CHAPTER TWO

PROJECT ALICIZATION, JULY 2026

1

Up above, the pale-white moon was visible through the window, intersected into four pieces by the window sash.

The sylph capital of Swilvane in southwest Alfheim was shrouded in the thick curtain of night, and most of the businesses were locked up tight. Even the number of players moving along the main street was slim, given that it was four o’clock in the morning in the real world, the least active period of the day.

Asuna looked from the window back to the table and lifted her steaming mug. The dark tea stimulated her tongue with virtual heat. She didn’t feel tired, but after three days of not getting decent sleep, there was a dull weight sitting inside her head.

She closed her eyes and traced her temples. The sylph girl sitting next to her noticed, and worriedly asked, “Are you all right, Asuna? Have you been getting proper sleep?”

“No, I’m all right. What about you, Leafa? You’ve been running all over the place.”

“I’m fine. My real body’s getting plenty of rest on my bed right now.”

They both grimaced, realizing that their respective claims of good health sounded hollow and false.

This was the virtual home owned by Suguha Kirigaya’s Leafa avatar in the world of ALfheim Online (ALO). A lamp that flickered in different colors cast light on the gleaming, rainbow-shell walls of the circular room, giving the scene a fantastical feeling. The pearl-white table at the center of the room had four chairs around it, three of which were filled.

The third character present, a girl with ice-blue hair and triangular ears, steepled her fingers and warned, “If you keep pushing it, you won’t be sharp when it really matters. Even when you can’t sleep, just lying down and closing your eyes makes a big difference.”

This was the cait sith avatar of Shino Asada, only six months old in game time. She called her Sinon, the same name as her character back in her “home” game of Gun Gale Online (GGO).

Asuna glanced at Sinon and murmured, “I know…When the meeting’s over, I’ll borrow a bed here and sleep. If only sleep magic worked on the players themselves.”

“If only my brother were sleeping in the rocking chair over there. That would do the trick,” Leafa said. Both Asuna and Sinon broke into smiles but without much heart behind them.

Leafa set down her cup on the table and took a deep breath, getting serious. “Well, let’s get started. First, the information that I managed to find out today—I mean, yesterday. The short answer is that I didn’t find any positive evidence that Big Brother was taken to the National Defense Medical College in Tokorozawa. Yes, the records show that he’s in the brain surgery ward on the twenty-third floor, but they have the entire floor completely shut off from visitors, not just his room, and there’s no record of any ambulance arriving during the expected period of time. Yui hacked into the security-camera footage just in case, so we can be certain about that.”

“Meaning…it’s quite possible that Kirito is not at the NDMC hospital at all?” Sinon asked. Leafa nodded.

“It’s hard to believe that it could be true…but it’s simply crazy that his own immediate family isn’t even allowed to see him…”

She shook her head. A heavy silence sank onto the room.

Leafa’s older brother, Kirito—real name Kazuto Kirigaya—had been attacked just two days earlier, on June 29th, by Atsushi Kanamoto, also known as “Johnny Black,” on the run for his part in the Death Gun incident.

On the streets of Miyasaka in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo, not far from Asuna’s house, Kanamoto injected Kazuto with a dose of toxic succinylcholine. It rapidly paralyzed his muscles and arrested his respiration. They put him on a ventilator in the ambulance, but the lack of oxygen sent him into cardiac arrest as well, and by the time they had arrived at nearby Setagaya General Hospital, he was pronounced DOA.

Whether it was the skill of the ER doctor, the hardiness of Kazuto’s vitality, or some combination of astrological luck for the two that day, their efforts at resuscitation succeeded in bringing back a faint heartbeat. As the drug broke down, he eventually resumed breathing on his own, and thus Kazuto miraculously returned from the brink of death. When the doctor finished his work and explained the situation to Asuna, she had nearly passed out from relief—but could not accept what he told her next.

He said that Kazuto’s heart had been stopped for over five minutes, which raised the possibility of brain damage. She would have to steel herself for the potential of lasting mental or physical disability—perhaps even a permanent vegetative state.

The doctor concluded by saying they wouldn’t know anything for sure until he got an MRI at another facility, and anxiety and fear descended on Asuna a second time. She managed to call Suguha and explain the situation, and the moment Kazuto’s sister arrived, she burst into tears again.

Eventually, Midori Kirigaya, Kazuto’s mother, arrived at the hospital straight from her workplace in Iidabashi, and they spent the night on the bench in front of the ICU.

On the morning of June 30th, a nurse explained that he was no longer in critical condition. Asuna and Suguha stopped at Asuna’s home nearby, while Midori went back home to Kawagoe to get their insurance forms and other items.

The two girls showered and informed their schools of their absence that day, and both lay down in an attempt to sleep. They dozed and woke several times over the next few hours, trading comments here and there, until Midori called Asuna at around one in the afternoon.

