough to pop her fingers.


    She lifted her hand, pulled back, and swung, but her face was caught into a look of terror as he looked up at him. It took Shino a moment to find out what happened, and discovered Endou''s arm twisted just past three-quarters of a rotation to the man''s right.


    He knew clearly where the point was between feeling the twisting and feeling pain, and slowly started to twist farther, one minor rotation at a time.


    Endou''s eyes and vocals trembled as the man leaned down to her height and stared directly in her eyes.


    "Here''s what''s gonna happen," he began in a dark monotone. Endou had finally decided to realize she had a free hand open and sent another fist flying at his left cheek. It stopped just a foot before making contact, and was twisted the same as her other arm, but in the opposite direction.


    Then he continued.


    "You''re gonna delta from this alleyway, find a better spot to hang out, and never come back. Understand?"


    Endou nodded with fierce fear, sweat beading down the side of her neck.


    ¡°Good,¡± the man let go of her arms. ¡°Now get the hell outta here.¡±


    Endou and her group quickly scurried out of the alleyway. Shino haden¡¯t noticed while the man was confronting Endou, but the rest of her group had slowly grown more stressed as the man kept her at bay from doing anything to Shino.


    She¡¯d be lying if she said she wasn¡¯t impressed, not to mention thankful of his action taken with force.


    Just a week ago, Endou and her group had been scared off from a simple, ¡°Over here, Officer! In the alley,¡± from her one and only friend: Kyouji Shinkawa.


    The man looked back at Shino and asked, "They didn''t take anything from you, right?"


    Shino shook her head. "Not this time, at least," she replied quietly, pulling her muffler up just a little bit higher.


    "Well, here''s a word of advice: pick your alleyways wisely,¡± he said blatantly. In fairness, he made a good point. But before Shino knew it, the man turned on his heel and continued in the direction he was going in.


    The wood vinyl door slid to the right after I pressed my keycard against the reader. Kazuto had been in the hospital for hours prior, idling around as if he were trying to find something to do in a blank room.


    Upon my arrival¨Cannounced by the gentle woosh of the sliding door¨CKazuto looked at me through watery eyes. This was a rare sight to see from him, let alone before something so massive like the BoB tourney.


    ¡°What pinched you this time?¡± I semi-sarcastically asked. It was a bad choice.


    ¡°Don¡¯t even, Trey..¡± His eyes looked back to the floor under his head and I saw a tear run down his nose and onto the tiles underneath.


    ¡°Kazu,¡± I sighed, approaching him from his left and planting myself on the bed. ¡°What¡¯s up? You¡¯re clearly not okay.¡±


    Kazuto glanced at me before looking back down and breathed in a sigh.


    ¡°I¡­ I couldn¡¯t sleep¡­ What happened yesterday, it¡­¡±


    ¡°Hurt you?¡± I completed his sentence, to his surprise.


    ¡°You weren¡¯t yourself on the way over here, bro. I knew something was eating at you, something that hadn¡¯t came back in a long time.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not wrong,¡± he said painfully, pulling a meaningless grin at the floor before losing it. ¡°After you left the server, I had to talk to Yui to get myself to sleep. But, now today, sitting here¡­ I can¡¯t remember them¡­¡±


    ¡°Remember who?¡±


    ¡°The people I killed¡­¡± Kazuto¡¯s voice was frozen in pain. I knew not to cut into the wound that Sword Art Online had created. But now was to time to stitch it back together for him, even if it meant mine grew ever larger.


    ¡°You¡¯re not alone. We both did things we didn¡¯t like to do. I robbed people, but you pulled me out of it. If it weren¡¯t for what you did, I¡¯d be dead. Same goes for the people you saved by killing those Laughing Coffin members and putting them in their place. But now¡­¡±


    My voice trailed off and my eyes drifted to the left, looking out of the window.


    ¡°Now we do what we can to make this right.¡± I finished, looking at Kazuto again with a placide look. He knew every fiber of my being was lifting him back up so I could stay in the limelight.


    ¡°Truthfully? I say we grab the hottest iron we can find, storm into the tournament finale, and cut our own path to ending Laughing Coffin¡¯s existence. We do this together, Kazuto. We promised.¡±


    I reached out a hand and grabbed his wrist so that his hand could interlock with my wrist, like a brother''s bond.


    "Yeah¡­ we promised¡­" Kazuto looked up at me and grabbed a hold of my arm, pulling a grin on his lips like he always does.


    "You boys ready?" Aki asked, standing between our beds, looking back and forth between us. After an affirmative nod, we both relaxed our bodies, and collectively called out;


    "Link Start!"


    "Are you ready, Glocken?" A high pitched voice called out over a city-wide sound system. On multiple screens, a girl in neon hyperpop clothing pointed at a virtual camera, as if pointing to an audience. A cheer came shortly after, which sounded like it had just under one million voices behind it.


    "Are you really ready?! Because this show is gonna be: Crazy! As! Hell!" The cheers were even louder as she bounced in rhythm with her words.


    "In thirty minutes, thirty players are gonna shoot each other in the fuckin'' heads to see which player is the best in Gun Gale Online!" Said another girl on the screen in hyperpop attire of a different color. In just the swipe of a finger, the tab that the stream was displaying a in-game view of a player¡¯s perspective was deleted. The browser automatically opened another tab¨Ca forum dedicated as the, ¡°Death Gun Information Repository,¡± with "Death Gun¡± colored in red.


    The eyes connected to the finger, hand, and arm suddenly stopped once a little window popped up on the bottom right of the wide display. It read, ¡°Get ready¡± in Japanese lettering. Then another window, ¡°It¡¯s showtime.¡± After sending back a brief reply, the browser was closed, and folder containing a short list of image and text files was opened.


    The images were of characters taken at odd angles, but still enough to capture their face and general look. In the folder were the addresses of three males and a female that hadn¡¯t been touched or modified since October. They contained a man in a full-face mask, another man with a large sombrero like an old mexican ganger, and another man doused in red light. Directly next to the image of the red haired and eyed man was another person: the only female on the list.


    After inspecting the images and touching the monitor where the girl¡¯s face sat, the computer and monitor were individually turned off and the man left the seat of the chair. Then, he lied down on a bed with a device made of dual rings on his head, and spoke a command to begin a link onto the other side.


    Flashing lights whizzed by and an avatar materialized in the back of a club. Music was blasting the concrete walls with intense pressure. It was a miracle this weren¡¯t his real ears.


    Without giving it another thought, the avatar began to slide through crowds, being oddly mindful of those who were dancing. Purple and blue light reflected off many surfaces, making a cascade of light that bled out towards the thick crowded streets outside. It was immaculate cover. That, and the City Hall was just 15 minutes away. Absolutely nothing was going to stop Death Gun from performing his best¨Cexcept for a pesky red haired swordsman that knew better than to leave default options enabled.


    Katana Zero (Powernerd Remix)</a>


    ¡°Woo! Dance, Zenith!¡± Leona called out to me, bouncing with the beat of intense dance music. I took to standing on the side of the crowd, drinking an alcoholized beer float.


    ¡°I¡¯ll pass. Maybe next time.¡±


    ¡°Booo! You¡¯re no fun, old man!¡±


    No fun my ass. We were located in the CCD Glocken City Hall which had been transformed overnight into a club. Surrounding a dance floor were 30 glass cylinders on platforms that contained beautiful women in airated water.


    To say that the sights that I saw were surreal would be understating it: this was a materialized dream. The way the dancer¡¯s bodies moved in the water was like watching a lava lamp. Unpredictable, but so, so beautiful.


    My train of thought was completely shut off from pursuing more about the women in the tubes as I heard an ear-splitting hyperpop vocalist call out to the club.


    ¡°It¡¯s that tiiiime~! You know what happens now!¡±


    As the girl in hyperpop attire stood in frame of multiple holographic screens. Multiple men cheered at the alluring figure under the outfit, but they knew they would never be heard.


    ¡°Get ready, combatants! The Bullet of Bullets Final Match starts in just thirty seconds! Line up at your pods!¡± Shots upon shots were sent into the ceiling of the club, causing multiple purple windows to show where bullets struck. I simply scoffed at the wasteful use of ammo and began to make my way to one of the pods.


    Upon my arrival to the pod, it became evident that stairs connected the lifted glass tube to the floor. Once I placed my foot on one of the steps, the water was immediately drained from it. The female inside quickly dropped to her feet and turned around, locking her eyes onto me.


    In her eyes, bits of code quickly executed, and she quickly approached me down the stairs.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re second time participant Zenith, I hear? My my, what a strange allure you have~.¡±


    Once she reached my step, she leaned in close with a voice like a perfectly tuned guitar.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be one to disappoint~.¡±


    As she stepped away, I stepped up and entered the circular platform. It was just big enough to fit my body if I had just my wrists pointing out.


    ¡°Alright, players!¡± The hyperpop girl¡¯s voice rang out as the glass tube from before slowly shut itself down on me. At the same time, droplets of water began pouring down on my head, and neon beams of light shot up from the floor below me.


    ¡°Here¡¯s our most likely competitors to win!¡±


    I didn¡¯t bother looking up. The only thing on my mind at the moment was scanning around and attempting to spot Death Gun. All the other 29 tubes had been lowered down at this point, with the bottoms sealed from the outside world. Mine closed tight as I spotted a tube that was shut but with no player inside¡­ It boggled my mind for a moment as I tried to consider the possibility before being taken right back out of it by a high pitched voice.


    ¡°Are you ready?¡±


    A cheer made primarily of men bellowed in my ears.


    ¡°ARE YOU REALLY FUCKIN¡¯ READAYE?!¡±


    An even louder cheer.


    ¡°THEN HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO!!!¡±


    Then everything faded to blue, then black, then¡­


    forest.

 Chapter 3: Overdose

    BOW-BOW-BOW!!! BOWBOWBOWBOW!!!


    Flashes of gunfire lit the large room with light, sound filled the room with thumping blasts. Cheers rang out whenever someone died, though¡­


    ¡°Hell yeah, this is awesome! We should go compete there sometime!¡± Lisbeth cheered with a virtual beer in her hand. Klein cheered with her and they quickly clanked their glasses, chugging with excitement.


    Asuna, Silica, Lisbeth, Yui, and Klein were all sitting in a player home owned by Asuna, which had been moved around to create a cinematic experience. Not to mention, with a great view of the rest of Yggdrasil City.


    Back on the screen, a player with red hair was shown from behind, running at a blisteringly fast pace. His steps were as smooth as glass, his form like an Olympic sprinter, and his sheer focus pinned to a shadow in the distance like a raging bull.


    ¡°Oh shit, there¡¯s Zenith!¡± Klein called out from the back. On the screen, Zenith was running straight for a player he had just identified to be an enemy¨Cbut the enemy didn¡¯t know he was coming. Within just another ten seconds, he would make contact and be able to cut down the unsuspecting idiot who didn¡¯t even know how or when to check their six.


    ¡°Yes, get¡¯im!¡± Lisbeth eagerly spattered, taking some beer out of her mouth with her words.


    Five seconds until contact. Three.. One!


    Below the frame of the camera, Zenith grabbed a metal rod that was just larger than his hand and flicked a switch once it was in view. He held the rod¨Cnow buzzing lightsword¨Cat a deadly horizontal angle, perpendicular to his gaze. In just two steps, Zenith changed the position from the sword from his very left to his zenith. Then when he was just one more step away..


    Bzzz! zzZZZZzzzzz!!


    In just two swipes¨Ca vertical from up to down and a diagonal cut from bottom right to top left¨Cthe enemy had turned around but was immediately cut into three pieces. There was his legs and lower torso, and both sides of his bust and head cut into two. The open wounds were filled with a neon red light that quickly shattered his body into tiny blue shards of glass, making a soft chime with them as well.


    The entire room lit up with excitement. All that could stand in ecstasy did and there was even a great deal of cheering from the screen itself. There was even a faint cheer for their befriended canadian¡­


    ¡°Woo, go Zenith!¡±


    ¡°Haha! Was that Oyaga?¡± Silica asked humorously, in which she got her answer from the screen.


    ¡°I¡¯ll buy you dinner if you wiiin!~¡±


    This was met with a collective chuckle from the room.


    ¡°She¡¯s got something for him, don¡¯tchya think, Asuna? Maybe they¡¯ll become loversss~.¡± Lisbeth teased from the back, which Asuna turned around and commented back, ¡°That¡¯s assuming he ever finds out how many hints she¡¯s giving him! But they would make a nice couple¡­¡±


    Asuna thought it over for a moment before the screen changed away from Zenith and onto another player¨Cthis time with cyan-blue hair.


    The pressure was rising in my chest. If I didn¡¯t manage to find Death Gun¨Cor the person claiming to be the scrawny bastard¨Cthis operation would be completely busted.


    That¡¯s to say that; if I didn¡¯t manage to find the player in question, the supposed killings caused by the mysterious Death Gun would continue happening, and therefore, completely shatter the VRMMORPG genre¡¯s reputation and support. That wasn¡¯t to say that the entire VR gaming sphere would evaporate overnight, just that if this game was taking down in Japan because of fear of continuous murders caused by an anonymous doer, regulation would grip the genre this game occupied by the balls. Or completely rip off its scrotom.


    Either way, I had to continue this fight for two reasons now: one of them being the fact that the person in question was tied to the game of death: Sword Art Online. It couldn¡¯t have been coincidence. I was told by Kazuto that nothing gathered from witness testimony had released information about the most prevalent murder guild known as Laughing Coffin.


    This fight wasn¡¯t over. It was never over.


    I heard three quick beeps in my chest and quickly made for a puck-sized projector in my jacket, setting it on the ground in a secluded area of the forest. Within three seconds, a large projection of an island was laid out in front of me. The projection quite literally the size of me, but made searching for players significantly easier than just looking at the projection from your palm.


    I tapped on a blue dot in the center of a forested area. Above the dot then read a name, ¡°Zenith.¡± Directly next to it, I saw another dot and quickly pulled out my pistol in the cardinal direction of the dot.


    Ta-papapapapap!


    The dot went from red to gray, identifying that the player was now dead¨Cin game. Their body was still safe on the other side, but that was no guarantee at this point in time.


    I sighed in silent momentary prayer for their safety and began scanning the rest of the map.


    Up north was a spannining desert with a city at the northernmost point, in the center was a lengthy forest cut into two by a river that led to a dilapidated city on the west. On the east was a hell scape of a swamp, and spanning the entire south was a tall-grass plain with almost mountainous features. In total, this was the entirety of the secluded Oceania island of ISL Ragnarok, planted just above New Zealand if planted on a world map.


    The lore of this battle-royale map was surprisingly vast, but that was out of my current consideration for thought. My primary objective was finding Death Gun and preventing further damage. I had to do my job. But my job was quickly cut short as I heard blatant beeping below me. It was the transmitter announcing that the location broadcast was quickly ending.


    Upon realization of this, I bent down, grabbed the puck, putting it back in my jacket. Once it was zipped away and secure, I made deadly haste to the city on the west of the island. It was going to be another 10 or so minutes before I would actually make it there, so I had time to evade threats and make a solid b-line.


    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Before I knew it, massive raging towers stood in my path. I could hear gunfire on the inside of the city, light chatter on my left, and overall sensation of wind and pressure.


    This was the city of ISL Ragnarok¨Cheightened and dilapidated.


    For as ruined as it was, most assumed that the city would one day crumble under its own weight after the many battles it had so-far seen. Surprisingly, it didn¡¯t, and it held fast as more shots were put into it. Useless information as of now, but a possible plotpoint in future tournaments.


    I ran into one of the buildings and began organizing my thoughts on how to proceed.


    The first problem on this shit-stained list was figuring out the identity of Death Gun. Not the pseudonym used to idolize him, but that actual player name behind the mask and cloak.


    It had been made evident from that last tournament that solely top dogs had been making it into the final tournament bracket, showcasing the best of the best to the entire world. Some players were absent from this reincarnation of the BoB, primarily because of the fact that the Japanese and American servers were disjointed and forbidden from making connection after some North American players managed to slip into the Japanese servers and cause havoc in the tourney. One player stood out on top, touting only a pistol and a knife, and taking every single player¡¯s name by force.


    In this rendition, he was completely out of the question. North American players had no possible way to connect to Japanese servers with the hefty regulations put on VPN¡¯s over the past few weeks, primarily siting piracy and other illegal activity.


    With the foreigner option out of the way, there was another idea on the table: that one of the newest participants was the supposed Death Gun. All of last night, I had taken the time to comb through the live stream footage and couldn¡¯t find a single instance of someone wearing the cloak and mask in a match. I had lummed over the option that another player had approached me with the outfit in an attempt to spook me, but too many points lined up for it to be that simple of a conclusion.


    Anyway, there were just a few names on the leaderboard this time. Some were well established rising players in the game¨Csuch as Pale Rider and Garrett¨Cbut others that seemed to be completely fresh from the chopping block. One of the only players that fit that bill was a player named ¡°Sterben,¡± which was concluded to be a shitty misspelling of ¡°Steven,¡± so we casted him aside. Besides, looking at his playstyle showed that he played nothing like Death Gun. That wasn¡¯t our guy. So¡­ could he have been a ghost? Was this all a dream? Is this even reality?


    I kept pondering on a tall building¡¯s 30th floor when I heard a voice from behind.


    ¡°This way, Sinon! Be quiet!¡±


    ¡°You tell me that like I¡¯m a child, Kirito!¡±


    I instantly pulled my rifle from over my back and shouldered it on my right before realizing¡­


    ¡°Fuck, Kirito?!¡±


    ¡°Zenith?!¡±


    I couldn¡¯t believe my ears, or my eyes for that fact. As soon as I turned around to face the voice of.. a girl? No, that didn¡¯t match. It was like a twinky-er version of Kirito. Long black hair, face like a young girl, but built like a mid-pubecent boy¡­ or rather the real Kazuto, but shorter and cuter.


    ¡°What the fuck is that, dude? What happened to you, genderbend operation failed?¡±


    ¡°You know I transferred from ALO, Zenith! Knock it off!¡±


    I laughed at the high pitched voice of Kirito, putting away my rifle as I looked to his left and saw a girl with a outfit that was a mix of neomilitarism and a sniper¡¯s needs. The girl¡¯s figure was covered in a skin-tight bodysuit that was laced with hexagonal tiles that was like flexible armor plating. She wore a low-cut leather jacket and shorts that barely went three inches past her butt and onto her thigh. She was short¨Cprobably about five foot and three inches tall¨Cbut held a sniper rifle that was literally as big as her, and had a utility belt that went around the belt-loop of her shorts.


    ¡°Hey, I know you. You¡¯re Sinon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and I know you when you were asking me about this annoyance.¡±


    Sinon¡¯s voice and eyes were like that of a mildly annoyed cat, but still cute enough for almost every single player in the game to lust over her¨Cliterally. I was lucky enough to see a player ask her out on a virtual date whenever we were in a squadron together with another player called Deen.


    ¡°He¡¯s not that bad, just gotta warm up to him.¡±


    ¡°Tell me that when he¡¯s dead!¡±


    ¡°Quit whining, you two! Can we get on the topic of Death Gun now?!¡± Kirito budged in with his ironically chirpy voice and got me and Sinon to listen. We sat down on a circular table and began to listen.


    ¡°In a couple minutes, our transceivers are gonna get a ping from the satellite again. When that happens, we¡¯ll take out our devices and scan the city for the players we assume are Death Gun, got it?¡±


    Sinon and I looked at each other for a moment before looking back towards Kirito and nodding in unison.


    ¡°Alright, until then, you two get acquainted. We¡¯re going to be in this makeshift party for the long run.¡±


    I quickly decided to lie down on the table, making a significant ¡°dump!¡± on impact. It was a wooden table laid in fabric and was meant for card games. ¡­Meaning we were probably in a tall casino. I found this fact ironic¨Cthat gambling could still inhabit the most unsightly places¨Cand moved on from it as I began to sort through my inventory some.


    ¡°You really didn¡¯t organize your stuff earlier today?¡± Sinon probed me with her arms crossed.