She flew to the phone and learned that, sadly, Kazuto was still unconscious. They had transferred him to NDMC, closer to Kawagoe, to run tests and offer more advanced treatment options. Midori said an ambulance would take him over, and she would follow in a taxi once she’d cleared up some paperwork. Asuna replied that they’d head to the new hospital at once.

Right around 1:40 PM on the 30th, the comatose Kazuto was loaded into an ambulance that left the emergency bay of Setagaya General Hospital. The hospital’s security cameras had caught that much, as confirmed by Yui.

According to the records, that ambulance arrived at the hospital of the National Defense Medical College in the city of Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, at 2:45 PM of that day. Kazuto was instantly ushered to the brain surgery ward on the 23rd floor, given an MRI, and was undergoing observation. Both Asuna and Suguha believed this account without suspicion—until they had visited that hospital late at night two days ago and were refused access to him or even remote footage of his bed.

Asuna pondered what Leafa had just said, then nodded.

“We know for certain that Kirito was taken out of the hospital in Setagaya in an ambulance. And there’s a ‘Kazuto Kirigaya’ in the records of NDMC…but no one has seen him there, and there’s no sign of him on the security footage. If his ambulance was heading somewhere other than NDMC…and assuming it isn’t some kind of clerical accident in the patient data…”

“Then it’s intentional falsifying of information. In other words…an abduction,” Sinon finished calmly, her pointed ears twitching. “But if that’s the case, does it mean the ambulance itself was a fake? EMT uniforms are one thing, but could they really summon a vehicle out of thin air?”

Leafa answered, “I asked Recon, since he likes cars, but he says it’s impossible for any amateur source to mock up a fake ambulance that would fool a real medical facility, and even for the pros, it takes a ton of money and time. Nobody could have predicted that Kanamoto would attack Big Brother in Setagaya at that very moment, and it was only eighteen hours between when he was brought in and when he was transferred out…”

“So it would have been physically impossible to prepare a fake ambulance after they learned Kirito had been attacked,” Asuna concluded.

Sinon continued, “But if that’s the case, could someone have had this fake vehicle ready the entire time, waiting for a target—any target—and it was just Kirito’s bad luck that he got nabbed…?”

“That doesn’t seem to be the case,” Leafa said, ponytail waving as she shook her head. She paused, then explained, “Normally, when patients are transferred between hospitals, the outgoing hospital calls the district medical center for an ambulance dispatch. But according to Yui, no one actually placed that call, and yet the ambulance arrived right on time. Seems like everyone at the hospital just assumed one of the others made the call. And yet, the staffers in the ambulance itself knew he was headed for NDMC in Tokorozawa, as well as the patient’s name. The nurse who was on standby when they showed up said so.”

“…Then it really was a planned abduction designed just for Kirito…”

“Which means the culprit was someone who had access to that information the moment he was admitted to the hospital and could dispatch a real ambulance for their own purposes,” Asuna concluded. The other two nodded a second later.

Their hesitation stemmed from a fear of combining too many assumptions. Asuna felt the same way about it. After all, if their hypothesis was true, it meant they were dealing with someone with at least as much influence as the Fire and Disaster Management Agency that operated the ambulance system.

A part of them hoped it really was just their imaginations running wild.

Perhaps Kazuto really was receiving treatment at the National Defense Medical Center, and they couldn’t see video of him because it would interfere with the sensitive machinery, and the lack of ambulance footage was the result of simple camera malfunction…Common sense said this was more likely to be true. And Kazuto and Suguha’s own mother, Midori, had to believe the official record, of course. This fuss about kidnapping and falsified information was just a bit of group paranoia from a trio of extremely concerned young girls. There was no crime, Kazuto was being treated, and very soon they would hear back that he was awake again…

But a part of Asuna, separate from her common sense and logical judgment, was painfully aware that something was happening. That same feeling had to be occurring within Kazuto’s sister, Leafa, as well as Sinon, who had been through a battle of life and death with him, too.

They didn’t think that Kanamoto’s succinylcholine attack on Kazuto was part of this mysterious plan, but it had most certainly been used to the abductor’s advantage once it happened.

“…Whether it’s an individual or a group, I’m going to consider whoever did this to be the enemy,” Asuna proclaimed with firm finality.

Sinon looked surprised, then recovered and grinned. “Actually…I was pretty worried that you two would be really depressed about this. After all, he’s Leafa’s big brother and Asuna’s, well, boyfriend…I mean, he’s unconscious, and now missing on top of that…”

To her surprise, Asuna realized that she really wasn’t as defeated as she’d thought. And she’d cried her eyes out for so long that first night…

Leafa clutched her hands together in front of her chest and protested, “But…we are worried. And yet, while I was horrified to learn that Big Brother might not be at the hospital, a part of me also thought, I knew it. I just knew that he was getting involved in something major again…that he was carrying on somewhere I couldn’t even imagine. That’s what happened with SAO, it’s what happened with Death Gun…and it’s probably what’s happening now…”

“Yeah…I agree,” added Asuna, once again reminded that she couldn’t match Suguha’s instincts about Kazuto in terms of sheer length of experience.

“Kirito’s on his own somewhere, fighting like he always is. Which means we need to fight in our own way,” she said, and eyed Sinon. “You don’t seem too depressed about it, either, Shino-non.”

“Er…well, uh…in my case, I fully believe that the only person who can beat him is me, so…” Sinon mumbled weakly. Asuna gave her a critical glance, then decided to return to the topic at hand.

“Anyway…even based on the ambulance incident alone, we can assume the enemy is extremely powerful.”

“What if we take this up with the police? Maybe if we have an officer escorting us, the hospital will be forced to at least show us some remote video of him,” Sinon suggested sensibly, but Asuna shook her head.

“Both the time of Kirito’s arrival at NDMC and his transfer to brain surgery are right there on their server. All the data say that he’s there. The police aren’t going to act on a suspicion of abduction solely because there’s no video of him arriving. Especially not if we have to explain how we know that…”

“Because Yui hacked into their system,” Sinon said with a snort. “Oh…but in that case, what if we checked the interior camera network at the hospital, not just the exterior bay cameras? If we can find any shots of the room where Kirito’s supposed to be staying…”

“The problem is, the interior security is on a different system than the exterior. It’s extremely well-defended, and even Yui can’t get in there,” Leafa pointed out sadly. She had spent the entire day researching Setagaya General Hospital and the National Defense Medical College, which were far apart. Even with Yui’s help on her phone, the travel alone had been very exhausting.

Asuna had wanted to join her, of course, but now that Kirito’s medical condition was stable, she wasn’t allowed to stay out of school for a second day. Instead, she had transferred some electronic cash charged to her phone over to Leafa for taxi fare. Obviously, she didn’t have much success focusing on class.

Kazuto’s absence at school was simply labeled illness, so none of their classmates knew about the attack, not even their close friends Rika Shinozaki (Lisbeth) and Keiko Ayano (Silica). The guilt of hiding half the truth from her worried friends was tearing Asuna apart on the inside.

But after talking to Leafa yesterday morning, she had come to a decision. Until they had at least determined whether Kazuto was at NDMC or not, the details of the incident would remain with them and Sinon only.

The reason for Sinon’s inclusion was her presence at Dicey Café just before the attack and her connection to the Death Gun incident. On top of that, her calmness and intelligence were a huge boost to their efforts. Those sniper’s instincts continued to serve her well in the world of ALO.

Asuna said, “Our greatest weapon is the fact that we know Kirito better than anyone else. So let’s take a step back and think. If the enemy’s target was Kirito all along, what would their motive be?”

“I hate to say it, but if they were after ransom money, they would go for you, Asuna. And we haven’t had any contact from the culprit?” Sinon asked. Leafa shook her head.

“No calls, no e-mails, no letters. Besides, it’s too elaborate to be a kidnapping for personal gain. My brother’s not such a big shot that he’s worth preparing a fake ambulance to kidnap him from the hospital.”

“That’s true…Well, I don’t like to consider this, but could it be a grudge? Can you think of anyone who might have it in for Kirito…?”

Asuna shook her head slowly. “I’m sure that there are other survivors of SAO who hate him for throwing them into prison there. But which of them would have the finances and connections to pull off a stunt like this…?”

For a moment, the face of Nobuyuki Sugou flashed through Asuna’s mind—the man who had attempted to run his own grisly tests on former SAO players until Kirito got the police to arrest him. But he still had to be behind bars. The fact that he’d been preparing to flee the country meant they would never offer him bail.

“…No, I can’t think of anyone who would go this far.”

“So if it’s not for money or for revenge, then…hmmm…”

Sinon looked down for a while, brushed the pointed tips of her ears with her fingertips, and hesitantly offered, “Well…this is just a guess with no evidence behind it…but if the enemy is going to the length of kidnapping Kirito for reasons other than money or hate, then it probably means they absolutely need him at this moment. Or need something about him. Something he possesses…some ‘attribute’ of his, in gaming terms. Can you think of what that might be?”

“His talent for the sword,” Asuna replied instantly. Whenever she closed her eyes and envisioned Kirito, the first image she saw was of his SAO form, clad in black and whirling like a storm through the enemy, his dual blades flashing.

Leafa had the same idea through their adventures in ALO, and she added, “His reaction speed.”

“His adaptability to the system.”

“His quick judgment of the situation.”