    ¡°No, I was out when Kirito wanted to go ahead and dive in immediately.¡±


    She scoffed and moved off the table, leaving me to my inventory window.


    Just a minute later, I heard the same beep that I had heard 15 minutes ago.


    ¡°It¡¯s time, pull ¡®em out!¡±


    We all collectively pulled out our transceivers and held them in our palms.


    ¡°Three¡­¡±


    ¡°Two¡­¡±


    ¡°One!¡±


    Crack De Dam Down The Middle</a>


    The map comprised of a wireframe city in yellow lines. The light casted on our faces as we quickly scanned. I glanced up at Sinon and Kirito who were checking their own map. They seemed to be in tandem, looking for a specific name while I was just looking for anyone that seemed of suspicion.


    A few seconds passed, and I heard a collective, ¡°There!¡± My head jolted back up to see Kirito and Sinon looking at each other, then going back down to double check themselves.


    ¡°What the fuck are you ¡®there-ing¡¯ about? I have no idea who you¡¯re looking for!¡±


    ¡°Jushi X, we think that¡¯s Death Gun!¡± Kirito blurted out.


    ¡°On what suspicion? We don¡¯t even know what he looks like!¡±


    ¡°I guess we¡¯ll just have to find out. Zenith, you¡¯re with me. Sinon, you keep a good lookout!¡±


    I sighed and headed out with Kirito, making sure I kept an eye on his smaller frame to reduce bumping into him.


    "How many compliments have you gotten so far?" I asked as we got to the ground level front entrance.


    "Eh¡­ I did a thing for some guys¡­ just to show off."


    Our eyes looked with each other for a moment. Weird¡­ weird wouldn''t even describe it.


    "...Twink." I roasted and let Kirito move out.


    We ran across the flag pavement with my head on a swivel as Kirito ran straight for the large stadium across the street.


    "You damn dimwit! You''ll get shot out here!"


    I rolled my eyes and continued with Kirito in order to raid Jushi X.


    With Jushi X dead, we confirmed that she wasn''t Death Gun. But I had a more tense realization when I looked outside from Jushi''s perch.


    "Kirito! Gimme the smoke ''nade, now!"


    "Why?"


    "Just do it!! Sinon''s in trouble!


    With a swift toss, Kirito flung the smoke grenade at me, which I caught and pulled the pin with my teeth. We both jumped out of the perch, both holding rifles and firing as the canister hit the ground and clouded two people.


    A bullet whizzed past my chest from the ploom of smoke, it made me spin, and what I saw¡­


    Kirito''s face turned into a deadly gaping mouth. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and a new red hole was found in the center of his forehead. I cursed loudly. Kirito was eliminated.

 Chapter 4: Humans Are Such Easy Prey

    The entire room gasped. Klein, Asuna, Leafa, Silica, Yui, and Lisbeth were in terror as they saw Kirito¡¯s model go limp in midair and fall.


    The camera that was once connected to Zenith had quickly snapped back with his head to look at Kirito¡¯s dying playermodel. Every face that could go pale, did, except for one.


    ¡°Oh my,¡± Chrysheight muttered. ¡°That¡¯s a surprise... I guess Thomas needs to hold the reigns from here on out¡­¡±


    From what the entire group had learned just a few minutes prior, Thomas and Kazuto¨Cor more accurately Zenith and Kirito¨Chad been asked to take on an assignment related to two deaths that coincided with player log-outs in Gun Gale Online. They both knew approximately the same amount of detail before the current day and now with the rest of the group informed on the real coincidence of Death Gun¡­


    No goddamn way. I don¡¯t know if that was a lucky shot or an outside program that did that, but Kirito just got eliminated. Not killed; I knew that much to suspect behind Death Gun¡¯s methods. I still couldn¡¯t put a pin on it though.


    My body continued dropping, and once I landed on the ground I sprinted forward, firing a few rounds from my rifle before tossing it aside. I ran into the smoke, searching for the girl.


    ¡°You¡¯ll fail, Zenith!¡± A low voice yelled out. ¡°You¡¯ll fail like every time you did before!¡±


    I could feel my heart rate doubling in speed just from those words. They recognized me, but I felt like I knew it was coming.


    As soon as I could, I raced around in the smoke to try and find the girl with blue hair. My eyes probed the ground and then I saw it. Teal-blue hair, eyes of the same color with tears welling in them, and a green and silver outfit.


    My hands raced to Sinon, picking her up under her legs and torso and making a mad dash out of the smoke. I had no time to readjust her into a comfortable grip. I just had to go.


    The haze immediately cleared itself once  I took a few leaping steps out of it and my eyes began to search for a mode of transportation.


    ¡°Zenith..?¡± I heard under me, I glanced down for just a second but kept searching.


    ¡°I¡¯m getting us the hell out of here, don¡¯t worry!¡±


    ¡°Over there¡­ there¡¯s a bike.. Can you use it..?¡±


    Her voice sounded like all life was drained from it. Something clearly happened to her, something greatly affecting her thought processes.


    My brain processed her words and I looked around and spotted the bike in question. Well, bikes. There were two that were shot to bits and pieces and just one that seemed like it would work.


    I sprinted as fast as I could with the girl in my arms, who had her own hands clutching the barrel of her rifle. I felt her eyes look up at me, pleading for me to get her out of this hell. I will, at any cost.


    I bounced off the pavement and planted a foot onto one of the side pegs, setting Sinon in a seat behind the driver''s seat in a swift motion. In another motion, my left leg went up and over the seat, planting itself on the other side. With my left toe set under the shift lever, I hit the panel in the center with my palm, and 1,000 credits were drained from my account.


    The engine roared to life, almost pissed that it was awoken. The panel that was once a "Press here to operate!" Became a vast panel of instruments relative to the bike. In the bottom center was the letter, "N." It informed me that I was in neutral so I wrapped my toe over the lever and pushed down. It turned from "N" to "R" and the bike began to pull backward slightly. It seemed to be a no-manual clutch system, just a shifter, and the rider''s wits.


    "Z-Zenith..!"


    "I''m working on it!"


    I twisted the throttle and turned the front wheel, causing the bike to pull out and spin in the direction of the free desert. As soon as the bike stopped, I shoved down on the shift lever twice and hit the throttle. The bike yanked forward and I shifted again just before the ride-line, continuing to provide.


    "Hit that horse, Sinon!" I shouted as I looked back at the girl with blue hair. Her eyes snapped onto me as if searching for a bigger meaning in me. "You have to hit it!"


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    She looked behind herself and towards the robotic chromed-out horse and shuttered. Then, she set herself up for a shot, leaning against the back of the seat. I slowed down to give her a better chance at hitting, but¡­


    "I can''t..!"


    "Can''t what?!"


    "I can''t pull the trigger..!"


    My heart dropped. Was she refusing to take the shot? Was she simply unable to?


    "My finger.. it won''t go any farther..!"


    "Then I''ll shoot at it!"


    I reached over my shoulder with my right hand to discover¡­ Yeah, remember when I tossed my gun to the side? That was coming back to bite me in the ass real quick. In desperation to at least do something to it, I pulled my G18 from my hip, aimed, and unloaded a magazine into the horse.


    About half the bullets landed, which was unreasonably low considering I had made longer shots with it before. This was bad, not to mention the¡­ glowing red eyes that just scaled the horse, connected to a long black ghillie suit.


    I cursed loudly and immediately hit the throttle. Sinon pressed herself into the seat and shrieked as the speed picked up. Again as I hit the shift lever and went into the next gear, her pleas of a savior remained in the air.


    "Get me out of here, please!" Her throat croaked, whaling like a pitiful child.


    The road got thinner every 100 meters. Pitiful pistol fire rang from behind, slowly getting closer as the bike weaving in and out of cars left behind by the previous civilization. Everything seemed to be leaning towards dense failure, but my brain plotted a special idea. Every time I weaved to the left, I could spot an offramp growing slowly as the distance closed. The ramp that once connected to an intercontinental highway was shattered just then meters up but could kick the bike into a spiral and likely land perfectly well. I didn''t know that I could land it, but I had to try.


    "Sinon! I''ve got an idea, but I need your strength to achieve it!"


    I could feel her eyes pierce the back of my head.


    "I-I don''t know if I can..!"


    "Then we''ll fire the rifle together!" My head whipped back to give her a confident stare. When I turned, I saw tears on her face that quickly dried with the wind, or a restructuring of her confidence. Either way, I knew just by this alone that the plan had to work, there wasn''t any other option!


    The distance quickly closed as I turned my head back towards the road. A bullet whizzed past my head. My response was to start turning back and forth to throw off our pursuer''s aim.


    "Ok, it''s coming, get ready!"


    I checked my mirror, I saw the black cloak on chrome horseback. The red eyes glowing on its face stared in the glass. Then, the mirror had a hole in it. He shot it!


    "Shit!"


    I hit the throttle onto max, practically straining the fly-by-wire system attached to the bike. In a matter of seconds, the bike would be on the ramp, and we would kick off into the air!


    As the front tire hit the on-ramp, I lined up the bike and locked the position of the bars and throttle. Then in a swift motion, I turned around and helped Sinon line up the shot¡­


    "Get ready, I hope you''ve got a godly stability stat!"


    Immediately our bodies pressed onto the back seat of the bike with an intense force. At the same time, the world began to rotate counterclockwise. With my hands placed on top of Sinon''s, we gently moved the barrel. Once we lined it up, Sinon''s finger pulled the trigger slightly, and once my finger added the slightest bit of pressure¡­


    The world was lit into flame. The air in front of our faces quickly burned, then faded. At the same time, Sinon''s body was shoved into mine by the sheer force of the explosion. I could feel the carbon-kevlar plating that covered her body begin to imprint into my virtual skin. But these feelings paled in comparison to what I saw beyond the flames. The bullet traveled through the air, forcing the bullet line that once was there out of existence, and once it made contact with its target¡­ It missed the man. But instead¡­ hit a truck directly next to him.


    It was a tanker trunk, abandoned like the rest of the vehicles on this highway. It seemed ironic that the bullet would stray off its supposedly correct course and hit a tanker, but¡­ A flame licked out the side and with another tremendous blast.