“His survivability…Ah!”

Once they had alternated listing enough traits, Asuna realized something. Sinon nodded knowingly and said, “Exactly. They’re all VRMMO skills.”

It was so true that Asuna had to protest, “B-but Kirito has lots of good traits in real life, too.”

“Well, of course. He buys us food all the time. But to the average person, he’s just an ordinary teenage boy. Doesn’t that mean that if the enemy put together this elaborate plan, it had to be for the sake of Kirito’s incredible VR abilities?”

“No way…Do you think they’re trying to get him to beat some VR game? But Big Brother isn’t even conscious right now. He hasn’t had any treatment or tests; how do they expect to get anything out of him…?” Leafa protested, clenching fists out of concern for Kirito’s predicament.

Sinon’s steel-blue eyes looked down at the table, then narrowed with the focus of a hunter on its prey. She murmured, “He might be ‘unconscious’…but only to outward appearances. If they used a machine that didn’t access his brain but his soul directly…”

“Ah!” Asuna gasped, stunned that she hadn’t thought of that yet.

“Right?” said Sinon. “If you think of it that way, you can imagine a group that would fit the profile of our enemy. A group that has a completely unique device that accesses the soul and was using Kirito for a test run just days ago.”

Asuna nodded. “So…the ones who abducted Kirito are the developers of the Soul Translator…? Well, if Rath has the funding to create that unbelievable machine, they certainly have enough to mock up an ambulance…”

“Rath…? The company my brother’s been working for lately?” Leafa asked.

This surprised Asuna. She leaned forward and asked, “Wait, you know about Rath, Leafa?”

“Er, not really…just that the company is based in Roppongi in Tokyo.”

“You know, I think I remember hearing that, too. But Roppongi’s a big area…and I don’t think the police are going to spring into action based on a tip that a company named Rath is based somewhere around there and Kirito might be with them.”

Sinon bit her lip. Leafa looked down in worry. Asuna hesitated, then said, “Listen…I didn’t bring this up before, because I didn’t want to say until I knew for sure, but there is one very fragile link between Kirito and me. But it’s quite possible that it broke at some point…”

“…What do you mean, Asuna?”

“Remember when I explained about the thing he has, Shino-non?” Asuna said, tapping her chest over her heart.

“Oh, right…that heart monitor. You said it was sending information to your cell phone over the Internet…”

“The signal died out a while back, but it’s possible that if we retrace the source of the signal to when he was in the fake ambulance, we might pin down his location. So I asked for an analysis of the information.”

“…Asked who?”

Asuna answered by calling out into the air, “How’s it looking, Yui?”

A little burst of light appeared a few inches above the table and coalesced into the form of a tiny person. Then it flashed a bit brighter and went out.

What remained was a miniature female avatar, barely four inches tall. She had straight black hair, a white dress, and four shining rainbow wings on her back. The little fairy’s long eyelashes rose so that her big eyes could look at Asuna, then Leafa and Sinon. Apparently, her AI determined Sinon to be the most important person to address, and so she made a formal bow as she hovered in the air. “It’s good to see you again, Sinon.”

Her voice was like a plucked harp string. Sinon grinned a little bit and replied, “Good evening, Yui…or should I say, ‘good morning’?”

“The present time is 4:32 AM, and today’s sunrise is marked as 4:29, so I believe it is appropriate to consider this morning. Good morning, Leafa, Mama.”

Yui was formerly a player-counseling AI in the old SAO. She turned sixty degrees to address each person individually, then resumed hovering in front of Asuna. “I am ninety-eight percent finished tracing the packets sent from Papa’s biomonitor to Mama’s cell phone.”

“Very good. So if it turns out that the packets were sent from around Roppongi, it will add quite a lot of credence to our theory,” Sinon suggested, and Asuna nodded. The three girls looked at Yui expectantly.

“I will now announce the results thus far. Unfortunately, the defense on the cell tower relays is rather imposing, though not as much as the National Defense Medical College’s, and therefore I have only identified three signal sources,” Yui said. She waved her hand, and a holographic map of Tokyo appeared on the tabletop beneath her. Her wings stopped so she could land, and she took a few steps to point at a particular location. A red dot appeared with a soft bing.

“This is Setagaya General Hospital, where Papa was first taken. The first transmission location is here.”

She took a few more steps and pointed to a new light. “Aobadai 3-chome in Meguro Ward, around two fifteen PM, June thirtieth, 2026. I will indicate the predicted travel route.”

A white line appeared along the roads between the two points. Yui moved to the southwest again and indicated a third point, which the line expanded to reach. “The second location was in Shiroganedai 1-chome, Minato Ward, at three PM.”

The route was heading a bit too far south to be straight from Setagaya to Roppongi, Asuna noticed apprehensively, but she waited for Yui to continue.

“And…here is the third and final transmission source.”

To their surprise, Yui pointed to an area of reclaimed land along the coast—far to the east of Roppongi.

“Shin-kiba 4-chome, Koto Ward, at about nine fifty PM. There have been no signals from Papa in the thirty hours since then.”

“Shin-kiba?!” Asuna gaped. But now that she considered it, there were a number of high-tech “intelligent buildings” in the newly redeveloped area around there. Perhaps Rath had a second base somewhere in that vicinity.

“Yui…what kind of facility is at that address?” she asked, feeling her pulse quicken. The answer was even more surprising.

“The facility that corresponds to this location is called ‘Tokyo Heliport.’”

“Wait…you mean it’s a helicopter pad?” Sinon mumbled.

Leafa’s face immediately paled, too. “A helicopter?! Does that mean…they could have loaded him up and taken him far away?”

“B-but wait,” Asuna stammered, trying to sort out her jumbled thoughts. “Yui, you said there hasn’t been a single signal since that one from Shin-kiba?”

“Correct…”

For the first time, a solemn expression appeared on Yui’s angelic little features.

“There are no further traces of Papa’s heart monitor connecting to any cell tower in Japan.”

“Does that mean…they took him in a helicopter to someplace where his signal couldn’t reach any towers, like in the mountains…or the wilderness?” Leafa wondered.

Sinon shook her head. “No matter where they landed, they’d ultimately have to take him to some kind of facility. It’s unthinkable for a cutting-edge start-up to be out of range for cell signals. And even if they put him somewhere that shielded his signal, he would have connected at some point first…”

“What if he’s not in Japan…? What if he’s…overseas?” Asuna asked in a trembling voice. No one could give her an immediate answer.

Eventually, Yui broke the uncomfortable silence with a voice both innocent and relaxed. “There are no helicopters with enough range to reach a foreign country without landing, outside of a few military models. I cannot state with authority due to lack of present data, but I do think Papa is still within the country.”

“True. Rath’s big project is something that could overturn our current VR tech, right? It’s hard to imagine that they’d store their biggest secrets in a lab in another country,” Sinon added.

Asuna agreed with her; her own father’s electronics development company, RCT, took great pains to defend against corporate spies. From what she heard, the company’s R&D lab was located in a highly secure complex in the hills of Tama. They had other facilities abroad, too, but leaks from those places were undeniably more frequent than at their domestic offices.

Leafa thought this over and murmured, “Then…I suppose it would have to be somewhere very remote within Japan…But is it even possible to create a super-secret lab like that nowadays?”

“I’m sure it’s got to be a large facility. Yui, have you learned anything else about Rath?” Asuna asked. Yui flitted back into the air and stopped at the other girls’ eye level.

“I used twelve public search engines and three private ones but found no business name, location name, or VR development project relating to the name Rath. On top of that, I found no traces of resources or patent submissions in any way connected to ‘Soul Translation.’”

“An incredible, historic machine capable of interfacing with the human soul, and it doesn’t even have a patent pending…? They really are serious about keeping it a secret, I guess.” Asuna sighed, realizing that they weren’t likely to spot any cracks in Rath’s armor.

Sinon shook her head in disbelief. “It almost…makes you doubt that it’s even a real company. If we’d known this would happen, we would have asked Kirito more about them. Can you remember anything he said last time we met that might function as a clue…?”

“Hmm…”

She frowned and filtered through her memories. The shock of Kanamoto’s attack and now the suspected abduction were so huge that their peaceful chat at Dicey Café just hours before the chaos seemed faded into the distant past.

“I remember…that it got late while we were talking about the way the Soul Translator works. Also…something about the origin of the name ‘Rath’…”

“Right…it’s that pig-or-turtle thing from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It’s funny that they’d describe it that way, since a pig and turtle look nothing alike.”

“Well, Lewis Carroll, who actually invented the word, didn’t describe them at all. That’s just what Alice scholars have conjectured over the years…” Asuna said, and paused suddenly. She felt like something had brushed her brain. “Alice…Didn’t Kirito say something about Alice as we were leaving the café?”

“Huh?” Both Sinon and Leafa looked wide-eyed at her. “Big Brother was talking about Alice in Wonderland?”

“No, it wasn’t that…He said that inside the Rath lab, Alice was a word—well, abbreviation…What’s it called when the first letters of a string of words get put together and form a different meaning?”

“An acronym, you mean. It’s the kind of thing the American government does a lot with agencies to make their names easier to say,” Sinon explained.

Leafa’s ponytail bobbed as she said, “Meaning…you have five different words whose initials spell out A-L-I-C-E?”

“Yes, exactly. Let’s see, I think he said…”

Asuna focused with all her mind to pick out the memory of Kirito’s familiar voice in the distance. She carefully sounded out the English words.