    A second explosion caused pressure waves with tremendous sound. They were loud enough that the Amusphere had to step in and quickly limit the output, causing the sound to be dulled, in comparison to something like a NerveGear. It was wild, but I had no more time to think of that.


    Just as we were ninety degrees off-axis from the horizon and approaching the road with our entirety, I whipped myself around to grab the handlebars with immense force. The world kept turning, then shook abruptly like a brick hitting the ground. The bike was quickly stabilized and everything was back in order. Now? It was just time to ride to the northernmost point on the map and get away from all this mess. We were going to the north city to lie low.


    Chrysheight¡¯s eyes stared at the screen with a mix of amazement and fear. Amazement, because of what was just executed by Zenith¨Cor Thomas Trey Trenor¨Cand fear because of the possibility of what could happen next.


    ¡°Oh my¡­ that¡¯s impressive. And all within the span of just a few seconds? He has so much more potential than I assumed just bringing him in on a whim¡­¡±


    Not that long ago, Chrysheight was essentially schooled by an AI¨CYui¨Con what was happening regarding Zenith¡¯s and Kirito¡¯s appearances within Gun Gale Online¡¯s highest-ranking tournament, the Bullet of Bullets. Through extremely rapid analysis, Yui was able to determine that the ¡°Death Gun¡± figure that they saw that killed a player named ¡°Pale Rider¡± also took out two other players in events prior. All of this was a shock to Chrys''s system, as he assumed that no person could line up the details in such a manner.


    Roast aside, Chrys kept observing the TV-like screen with patient eyes and saw the three-wheeled motorcycle speed down the road before taking another offramp and heading north.

 Chapter 5: Something Memorable

    The bike rolled to a stop at the entrance of the grandiose city. Just ahead, blazing lights covered my vision¨Cadvertisements from this game''s past and the current reality. It was a magical sight, even if it was a cruel mirror of the other side. This was the far-north city of Damsgate, which was reinstated just before Bullet of Bullets tournaments were held on ISL Ragnarok.


    "Sinon." I called out behind me. I heard a light whimper in response.


    "We''re at Damsgate. I''ll find us a spot to lay low."


    "Okay¡­"


    I twisted the throttle again and kept going down the strip of road. Soon enough, I saw a container filled port, and pulled off the highway in order to get inside.


    After opening a gate and riding near a large warehouse, we went underground, and we were soon in a large ballroom dancing with holograms.


    "This was here all this time?" Sinon asked with her usual stoic curiosity, like a kitten in a way.


    "I guess, either way, it''s a place we get to lie low in. So, get comfy; we''re going to be here for the next half-hour."


    "Are you sure about that..?"


    "Yeah. We''re below ground level, we''ll be fine."


    I paced around for a minute, then decided it would be better to relax for the time being, and planted myself onto a large circular bench. The seat was just as uncomfortable as the ones in the City Hall''s waiting area. A few moments later, Sinon joined me, opting to only sit on the opposite side.


    "I don''t bite," I teased her, pulling the right side of my mouth into a grin.


    "Oh, shut up!" She snapped back, causing me to laugh.


    After a moment, I cleared my throat, and went back to my usual tone. "Okay, so¡­ I assume you and Kirito have been working together in this tournament for a while now. What all have you said, or¡­ theorized?"


    Sinon''s eyebrow furrowed, but she leaned a little bit closer and explained.


    "For around the past 30 minutes, Kirito and I have been trying to hunt down the "Death Gun" guy. You saw him in the east city and while he chased us¨Cthe guy in the baggy cloak¡­" She seemed to shiver in her seat just thinking about those moments.


    Her description of Death Gun matched up with my encounter with the player that occurred within the City Hall yesterday. It also matched with what I saw not 10 minutes ago, riding on mechanical horseback. Not to mention, the multiple player testimony I had gathered from forums regarding the two Death Gun killings prior to this weekend. Needless to say, this was in fact Death Gun. Everything lined up, but didn''t at the same time.


    "Yeah, makes sense," I started, looking down at the table. "How''d he get to you, anyway? It doesn''t make sense how we checked the map but he just.. appeared right next to you."


    Sinon looked at me with the same stoic face that I was giving her, but I could tell there was discomfort hiding behind her features.


    "He has an optical camo ability because of that cloak, which I thought was exclusive to monsters¡­"


    ¡°Optical Camo?¡± My throat instantly spit out. ¡°How the hell did he get that? That shit must have cost him hundreds of hours of his time to get, or mega-credits, if not billions¡­¡±


    After letting the idea churn in my head, I shook it of and noted, ¡°Well, it¡¯s good that we know that. But¡­ we still have the problem that we don¡¯t know how he¡¯s doing it; the killing part.¡±


    ¡°Well, there¡¯s a million possibilities out there, and the one person we had to help us think is now not here.¡±


    I just rolled my eyes and placed my head in my hand, leaning on the table.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯m not all brawn, alright? There¡¯s a method to my madness, even Kirito knows that.¡±


    I quickly adjusted myself in the seat, preparing myself for a returning argument, but was pleasantly surprised.


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    ¡°Well, that¡¯s fair¡­ You do have technique¡­¡±


    I said yet another silent affirmative before rising from my seat and checking the battery level on my light-sword.


    ¡°W-wait, where are you going, Zenith?¡± Sinon asked, with the slightest hint of terror or dread in her voice.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to take out the damned monster.¡±


    ¡°Death Gun? All on your own, are you insane?!¡±


    ¡°I can fight him,¡± I contested back, feeling a fire light in my eyes as I combated Sinon with my gaze alone. ¡°I fought him then, I can fight him now, I¡¯ll rip his goddamn heart out if I need to! I¡¯ll get rid of him and then we can all move on!¡±


    The look that I saw in Sinon¡¯s eyes told me immediately that I shouldn¡¯t have said that, let alone done that. ¡°Why are you being so cryptic?¡± Sinon grabbed my wrist and shoved it to the ground.


    ¡°Hey! Why are you being so clingy?!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not the topic, get it together, Zenith! What the hell do you mean ¡°move on,¡± it¡¯s not like you have any semblance of trauma!¡±


    A part of me felt annoyed, another felt insulted, and another felt¡­ sympathy. What kind of trauma was this girl trying to beat into me? What was she doing yelling at me in the first place? In all honesty, I originally pictured that she was the type of girl to be bullied whenever she said that, but the longer I think of it, the longer I think she was forced into something far worse. Something like fate, maybe even like¡­


    ¡°If you¡¯re going to spew all that talk of ¡°moving on,¡± then help me move on, too!¡±


    ¡°What the hell are you talking about, I barely even know you, let alone what you¡¯ve seen or been through,¡± I barked in return, trying to force her to let go of me. Her grip was as tight as an iron cuff, unable to release me.


    ¡°Then you clearly have no idea what it¡¯s like to have your hands stained in someone else''s blood!¡±


    My brain shattered. At first, I thought that maybe she accidentally cut one of her classmates with some sort of apple-peeling knife, maybe then their hand got too close to hers, but the next thing she said blew that idea out of the water, and into the stratosphere.


    ¡°How does it feel to hold the hand of a murderer?!¡± Sinon blurted out, sending a frail hand to my chest in an attempt to rid me from this tournament, and probably her life if she had the power to do so. For the next minute that felt like an eternity, this helpless girl in a video game tried to pummel me into nothingness. Her fists tried to pound my body, but were met by a solid block of steel sitting on my chest and stomach, so she went for the arms instead, which did basically nothing.


    Once two minutes had passed, I caught one of her hands and twisted her wrist about 180 degrees to force her to stop. ¡°You need to calm down,¡± I consoled her, but I could see in her teary eyes that she didn¡¯t like hearing my voice, so I let go, and simply sat on the floor, next to one of the elongated benches.


    Sinon joined me, but ensured that there was no physical contact between us, rolling herself into a ball next to me. With her face digging into her knees, she looked as fragile as an autumn leaf, preparing to wilt away for a season of what often felt like eternity. I mulled over what combination of words would be the most comforting to her. Should I reveal what I¡¯ve been through in that floating castle, or rather what I¡¯ve done to people that never deserved it? Either way, my mouth began to talk faster than I could think about it.


    ¡°I did the same thing you did,¡± I barely muttered, my voice as husky as a smoker¡¯s trying to whisper. ¡°I killed, laughed when their bodies fell over and shattered into glass. I wasn¡¯t a member of the same group he was in, dedicated to the ravenous cycle, but¡­¡± My eyes glanced at Sinon to see if she had heard me at any point during my spill, but when it looked like she didn¡¯t, I looked away and kept talking.


    ¡°But it stains my hands¡­ My mind is caked in their blood¡­ My family- I don¡¯t even know what happened to them. But here I stand¡­ fighting, for no one but myself.¡± I felt my eyes get warmer, and two warm tears ripped at my skin.


    ¡°To be honest with you, almost a year ago, I was at the lowest of my life, but I¡¯m still fighting, even if I am so lonely.¡±


    I then turned to Sinon, who was now staring at me like I was a god from the heavens. So I kept speaking.


    ¡°You can do it- do anything. People will try to tell you that you¡¯re worthless, scum, but¡­ You just have to keep going, even if you can¡¯t do it by yourself.¡±


    ¡°Zenith?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    Sinon looked at me with deep intent to know more about me, even the tiniest little detail.


    ¡°What¡­ Did you do? What game did you play before?¡±


    At this point, I had already given her my spiel, so it wouldn¡¯t hurt to add a little bit more.


    ¡°I played Sword Art Online, I know you¡¯ve probably heard of it because of Kirito, but he hasn¡¯t given you the full story, so we¡¯ll save that for another time. Right now, we need to come up with a plan to stop the sonuvabitch, and we need to make this right.¡±


    I rose to my feet, grabbing my light sword from the floor and stuffing it into my inside jacket pocket, ensuring that it was off before I even put it in so I didn¡¯t miraculously cut myself. It emberasses me to say that this exact situation has happened multiple times¨Caccidentally skewering myself¡­


    ¡°C¡¯mon, we¡¯ll make a plan while we walk. I¡¯m already thinking that we need to know who¡¯s left.¡±


    Gigantic red doors emblazon themselves on my vision. I can hear faint voices, but they¡¯re practically background noise with the sheer power standing in front of me. These doors that stretched one hundred feet above me were those of the Ruby Palace, designed and planted by either a developer who didn¡¯t know any better, or by Akihiko Kayaba himself.