“…Artificial…label…intelligen…and I couldn’t make out the C or the E, but that’s the A-L-I,” she managed to say, feeling a faint headache coming on from squeezing the sponge of her memory too hard. But the other two girls only looked confused.

“Well, I know artificial means ‘man-made.’ And intelligen must be short for ‘intelligence’…But what’s label? Like a clothing label?” Sinon wondered.

Yui answered immediately. “Given the context, I believe that pronunciation most likely corresponds to the word labile. It is an adjective meaning ‘adaptable’ or ‘changing.’” She paused, then added, “If one were to interpret the phrase ‘Artificial Labile Intelligence,’ it might be rephrased as ‘Highly Adaptive Artificial Intelligence.’”

Asuna blinked at the sudden influx of complicated words. “Oh, right…of course! We use the abbreviation AI so often, I sometimes forget what it actually stands for. But how does AI relate to a company developing a brain-machine interface?”

“Wouldn’t it be referring to automated characters in the virtual space? You know, like NPCs,” Sinon suggested. She pointed at the shops outside the window. Still, Asuna’s lips were pursed with doubt.

“But if we’re assuming that the name Rath is taken from Alice in Wonderland, and ALICE is some internal Rath code name relating to AI…Don’t you find that weird? That makes it sound like the company isn’t focused on developing a next-gen VR interface but the AI that operates inside it.”

“Hmm, I suppose not…But NPCs aren’t at all rare in video games, and AI support systems for desktop PCs are fairly common nowadays. Is this project really so crazy that they’d hide the entire existence of the company and abduct people to help develop it?” Sinon wondered.

Asuna had no immediate response. With each step forward, they seemed to run into a new, ugly wall. On top of that, there was the danger that their thought process was taking them somewhere completely off the real trail—but she was still desperate for clues to go on.

“Say, Yui. What is artificial intelligence, anyway?”

Yui put on a surprisingly complex, uncomfortable expression and descended to the table. “You’re going to ask me that, Mama? That’s like my asking you what it means to be human.”

“Oh. G-good point.”

“To be strictly technical, it is impossible to define anything as artificial intelligence. That is because there has never been a true artificial intelligence in existence,” she stated, sitting on the lip of the teapot. The three girls were stunned.

“B-but…aren’t you an AI, Yui? Why wouldn’t that term apply to you?” Leafa mumbled.

Yui tilted her head and thought, like a teacher wondering how to answer a student’s question. Then she nodded and proceeded to explain.

“Let us start by discussing what is currently referred to as an AI. Before the millennium, developers of artificial intelligence used two different approaches toward the same goal. One was called top-down AI and the other was called bottom-up AI.”

Asuna focused very hard on the explanation, which was made more difficult by the distracting fact that Yui’s programmed voice sounded too young for such advanced vocabulary.

“First, top-down. This approach involves taking simple question-answer programs and protocols based on existing computer architecture, then feeding them more knowledge and experience until they eventually learn enough to approach true intelligence. Nearly all currently existing AIs, including me, are based on the top-down development method. In other words, the ‘intelligence’ I possess looks like yours but is actually completely different. Simply put, I am nothing more than an elaborate version of a program that says, ‘If they ask A, answer B.’”

Asuna decided that the faint tinge of loneliness in Yui’s pale features was just a trick of the eyes.

“For example, when you asked, ‘What is artificial intelligence?’ just now, I chose to display the emotional subroutine corresponding to ‘discomfort.’ That was the result of my experience observing that Papa often exhibits a similar reaction when asked about himself. In fundamental terms, my functionality works the same way as the predictive software in your phone that automatically converts phonetic kana characters into complex kanji, or autocorrect. In other words, this model of program is unable to formulate a proper response to an entry it hasn’t studied or learned from. Therefore, we must state that top-down artificial intelligence is not currently at what might be considered true intelligence. This would be the so-called AI that you are familiar with.”

Yui paused and stared out the window at the distant, shining moon.

“Next, I will explain bottom-up artificial intelligence. This is the idea that involves re-creating the human brain—a biological amalgamation of one hundred billion brain cells connected in complex ways—in an electronic fashion, in order to simulate intelligence.”

It was such a vast, unthinkably implausible idea that Asuna couldn’t help but mutter, “Isn’t that…impossible…?”

“Yes,” Yui answered at once. “As far as I am aware, the bottom-up AI approach has never left the realm of thought exercise. If it were possible, that would produce true intelligence of the same level as any of yours and fundamentally different than my own…”

She stopped gazing into the far distance and returned her attention to the table. “To sum it up, the term AI as we know it today has two distinct meanings. One refers to imitative intelligence: AIs like me, navigation programs, or game NPCs. The other is true intelligence with the same sentience, creativity, and adaptability as the human mind—and that only exists in concept.”

“Adaptability,” Asuna repeated. “Adaptive artificial intelligence.”

All eyes focused on her. She looked back at them, set by set, and finally found the words to express what she was thinking.

“What if…the Soul Translator that Rath is developing isn’t the goal but the means…? Just think about it. Kirito was wondering about that himself. He thought Rath was trying to achieve something using the STL…What if analyzing the structure of the human soul…is part of an attempt to create a true AI—the world’s first bottom-up artificial intelligence…?”

“And ALICE is the code name of that true AI?” Leafa murmured.

Sinon was equally awestruck. “And that would mean Rath isn’t developing a next-gen VR interface. They’re actually constructing an artificial intelligence…?”

The further they theorized, the more vast and obscure their unseen enemy became. Even Yui furrowed her brow, as though struggling to process the amount of incoming data.

Asuna reached out and recharged her mug with hot tea using the pop-up menu, then took a big swig. When she exhaled, she felt ready to attempt a reassessment of the enemy’s power.

“Assuming Rath is our enemy, it’s looking like we’re dealing with something much bigger than just a venture-capital experiment. They have the means to use a fake ambulance and a helicopter to stage abductions, they have this monster STL machine in an unknown location, and their goal is to create an AI that has human-level intelligence and sophistication. Kirito got involved with Rath on that job through Chrysheight—Mr. Kikuoka from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Maybe that wasn’t because he happens to have many connections with the VR industry but because Rath itself is connected with the government…”

“Seijirou Kikuoka,” Sinon muttered, looking suspicious. “I figured there was more to him than the dopey four-eyed look…And you still can’t reach him?”

“He hasn’t answered any calls since two days ago and won’t return any messages. I figured if I had to, I could visit the virtual division at the ministry office, but I doubt anything will come of it.”

“I suppose not…Kirito said he tried to tail the man once, but Kikuoka shook him off before he knew it…”

Four years ago, after the SAO Incident began, the Ministry of Internal Affairs had created a “Victim Rescue Office” that was reconfigured into an official division to handle VR-related problems after the initial incident was resolved. Government official Seijirou Kikuoka, characterized by his black-rimmed glasses, maintained a friendly relationship with Kazuto after his return to the real world. For some reason, he highly valued the teenager’s skills, going so far as to hire him for help in the Death Gun investigation.

Asuna had met him in real life on multiple occasions, and she’d partied up with him in ALO, where he played the undine mage Chrysheight. But she always stayed wary around him, unable to shake the sensation that his too-friendly exterior hid something unknown behind it. He liked to claim that he was trapped in a boring, dead-end position, but Kazuto often told her in private that he suspected the man’s true affiliation was in a different department.

Kikuoka was also the man who had brought Kazuto the part-time job offer with the mysterious Rath, and while Asuna had tried to make contact with him several times since Kazuto’s disappearance, Kikuoka’s phone would immediately reply with an automated message claiming it was out of a service area.

When she finally got fed up and called the ministry itself, they had told her Kikuoka was on assignment overseas. That would explain his unavailability, but given the suspiciously unfortunate timing, part of her wanted to suspect that he was connected to Kazuto’s disappearance.

“But,” Leafa started, looking at Asuna’s and Sinon’s scowls, “assuming Rath and the government are connected through this Kikuoka person, what’s the point of keeping everything so secret? A company needs to maintain their secrets in order to protect their business property, but if the country itself is involved in this incredible project, wouldn’t they try to promote it as much as possible?”

“That’s…true…” Sinon murmured hesitantly.

In recent years, virtual reality development was considered one of the two great frontiers of scientific progress, along with space development. Nations around the world like America, Russia, China, and Japan were busy promoting their space programs with planned projects like orbital spacecraft without external boosters, manned moon bases, and the construction of space elevators. Asuna couldn’t see why they would bother to cover up a project with just as much impact (if not more so), like the creation of a true artificial intelligence.

And if Kirito’s abduction was part of some top-secret national project, there was nothing simple teenagers like them could do about it. It would be beyond even the scope of the police. Asuna felt the weight of her own helplessness bearing down on her. She glanced at the table and noticed the little fairy watching her.

“Yui…?”

“Please cheer up, Mama. When you were trapped here in Alfheim, Papa never once gave up.”

“B-but…I…”

“Now it’s your turn to search for Papa!”

Despite the fairy’s claim that all her reactions were the result of a simple learning program, Yui’s encouraging smile was astonishing in its gentleness and warmth. “The thread that connects us to Papa must be intact. I believe that even the government of Japan cannot sever the connection between you two.”

“…Thank you, Yui. I’m not going to give up. If the government is our enemy, then I’ll march right into the National Diet Building and take it up with the prime minister directly!”