    Either way, this was the ultimate challenge. Defeat whatever¡¯s on the other side, and my soul would be set free, maybe, maybe¡­maybe... With one swipe of a menu, and a press of a holographic button, the doors opened. I could already smell the time and patience that monster on the inside had spent waiting for my arrival, not to mention the stench of the blood on its hands. I breathed in, sighed out, and muttered as I pulled my sword from my hip.


    ¡°You¡¯re mine.¡±

 Chapter 6: YOURE MINE

    The Ceremony</a>


    ¡°OK, here¡¯s the plan. I¡¯ll go up during the satellite scan to lure Death Gun towards me. If there¡¯s anyone left, they¡¯ll be b-lining it for me once I show up on the map. Since you¡¯re still below ground level, you¡¯ll be safe from the scan, but you¡¯ll need to meet with me in the elevator, and then make it to a catwalk for a safe sniping area. I¡¯ll stay on top of the megastructure to make sure Death Gun comes for me and that you get a clear shot of our arriving friend. Is all that understood?¡±


    Sinon nodded at my explanation as we continued towards the elevator that would lead to both the roof of the megabuilding and the catwalk near the 70th floor. The catwalk was planted on the South East side since the front of the building faced south, towards the desert. Not to mention, nightfall had come earlier than expected. It was 10:30, sure, but nightfall usually only happened around 11 due to the sheer amount of lighting within CCD Glocken. I guess it was a nice change, considering the number of times I had stayed up on light nights grinding for items even though I knew I shouldn¡¯t have.


    ¡°Okay, headed up. If you¡¯ve got any questions, or things you just wanna say, now¡¯s the time.¡±


    ¡°Zenith¡­ thank you,¡± Sinon muttered. My momentum stopped just as my foot was firmly planted inside the elevator. I looked back and simply nodded.


    With the elevator doors closed, I punched the top floor of the megabuilding. I could see Sinon¡¯s somewhat placid face staring at me as I began to ascend in the elevator. A part of me thought she believed I was looking at an angel. I¡¯m not an angel, I¡¯m the opposite of that¡­ My classification within the game of death, named only as SAO by myself would be as much truth in that as it would be a simple fairy tale.


    They called me¡­ what did they call me? Has it been so long that I¡¯ve simply forgotten? No way, that¡¯s impossible¡­ People at school still let me pass before others because of that name. Are many of them of Christian belief? If so, I must be one hell of a sinner in their eyes. But now¡¯s not the time to think of school, or friends that supposedly act like they¡¯re friendly. Now is the time to make this right. It¡¯s probably my only chance, but I¡¯ll still give it my most grand attempt. I¡¯ll pull out all the stops, even the ones I haven¡¯t revealed up to this point.


    My eyes were pulled into a pale red circle in the corner of my vision. There, I saw a camera, clear as day. I then had the idea to send out a message to those watching, just to make sure they knew I was there. I walked over to the camera, lazily sitting in the corner. Then I reached out and managed to grab onto it. It felt like a solid cylinder in my hand, but still nothing short of a solid computer-made object. I looked to the side, then commanded my message into the camera.


    ¡°Tonight, things change. It¡¯s not showtime anymore, it¡¯s the finale. I¡¯m at the biggest building in Damsgate, waiting on the roof. Come find me, optical-camo-wearing coward.¡±


    With what I wanted to say done, I tightened my grip on the camera until it shattered, which was surprisingly easy to do. Either way, my message was sent, even though I knew it wouldn¡¯t reach Death Gun within here. I breathed a sigh of relief, but also a tense exhale. I didn¡¯t know how much was on the lineup until this point. My life, possibly. Sinon¡¯s was definitely on the line, because she was using herself as a decoy for Death Gun in a way that I couldn¡¯t even begin to comprehend¨Cnot because I¡¯m stupid, but rather¡­ she uses more sniper terms than I¡¯m comfortable hearing in a day. But she¡¯s also just a girl, probably just a couple of years younger than I am. She had no right or need to go through what she did, but it made her an entirely different person today than it would have if she didn¡¯t have that happen to her.


    During my planning, she sat me down and elaborated on what she meant when she yelled at me out of nowhere. She said that she shot a man at the age of 11 years old, and had put three bullets in him while he was attempting to rob a post office. When I asked her how she got the gun, I was met with a face that was like a young girl being interrogated again, so I changed my tone. She said that she managed to take it from him after biting his wrist, forcing him to drop the gun, and then¡­


    Within the last fifteen minutes before now, we devised both a plan on how to stop Death Gun, which boiled down to, ¡°go as hard as possible, and be creative,¡± and attempted to figure out the how of Death Gun¡¯s killings. After nearing giving Sinon a panic attack on how someone could be within her apartment at that very moment and reassuring her in my arms as much as possible, we concluded that there were two Death Guns, the one that pulled the trigger, and the one that killed the target. The reasoning for the target selection was still confusing as all hell, but we assume that it was simply some of the top players within GGO that were on the target list. One of the other outlandish ideas was that Sinon and possibly even I were targeted because of our statistical choices, but we pushed it off the table almost as soon as it was presented.


    The elevator door opened. I could immediately see advertisements that were reminiscent of those staged in CCD Glocken, due in part because of the sheer number and variety of them. Some were even borderline sexual but managed to stay PG-13. I imagined that some of the cameras were flying about the city now, to show off the battlefield that was soon to become. With the open air calling my name, I stepped out of the elevator, and it immediately shut behind me, meaning that Sinon had pressed the call button right as I got out. Good time, I guess.


    I walked toward the edge of the building, looking out across the city with 100,000 lights, each individually placed by a human rather than an AI. To call it beautiful was a lie, but the lights were pretty enough to attempt to draw me into them. They didn¡¯t manage, of course, as I had a job to do other than stare at raymarched lights. The past was calling me. I consoled Damsgate with just my eyes before stepping up onto the railing and picking my transmitter out of my pocket. After letting the small hologram appear in front of me, I quickly looked for dots with a light on them. Apart from three that seemed to be missing altogether¨Cbut I knew that one of the missing dots was Death Gun¨Ctwo of them were gone. I hadn¡¯t seen Death Gun shoot anyone within the time since they got to the city on the west side.


    ¡°I guess that¡¯s another life taken,¡± I sighed, a somber expression making its way onto my features. I had to shake it off though, the scanner was disappearing as the satellite in the sky was moving out of view. I said a silent thanks, even though I knew that it would be its final message to those down here on the ground. The satellite above was from the old human era, just as people began to explore the stars in GGO. Not with telescopes, but with ships and carriers and fleets. Most of the docks that once held spaceships were ancient and decrepit now, thanks to the lack of reason for upkeep and maintenance of the equipment. It made for high-level gear, though, like my chest plate and now-missing H&K416.


    ¡°Hey, how many¡¯s left?!¡± Sinon¡¯s voice rang out from behind me, and I quickly turned around to address her.


    ¡°Just one, aside from Death Gun. We lost another one, though.¡±


    Sinon looked down with a twinge of regret.


    ¡°We¡¯ll make it up to them,¡± I assured her as I climbed onto the edge of the roof, feeling the wind press against my body. As it tried to tip me off the side of the building, I grabbed onto a pole, which was conveniently placed¡­


    ¡°Now go, the faster you get set up, the better.¡± And after I heard the elevator doors close once more, I was alone again.


    The building I was on had a unique structure that tapered towards the top. From here to the ground, it was a long ramp, and with me being half a mile up, it meant that I would need to do some sliding, riding, or falling¡­


    As I looked out at the vast city, I didn¡¯t see any obvious signs of player activity. Say, shots being fired and the like. So it seemed as if I just needed to use just my hearing, so I closed my eyes and cut off my breathing. The wind was too loud, so I shut it out. The buzzing of lights is too loud, that can go too. Even the minute sounds of clothes flapping had to go. I had to be fully immersed in the sound of footsteps coming closer. Closer¡­. Closer¡­ Faster, quicker, every step was like a loud drum beating in my ears. Even at this distance, the sound effects of Yamikaze¡¯s feet were instantaneous. The metal slope under my feet was beginning to rock and vibrate with his run up the building. 500 meters left¡­ 450¡­ 400¡­ 350¡­ Then it went down to 250¡­ And just as he crossed 200¡­ an explosion sounded from my left. Glass shattered as a bullet flew through the air and hit Yamikaze directly in the heart. It was a 500-meter shot, sure, but it was a goddamn good one. With that, it was my time to start moving.


    I let my fingers slip from the pole I had once grabbed and continued to sense¡­ Death Gun. I could feel his breathing in my ears, despite how far away it was. He was on the ground with the cars of an abandoned but reinstated past, and had fired a shot towards Sinon, but it thankfully didn¡¯t hit¡­ It was time. I would ensure that¡­


    ¡°You¡¯re mine¡­ Death Gun! YOU¡¯RE MINE!!!¡±


    My lungs ripped as my body dropped to the undefinable slope the building was attached to. My mind was coated in blood, anger, fury. I knew what I had to do¨Censure that at all costs, Death Gun wouldn¡¯t hurt another soul within Gun Gale Online, or the real world.


    Everything burned away from anticipation. The slope only came back into existence once I made contact with it to get down to Death Gun as fast as possible. But this wasn¡¯t fast enough, it felt like this entire fight was going to take eons. I had to do it, though. Not even Kazuto could drag me out of this fight now.


    Furi Soundtrack - The Burst [Unreleased Track]</a>


    Death Gun¡¯s metal mask looked up at me, the ruby-red eyes shimmered in the city lights, making him ever so slightly easier to see. I was just a hundred feet from him now and would come to a sliding halt upon contact with the ground, pausing my momentum in front of Death Gun and pulling my lightsword on him.


    ¡°Oh, right. I remember now,¡± Death Gun¡¯s voice croaked as he pulled a thin metal rod from his gun. At first inspection, it looked like a basic cleaning rod, but the pointed tip told a different story. This was an S-Stock, similar to a rapier in most contexts except one¨Cit couldn¡¯t slash.


    ¡°Remember what? Speak loud and clear for those at home.¡± I fired back, ensuring to keep my voice loud enough for the camera to hear.


    ¡°The name of your blade. It was demonic, but the perfect title for someone like you.¡±


    ¡°Then speak it! Remind me, so I know it!¡±


    ¡°No¡­¡± The cloak simply rasped. ¡°You don¡¯t deserve to know, not anymore¡­¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll rip it out of you!!¡±


    Carpenter Brut - You''re mine (from Furi original soundtrack)</a>


    I pulled my lightsword to my shoulder with my arm in front of my neck and charged directly for the cloak. Just before my sword would have been able to make contact, I slash down and to the right, then up and to the left. I managed to clip his thigh with that move, but that wasn¡¯t enough to drown his HP. What I didn¡¯t realize at first glance is exactly what Death Gun had up his sleeve.


    In just two steps back, Death Gun prepared for an attack and reenacted a sword skill by hand. This was a feat in itself, but what was truly fascinating was the sheer precision he had over his motions.


    When someone attempted a sword skill without the first activation motion, they would often fail the attack entirely, since they didn¡¯t let the system take over. Most players simply let the system take over once the skill was activated, providing no further input on the skill until it was finished and they could continue attacking like normal, but some decided to memorize the motions of certain sword skills to achieve greater damage. But there was a catch, for games that didn¡¯t have a sword skill system, such as ALO and GGO, the visual aftermath of sword skills would appear, but the system gave you no help in execution whatsoever.


    That was why this was impressive as all hell, but there were better tricks¡­


    As Death Gun shoved his rapier into my right shoulder, I grabbed the S-Stock and attempted to cut it in half, but was met by a loud, growling buzz from my light sword as it refused to cut through the metal of his sword. In my brief moment of shock, I shoved Death Gun away and forced myself into a stance at the ready.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°You¡¯re a Veteran now, and even you forgot about that toy¡¯s one weakness¡­ This blade is made of battleship metal, the best you can get in the game¡­¡± The sword didn¡¯t like being referred to as a toy and burned the air even hotter for just a brief second.


    ¡°You don¡¯t even know how many times I¡¯ve heard suckers call this sword a toy before I cut them in two. And I¡¯ll do the same to you!¡±


    The fight continued without hesitation, but I had to pull up my single trick up my sleeves, something that I was confident that no one else had. After kicking myself off of Death Gun¡¯s chest, I opened my menu once I landed on the ground, and took both my syn-leather jacket and armor-enhanced undershirt off. What was left was a digital bare chest with one major difference compared to other players¡¯ avatars: my body was covered in electronics, traces that came to the surface of my skin, splitting the different core muscles into their sectors. Every muscle group on my upper body was sectioned off by skin-surface traces that all eventually ran to a mechanical spine on my back. I could feel hundreds, if not thousands of pairs of eyes concentrating on my mechanical spine at the same moment.


    ¡°Oh my, you truly are demonic,¡± Death Gun rasped with anticipation. ¡°Now, it¡¯s showtime!¡±


    My only concern would be whether or not I¡¯d be able to handle the effects of the cyberware sitting on my back.


    The problem with this spinal implant was that it had a direct effect on my brain, not in the way that it could kill me like the old NERVEGEAR, but in how it could give me dangerous migraines that had the chance to knock me out of VR. I had to make sure that I didn¡¯t go overboard with my usage, otherwise my brain would feel like a bakery.


    With one command of my brain, everything slowed to a crawl and turned a deep blue.


    Blood Machines Theme</a>


    Asuna¡¯s breathing was quick as she sped down the hall towards a numbered room on the right. Not thirty minutes ago, Asuna and her group of friends practically interrogated government agent Seijirou Kikuoka, prying him of information regarding the Death Gun that was going around in Gun Gale Online and killed four players by this point, with the most recent shot fired in a desert. That meant that Death Gun had killed four people in Gun Gale Online, and consequently, in real life. They couldn¡¯t pin exactly how Death Gun did it, but perhaps someone could provide some insight.


    ¡°Momma, they¡¯ll be okay!¡± Yui piped up from Asuna¡¯s phone. They had been on call since Asuna left their temporary home in Yggdrasil City for the real world for the Chiyoda Municipal Hospital. Yui¡¯s program was currently hosted on a computer sitting in Kazuto¡¯s room, and even though Yui¡¯s processes weren¡¯t running locally, the processing power required to stay on a phone call was enough to drain her phone battery more than average.


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Asuna questioned back, almost doubting the confidence in the adoptive AI.


    ¡°Mhm, they¡¯re Papa and Zenith after all! They can do anything, even if they¡¯re separated!¡± This in itself made Asuna smile.


    At times, she doubted if Kirito or Zenith could do something on their own, but they often could, even knowing the circumstances. Kirito was all strength and believed that all things¨Cvirtual or not¨Care real and tangible, with only the amount of information differentiating them.


    Zenith on the other hand was on the side of morality that was much darker. Dark enough to the point that most people either wouldn¡¯t or couldn¡¯t get close enough to him to listen to his heart and his problems.


    Admittedly, she felt sorry for Zenith. He fights on his own so much and he makes it out like everything¡¯s fine, but.. She¡¯s seen his weaker side before. So has Oyogu for that fact. They¡¯ve both comforted him in trying times, but she felt that a test of his wits was coming closer and closer by the day¡­ Maybe it was a test for all of Kirito¡¯s friends, maybe even his family.


    With a hasty swipe of a keycard, Asuna¡¯s hair was brushed by a slight wind as the door pushed itself to the side. A nurse tended to two boys on a bed, but one was getting significantly more attention than the other. Upon entering the room, Asuna saw that they both had black hair and that one of them was awake¡­


    ¡°Kirito!¡±


    ¡°Papa!¡±


    Both Yui and Asuna spoke at the same time, with Asuna rushing to his bedside.


    ¡°Asuna, Yui..! I¡¯m okay, but I¡¯m not too sure about Thomas..¡±


    Thomas was breathing heavily, almost sporadically, and without proper rhythm. To describe the sight as frightening would be putting it lightly. It was like watching someone battle demons in a coma. Thomas was still awake, and not trapped in such a horrid thing as a coma, but it was not normal to see something like this¡­ Was there an intense fight going on? Was something messing with his PTSD response? Maybe it could be¡­


    ¡°Yui put the MMOTomorrow stream on the TV, we need to see what¡¯s happening in-game.¡±


    ¡°Ai-ai, papa!¡± Within just another moment, a webpage with multiple camera views of Gun Gale Online¡¯s Northern City on a New Zealand island came into view and the battle that was coming from it.


    Within the camera were primarily two players, one covered in black from head to toe, and another with his top removed with red hair and eyes. The one with red hair and eyes was quite obviously Zenith but with a peculiar item on his back.


    ¡°What.. is that, on Zenith¡¯s back?¡± Asuna questioned, curious about the item on Zenith¡¯s avatar¡¯s spine.


    ¡°Looking now, mama!¡± After just a moment, ¡°Player reports confirm that the prosthetic equipment on Zenith¡¯s back known as ¡®cyberware¡¯ is called a Vladlenivetch!¡± The odd word at the end came as a surprise to Asuna and Kirito alike, but Yui quickly clarified that it was based on a Russian name with some characters thrown behind it. It actually had a similar counterpart in another game but couldn¡¯t find any accurate references to its name.


    In just two steps, Zenith seemed to blink behind Death Gun, leaving a colored trail behind his path, marking out exactly how he got behind. But at the same, Asuna could hear Thomas¡¯s breathing quicken immensely, as well as his heart rate.


    ¡°Player reports dictate that Zenith experienced massive migraines if he abused the item, and due to its invasive nature on the player, once it¡¯s equipped, it can¡¯t be taken off, only disabled!¡± Yui piped up again after parsing some more information from the chaos of the interwebs.


    ¡°Shi..neffu¡­ So that¡¯s his name in that game he¡¯s playing, and his avatar is right there, too?¡± Aki wondered right next to Asuna, looking somewhat mesmerized at the intense action. Or at Zenith¡¯s avatar. Whichever was most compelling was truly unable to be told.


    ¡°And, that name¡­¡± Asuna muttered, looking at the tag above Death Gun.


    ¡°Ster..ben? Isn¡¯t that supposed to be Steven?¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s correct.¡± Aki quickly interjected. ¡°It¡¯s a German word, it means, ¡®to die,¡¯ or ¡®death.¡¯ We were taught it in medical school. Who would go through all the effort to find such a word..?¡±


    ¡°Someone who specializes in those things¡­¡± Kirito muttered. ¡°If I could fight him, I¡¯d be able to remember him, but Zenith is doing it on his own.¡±


    ¡°No, he¡¯s not! We¡¯re here to help him!¡± Yui shouted, almost forcing the speaker in Asuna¡¯s phone to distort. ¡°Mama, Papa, hold Zenith¡¯s hand!!¡±


    Asuna and Kazuto looked at each other, nodded, and smiled with purpose as they took Thomas¡¯s hand. All eyes then returned to the TV screen, pressure rising with each pressing moment.


    Lorn - Set me Free (from Furi original soundtrack)</a>


    ¡°You¡¯re wavering, kid! You¡¯ll be dead by the end of next year!¡± Death Gun growled at me as I continued to dash and try to cut him from behind.


    Nothing I tried worked, as it seemed like he could see a subtle path of where I was and guess where I would be heading. The Vladlenivetch was beginning to give me a headache, even as I used it in short bursts over longer periods. To be fair though, this was the longest period in which I had consistently used the Vladlenivetch outside of the occasional fun activity.


    ¡°Your soul will be mine, from the first moment we locked eyes in battle in that castle. I knew I¡¯d kill you then and I¡¯ll kill you now!¡±


    It hit me. Who this person was, who I was in the final two years of my past life, and why I got that name in the first place.


    I quickly swiped Death Gun¡¯s S-Stock away once he lunged at me, forcing him to cross my previous position and turn around, almost stumbling.