“That’s the spirit!”

Asuna and her daughter beamed at each other, while Sinon looked on, frowning.

“…What is it, Shino-non?”

“Er, well…thinking realistically, just because Rath is working on secret research with the government doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire government and the Diet are entirely aware of the nature of that research.”

“True…And?”

“If this is a top-secret project being undertaken by a single ministry, wouldn’t there still be one thing they absolutely couldn’t hide?”

“What’s that…?”

“The budget! It’s clear that this research facility and STL must cost an astronomical amount. I don’t know how many billions of yen this costs, but it’s got to be enough that they can’t simply sneak it out of the treasury or our tax money. It has to be listed somewhere in the national budget, under one name or another.”

“Hmm, but according to what Yui searched, there are no VR-related projects commanding that level of funding…Oh, I see! Unless that’s the wrong keyword…Maybe artificial intelligence, rather than VR?” Asuna wondered, glancing at Yui. The fairy nodded seriously, told them to wait a moment, and spread her arms. The ends of her fingers began to crackle with purple light. She was connecting to the net from within ALO.

After several seconds of hopeful and concerned anticipation, Yui’s eyelids opened. In a flat, electronic affect totally unlike her previous tone of voice, she announced, “I have accessed the publicly released budget appropriation submissions for each ministry last year. Searching for keywords like artificial intelligence, AI, and thirty-eight other related terms…I have found funds earmarked for eighteen universities and seven nonprofit organizations, but all are in fairly small amounts…The Ministry of Education and Science is working on an AI project for nursing robots, but I conclude this is unrelated…The Ministry of Land and Transport’s marine resource probe project…Self-driving automobile project…Both concluded unrelated…”

Yui continued rattling off dry, official-sounding projects, but she judged all of them to be irrelevant and shook her head at the end.

“…I did not discover any unnaturally large budget requests that would match the expected scope of a project like this in the general accounts or special accounts. It’s possible that they are spread among multiple smaller invoices or fraudulently represented, but it would be very difficult to determine either case based on public records alone.”

“Hmm…so they didn’t leave us any obvious trails that would easily identify them.” Sinon groaned, crossing her arms.

Desperate to cling to any possibility, Asuna suggested, “But maybe Rath’s budget is hiding somewhere in those projects Yui just found under a different name. Is there any way we could figure that out? I mean, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with finding underwater resources…Why did that particular research show up in your search?”

“Well…” Yui said, half closed her eyes again, accessed some distant database, then looked up. “It seems the research is on small drone submarines that can autonomously search for oil and rare metal deposits on the seafloor. The budget in question is for the AI that would pilot the device, but it showed up in my search filter because the amount seemed a bit large for the level of priority.”

“Wow, they’ll even make robots for stuff like that…I wonder where they’re developing that?”

“The project is labeled under ‘Ocean Turtle,’ a self-propelled mega-float completed this February for the purposes of marine research.”

“Oh, I saw that in the news,” Leafa interjected. “It’s more like a pyramid floating on the ocean than a ship.”

“Right, I heard about that, too. Ocean…Turtle…” Asuna murmured. She frowned, glanced down briefly, then back up. “Say, Yui…do you have any images of that research ship?”

“Yes, just a moment.”

She waved her right hand, and a screen appeared over the table, turning into a holographic depiction of the ocean, as it had done with the map earlier. Many little lights turned into a tiny wire frame, with textures filling in before their eyes.

The model that appeared was indeed a black pyramid at first glance, floating on the water. But when viewed from above, the base was not square but rectangular, with the long side about half the size of the short side. The height of the pyramid seemed roughly equal to the short side. Aside from some long, narrow windows, the surface was perfectly smooth, a shining dark-gray color. On closer look, the surface appeared to be crammed with hexagonal solar panels.

At each corner of the pyramid base were large, protruding structures that were probably to help steer it, and on one of the short sides was a bridge structure that looked like a small building. The H symbol on top had to signify a heliport. The model itself was so small that they were stunned to see that according to the scale measure on the side, the long end of the float was nearly a quarter of a mile in length.

“I see…Between the four legs, the square head, and the shell-like pyramid, it does kind of look like a turtle. A very big one…” Sinon noted, impressed.

Asuna glanced over and pointed at the bridge section of the massive Ocean Turtle craft. “But…look. See how this part here on the head kind of juts out like it’s flat? Doesn’t it look like a different kind of animal?”

“Ohh, you’re right. It’s a bit like a pig. A swimming turtle-pig,” Leafa chimed in jokingly.

Then she realized the implication of what she’d just said and gasped. Her lips worked soundlessly, and she eventually managed to wring out, “A turtle…and a pig…”

Asuna, Sinon, and Leafa shared a knowing look, and they spoke in unison.

“Rath!”