    ¡°I remember now¡­ You¡¯re Xaxa. Red-eyed Xaxa of Laughing Coffin! And I remember my name too¡­¡±


    Xaxa, pronounced like Zah-Zah, was a former head Laughing Coffin member. The details were still fuzzy, but I was sure to piece it back together with help from my friends.


    ¡°Do you now? I doubted you ever would since you could never live up to that title again.¡± Xaxa¡¯s mask hissed at me, but I snapped back with a fiery statement.


    ¡°Yeah, I do. My name is Zenith, and my title was the Fallen Angel!¡±


    I held the point of my light sword directly up to the sky, directly above my head¨Cabove my zenith if you could call it that.


    ¡°I know what I did was wrong, but this is a new me, a new life! As much as I¡¯m scarred, I¡¯ll make it as good as I can, and run the evil out of it!¡±


    I pushed my left foot back and twisted my body so my right side was the only thing that directly pointed at Xaxa. My sword sat in my left hand as my right hand grabbed my pistol in its holster.


    ¡°And that extermination starts with you! Right here, right now!¡± In just another split second, I charged with my Vladlenivetch in use, getting just feet from his figure. Once in range, I swiped in every conceivable direction but felt hard steel block most angles of attack. It was possible that Xaxa read my movements that well, or slashed to block, then attempted a jab that couldn¡¯t pull back in time to block me again. In either scenario, I was going faster than I ever could in Sword Art Online, even including the amount of pure time I had sitting in that bloodstained game alone.


    Three seconds had passed already¨Cfor me, anyway. From testing, my Vladlenivetch had about a 50% effect on perceived time. That meant that someone who didn¡¯t have the same piece of equipment on their avatar and activated at the same time saw me move 50% faster than if I was doing the same actions without the hardware. One of the only main downsides, aside from the migraines, is that the item took up two of my nine equipment slots, meaning I barely ever carried more than my clothing and guns with it.


    Out of the blue abyss, a solid red line appeared to streak across my vision. It didn¡¯t come from my gun, nor did it come from Xaxa¡¯s. It came from Sinon. Why was she going to shoot? Was she going to shoot? Not with the fact that she had already been spotted long ago. Perhaps¡­ No way¡­ Was she using the Bullet Line to act as a deterrent of some sort? Holy shit, that¡¯s something that Kirito would have thought of, let alone her! She couldn¡¯t shoot due to my and Xaxa¡¯s proximity, but I was confident in her ability to keep her muzzle trained on him, just to give me the slightest edge over him!


    ¡°You can¡¯t win, and I¡¯ll seal that fate once I kill the girl!¡± Xaxa spouted at me and hit me with an unsuspecting gut punch. It knocked me out of my Vladlenivetch effect and forced me to the ground. As I looked back up towards Xaxa, his form began to fade away, and I could see a smirk under that ugly mask of his¡­ What was I going to do in such a short time span? I couldn¡¯t get up and charge at him as that was likely to boot me out of the virtual world and end up killing Sinon.


    I felt a temperature change in my right hand. My hand had left the holster of my pistol after falling, but it quickly snapped to the blood red grip and pulled the gun, and with five quick trigger pulls¡­


    BANG BANG BANG!! BANG BANG!!!


    Xaxa dropped to the ground, giving me a chance to get up and charge, and as my sword slice his body in twain¡­


    ¡°You¡¯re mine,¡± I muttered into his ear, his soul, his effort, his passion for negativity; it would all be transformed into my benefit, and filtered through time and hope to bring positivity into my life.


    As Xaxa¡¯s torso dropped to the ground, I ran my light sword through his jaw and past his forehead, just to ensure he didn¡¯t let out any further smug remarks. My lightsword actually pierced the ground, causing a bright red glow to come from the space that once occupied part of Xaxa¡¯s mask and head.


    I looked up towards the catwalk to see that¡­ Sinon was gone. She was more than likely coming down to see me as I stood here without a shirt. Realizing how embarrassing this probably was, I quickly swiped my inventory open and put my shirt and jacket back on with the press of two buttons.


    Once I had gotten comfortable in my clothes again, I saw Sinon and her hexagonal body armor in the side of my vision and managed to smile at her.


    ¡°Took you long enough to get him,¡± she giggled, coming within just a few feet and looking up at me.


    ¡°Hey, can¡¯t rush the fight of a lifetime¡­¡±


    We both had a good laugh over that comment and looked up towards the sky.


    ¡°You know, ever since I saw you in this battle royale, something about you always caught me as¡­familiar.¡±


    ¡°Oh? What do you mean?¡±


    We locked eyes again as Sinon got just one step closer, which caused me to lean back ever so slightly.


    ¡°Your eyes¡­ they¡¯re actually red, aren¡¯t they?¡±


    For some reason, this question seemed to stand out to me. To a certain degree, something about her seemed to stand out as familiar in almost the same way.


    ¡°Why do you put your hair up like that anyway? Looks funny both here and in that alley.¡±


    ¡°So that was you!¡±


    I just put my hands up in a surrendering motion. ¡°You got me..¡± Another good laugh, and then we looked at each other again.


    So this was the girl in the alleyway. She looked frail on the other side, and much stronger here, despite her previous breakdown that seemed to shatter something that distinctly separated her from her real-life problems.


    ¡°Say¡­ you wouldn¡¯t happen to live in that same area I saw you in, would you? I¡¯m just nearby in a hospital that Kirito was also placed in.¡±


    ¡°A hospital? Why?¡±


    ¡°Monitoring and security purposes; so we don¡¯t die if we get shot. Oh, speaking of location¡­¡±


    I had to make a dicey and rude request of asking for Sinon¡¯s address and information, not as a means of harming, but to check on her condition as soon as I was out of my Amusphere. She surprisingly obliged, but stated that I had to get there within minutes of getting back to the real world, or else she¡¯d never talk to me again. That was a risk I was worth taking, to be entirely honest. On top of that, she told me her name, ¡°Shino Asada.¡±


    ¡°Well? Now you¡¯ve got to tell me who you are as well. I didn¡¯t just give up my identity for nothing, did I?¡±


    ¡°No, no¡­ My name is Thomas Kirigaya, but my birth name was Trenor. I¡¯m¡­ adopted, for the time being. Once I leave, I¡¯ll get my old name back. Oh, and I live with Kirito at¡­¡±


    It was said, and it was time to get the hell out of here.


    ¡­By blowing both of us up. Yeah, so Sinon gave me a grenade and activated it. With sublime confusion on my face, as I stressed with it in my hands, I felt her arms wrap around me. And¡­


    CONGRATULATIONS!!!


    We won the third Bullet of Bullets, but I would soon realize that the fight wasn¡¯t over.

 Chapter 7: The Less I Know The Better

    "Thomas-kun, how''s your arm treating you?"


    I turned around to see Oyogu staring at me with innate curiosity. Her black hair, yellow eyes, and tanned skin combined together to make a look that nearly no one else at the school could accomplish.


    Oyogu was another foreigner like myself. Unlike me, she was raised in Japan since nearly the very beginning of her life. Inside of SAO, we were good friends, and I eventually learned that she was the daughter of a Russian mob boss. Her father fled with Oyogu in tow to Japan due to having a contact with the Yakuza that got him out of his sticky situation at the time. But that turned sour when her father never made it with her. But, the Yakuza member decided to turn her into a member


    This is all to say that Oyogu was a foster child raised by a loving family.


    "Oh, it''s fine. Still a little bit of numbness occasionally but I''m okay." I looked down at my left arm that was still in its sling and clenched my hand.


    On Sunday this week, I was forcefully injected with a drug intended to paralyze patients by numbing their muscles and nerve ends. This was because of a man named Kyouji Shinkawa, who had attempted to take my life with said drug. If I remember correctly, it was called succinylcholine, based on the vial I managed to catch a glimpse at.


    "Are you sure?" Oyogu stammered, still staring at me like a curious cat. "I can always help you if you need something, I have explicit permission to, y''know!"


    "I''m fine, really! Gimme a break here, I''m still breathing, at least." I gave her a nervous chuckle before putting my hand on her shoulder. "I''ll tell you if I need anything, alright?"


    She crisply nodded in the affirmative.


    ¡°All rise, bow, be seated.¡±


    Footsteps and movements sounded in unison as they headed my commands. This was my day as class representative. To my surprise, it was oddly fulfilling.


    For some reason, I suddenly felt that I had purpose in that classroom. Even though it was a simple job¨Ccommanding the start of the session of class, cleaning after school, and ensuring the behavior of multiple students. It was¡­ fun, which was shocking, even coming from me.


    ¡°Trenor-kun, You really don¡¯t need to clean so late¡­¡±


    My head turned from the floor to the front of the classroom, where the English teacher was standing. He was in front of the lectern, and I was near the back of the room, broom in hand. I stuttered before replying.


    ¡°Er.. Robin-sensei, it¡¯s only thirty minutes past dismissal. I can still catch a train if I finish my work by four-thirty."


    ¡°Hmm¡­ Alright, you take care, then.¡± He smiled, and swiftly left the room with a bag slung over his shoulder. I sighed and continued cleaning.


    To call this purposeful would be putting it lightly. Doing this gave me a goal, something to work towards, even. The only thing really hindering me was the fact that my arm was still a little numb from the injection during the fight. Sometimes the scene sprang back in my head. Sometimes my fingers would go cold. Sometimes I freeze still. Sometimes¡­


    "Thomas?"


    My head instantly snapped back towards the door. The person that I saw was the last person I''d expect to step foot in here at this hour. Kikuoka. He was fitted in a slightly ragged suit, and had an apprentice on each side of him.


    I quickly let go of the broom to hold it in just my right hand, and bowed deeply.


    "That''s unnecessary, Thomas¡­" Kikuoka said blankly. I looked up in confusion.


    "Why?" I asked, furrowing my right eyebrow. Kikuoka scrunched his face a bit, as if considering if he should even continue speaking.


    "There''s something very important we need to show you."


    I asked him what was so important.


    "It''s¡­ It''s about your family."


    I felt my eyes widen and set the broom aside, and asked Kikuoka if he was serious, almost probing him for more info.


    My family had been lost to me for unknown reasons for the past three years. I had lost them in what I assumed was a house fire, created by an unknown cause. A part of me wanted to say that extremist parties burned the house down in a demonstration of domestic power of sorts, but another part of me wanted to say something much, much darker. Either way, the fact that Kikuoka and his team managed to come up with anything seemed like a miracle,


    "Are you serious? What-what about them?" I stammered, just barely able to climb over my own words.


    "It''s better if we show you, in private."


    Before I knew it, I was in a car, silently sitting in the back seat. Kikuoka was trying to lighten the mood with some humor, but I didn¡¯t really pay attention. I was too buried in my own thoughts to consider him as outside interference. In fact, I couldn¡¯t even hear him, thanks to the headphones I had in. I was playing a rock album that I decided to download onto my phone, mainly because it was good, but also because I had to learn it for a show in February.


    Outside the window, I saw crowds of people tearing down walls that were plastered in screens. For the ones they couldn¡¯t get too because they were so high off the ground, there were glass, metal bottles and cans thrown at them. Someone even brought a long pole with a metal tip to break the screens.


    It was chaos, but the government hadn¡¯t done anything to regulate the placement of the displays. It had even gone to the point that cameras were being installed into the displays to monitor the observation rate of advertisements. A brief analysis had shown that most of the ads the people immediately looked towards and pointed out were advertisements that were erotic, grotesque, or even downright stupid.


    ¡°Well, wherever you look, corruption will always find its way there¡­¡± I sighed, resting my head on the dimly tinted window.


    ¡°Hm? Hey, what''d ya mean? I¡¯m not corruptive!¡± Kikuoka argued jokingly. I decided to fire back.


    ¡°You¡¯re not corruptive, you¡¯re just unable to be taken seriously. That¡¯s especially true whenever I or Kazuto are nearby to listen to your useless babbling.¡±


    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kikuoka frown a little bit, being practically unamused from my statement, or rather sick burn.


    ¡°You do have one good quality, at least.¡±


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°And that is..?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re really fuckin¡¯ persistant. That¡¯s God¡¯s honest truth.¡±


    Kikuoka simply chuckled in the front passenger seat, but I felt a smirk poke at the edges of his mouth.


    ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± one of the men in suits said, stepping aside from a metal door.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Kikuoka simply said and gave a crisp salute, which I had never seen him do before¡­


    ¡°Just inside, Thomas. We¡¯ll have all the answers.¡±


    I was hoping they would.


    I had been taken to¡­ actually, I didn¡¯t know exactly where I was. I knew I was below ground-level, due to the elevator that took me down so far, but I also didn¡¯t know where I literally was, because before I arrived, they asked me to put on a blindfold and turn off my phone. When I asked why, an agent said, ¡°You¡¯re a liability, kid. Kiku doesn¡¯t want any of your other friends coming and asking questions, y¡¯know. It¡¯s for your safety, theirs, and ours.¡± At the time, I just sighed and obliged.


    The concrete walls didn¡¯t scream safety to me. They honestly gave off the impression that I was in some deep military bunker. It wasn¡¯t my first time seeing such bland walls, but I would digress. The rehab center I spent three months at during my physical and mental rehabilitation was covered in a clean monochrome all throughout. The only time I saw color or atmosphere was when I looked out of a window at Tokyo, but even that was desaturated and appeared more bland than ever.


    "Thomas," Kikuoka called my name with a concerned look. "Are you alright?"


    "Yeah, I''m fine. Let''s get this over with."


    With the swift turn of a key, the deadbolt released from the stainless steel door, and its contents were soon realized as we entered. Rack-mounted servers lined almost every surface, coming with a surprisingly soft hum with so much hardware that needed to be cooled. Everything was probably spun down right now, waiting for another major takes to compute. Not to mention, one of the walls had no such servers on it.


    Instead, it was covered in keyboards, mice, and monitors that were cable managed and organized to near perfection, if it wasn¡¯t for the unremovable coffee cup stains. Directly in the center of the table was a device, with two concentric metal rings, and a tinted front glass piece that followed the metal until they intersected. It was¡­


    "An Amusphere?"


    "Yes. It''s actually the same one that we used for your assignment earlier this week. We insisted to let you keep it but you were extremely busy assisting Ms. Asada."


    I just rolled my eyes and walked over to grab the device, putting it on over my head. Then, I took a seat in one of the plush office chairs. Kikuoka approached another chair¨Cor rather, looking willing enough to approach. Everyone else was in the back of the room, quietly waiting for.. something to happen?


    Either way, I activated the headgear, and logged in to get this over with.


    I opened my eyes to¡­ a blank white space. It was nearly the same size as the original room, but every surface was pure white.


    "What do you think?" A voice asked behind me. I turned around to see¡­ Chrysheight.


    "You brought your ALO avatar?"


    "You''re in your ALO avatar as well.. it seemed fitting to come from the same world." I looked down and sure enough, it was my old SAO gear wrapped onto a new body, my fairy body.


    "Alright¡­ Formalities are outta the way, what do you have to show me?" I glared, crossing my arms and shifting my weight onto one foot. Kikuoka began with a shaky breath of all things.


    "Over the past month, we''ve been finally getting search warrants regarding the disappearance of your family. I can''t show you everything, since it still has to be confirmed by eyewitnesses and cross-checked with other evidence, but¡­ I can assure you, they weren''t taken away from you by an outside party."


    "Meaning?"


    "Meaning, they weren''t taken away by extremists."


    My brain stopped for a moment. For the longest time, I had assumed that an extremist party¨Cspecifically against foreigners living in their native country¨Chad burned down the house I once lived in for five years. By the time I got out of Sword Art Online and could think rationally enough about the current situation, it was damning news. Some time between the start and end of SAO, the house that encapsulated five years of my life, five years of my memories¡­ was gone. Burned to ash. It was a miracle that no other buildings were harmed, but that left numerous unanswered questions.


    "Now, before we watch, I need to read something to you."


    "What do you mean?"


    "It''s a letter that was left on a computer. They managed to recover parts of the data, and they got a warrant to collect the other parts of the file from a cloud save that happened just before the incident."


    Kikuoka opened his menu and manifested a sheet of paper in front of him. He grabbed and drew it closer and began reading.


    What he read was reminiscent of a love letter, like a partner lost to time, unable to come back. In truth, it was moving, but it also made it seem like¡­


    ¡­I was the last person in their mind before they died.


    After the letter was read, Kikuoka cleared his throat. "Now, the video."


    Another quick scroll through his menu, and a remote appeared in front of him. He grabbed it, pointed it close, and pressed a single button.


    The room went dark and an angled CCTV recording of a neighborhood street was shown on a large holographic screen. It immediately reminded me of a view of a gas station I went to when I was younger. Because it was the gas station. It was the same one I went to every day for five years, up to when I was locked into SAO. The clerk got older by the years, but she was a nice woman, and had a smile like sunshine.


    The video was quickly skipped to a section where four figures stood in front of a Japanese style house, holding hands next to one another. Two figures ran out resembling pets. The glow on the front side of their bodies was bright orange, like fire. The figures puffed their chest up, then simply walked into the flames.


    My mind froze. My jaw slowly began to drop ever so slightly as I continued to watch. As time slowly ached forwards, my brain began to function again. Questions and rationals were forming by the millisecond but were quicker swiped away with a thought of, "No, why?! That doesn''t make sense!!" Chaotic thoughts racked in my brain like a hail of gunfire at a single target. Audible tones began to rise as time quickly passed. Questions kept coming, bullets kept firing, the cartridge shells spitting onto the ground, the entire audio spectrum rising and rising and rising. Nothing made sense. Why did they do it? Why did they walk into a fire that they created? What did it mean? Did they not love me? No, that was insane, the letter they left behind contradicted that, but just- why??


    But then one of the thoughts spoke true words.


    "It was¡­ as you just saw¡­ suicide."


    "Why..?" My throat croaked. My face felt like it was on fire at the same time, but I couldn''t tell if it was from burning rage, or hot tears.


    "We spoke to your neighbors after your parents passed. Every time they were at another''s for dinner, the mood was always downcast. It seems¡­ they were all severely depressed from your ab-" Kikuoka stopped at the same time I felt his eyes probe me in an invasive way.


    I took two crisp steps to turn around, and looked Kikuoka dead in the eye. "Seriously?! What gave you the right goddamn mind to think I want to watch them DIE?!" Kikuoka seemed to shiver as I yelled at him, but also took a deep breath to attempt to continue.


    "Thomas, I can assure you-"


    "Of what- Of fucking what?! Is this supposed to be some sort of reaction test?!" I quickly began to close the distance between me and Kikuoka, continuing to stare him down. Once close enough, I shoved him down onto the floor and stood above him.


    "Listen here, bud! And listen well! I''m not gonna deal with your bullshit anymore and I''m damn sure not going to do anymore "assignments," got it?! I''m tired of the shit you put me through. You think you have me in your back pocket, but I''m done being a goddamn puppet to you! That goes for Kazuto, too!"


    I cracked my knuckles and sent a single crisp swing to Kikuoka''s face. It connected, and dropped him to the floor. Even though I knew it wouldn''t hurt him¨Conly a little bit of numbness came from VR¨CI still wanted to drive home the point. But even then, it knew it''d be fruitless.


    "What do you have to say for yourself?"


    Kikuoka opened and closed his mouth several times before coming to a brief answer. "I''m¡­ sorry, for putting you through that."


    I just snarled and cursed at him. "Pathetic bastard. Never call me again."


    Two years in that godforsaken game.


    Killing monsters wasn''t so bad, I hardly remember it.


    But killing those mid-level players, watching as their friends cry¡­


    I see it every day. It''s not the PTSD, it¡¯s the guilt and the antidepressants..


    It''s been two years but it feels like millenia.


    Every word is getting longer, the mosquitos keep getting louder.


    When your HP runs out, time stops, and you''re stuck in the castle forever.


    It''s¡­ splits of skin on a dying body.


    I know what comes next. I need to ask you a favor¡­


    I need your strength, Oyogu¡­


    No¡­


    I need you.