3

Higa hesitantly broke the heavy silence that shrouded the sub-control room.

“Um, well…His body—that is, Kirigaya’s physical situation in the real world, as I just explained…does not leave room for optimism.”

When he saw how Asuna Yuuki flinched with Rinko Koujiro’s hands still on her shoulders, he hastily added, “B-but there’s also a slim hope!”

“…Meaning?” Rinko asked sharply but with a note of pleading as well.

“Kirito continues to be logged in to the Underworld.”

Higa looked up at the monitor, which was much smaller than the big one in the main control room they’d been chased from. With a few clicks of the mouse, the display turned into a full map of the Underworld with the circular human lands and the Dark Territory surrounding it.

“In other words, while his self-image might be damaged, his fluctlight itself continues to be active, and it receives and reacts to stimuli. So while it might not be possible here, maybe his soul can be healed in the Underworld instead. He damaged his own soul by excessive self-flagellation. So if someone else provides him with forgiveness…then maybe…”

Higa was aware that what he was saying was vague, unscientific. But it was also his honest, true opinion.

After the NerveGear and the Medicuboid, the Soul Translator was the latest evolution of brain-machine interface. But when it came to the fluctlight, the form of human quantum consciousness as discovered by the very machine Higa had helped develop, what he didn’t know vastly outweighed what he did.

Was the fluctlight a physical construct?

Or was it some kind of conceptual phenomenon that couldn’t be explained with modern science?

If the latter, perhaps Kazuto Kirigaya’s wounded and exhausted soul could be healed by some other power that surpassed science.

Such as, for example, love.

“…I’ll go.”

The tiny but determined voice filled the sub-control room just as the thought had entered Higa’s mind.

Everyone in the room held their breath as they looked at the one who spoke. Asuna Yuuki nodded to Rinko Koujiro to indicate that she was all right and took a step forward to repeat herself.

“I’ll go into the Underworld. I want to go in there and tell Kirito that he did good things. That through all the hardships and sad things that I’m sure happened, he did everything that he could.”

Higa was the kind of person who was prepared to be married to his work for life, but even he had to admit that the sight of Asuna, her light-brown eyes filled with tears, was indescribably beautiful.

Kikuoka appeared to have been struck by this sentiment, too, but after a moment, his lenses hid his eyes, and he looked at the door to the adjacent room.

“We do have another Soul Translator open,” the officer admitted, his face pensive. “But the Underworld is not in a peaceful state at the moment. Within a few hours by our time, it should be entering its final stress test phase, as we had planned it out.”

“Final…stress? What’s going to happen?” Rinko asked.

Higa cut in with a gesture to explain. “Well, um…to put it simply, the shell’s going to crack. The human territory and Dark Territory have been separated for centuries by the Eastern Gate, which is going to fall to zero durability and allow an army of monsters into the human lands. If humanity has built up a sufficient defensive structure, they should be able to drive back the invaders in the end. But in this experiment, Kirito mostly destroyed the Axiom Church, which is the ruling body, so…I’m not sure if that will happen…”

“In a sense, it might be necessary for one of us to dive in there, regardless,” Kikuoka muttered, crossing his arms. “When the invasion begins, it’s possible that wherever she is in the human lands, Alice could be killed. If that happens, then the entire locking of the main console to buy time will be for nothing…But if we take a high-ranking account, provide protection for Alice, escort her to the far altar, and eject her lightcube to Subcon, then…”

“Yes…that’s what you asked Kirito to do right before the accident,” Rinko noted. Kikuoka nodded powerlessly.

“Yes. If he had been well, I know he would have done it. He was right next to Alice at the time…”

“So even though months have passed on the inside since that point…you think it’s likely that they’re still together?”

Higa considered that question. “Yes…I think we can make that conjecture. So maybe we should ask Asuna to do the dive…Not only will she be best at communicating with Kirito, but combat ability will be needed to protect Alice. And out of all the people here, Asuna’s easily the most experienced at virtual movement.”

“Then the highest-level account we can provide would be best,” Kikuoka suggested.

Higa nodded and ran his fingers over the keys. “Well, you’ve got the pick of the litter. Knights, generals, nobles…We’ve got a whole variety of high-ranking accounts to use.”

“Um, hang on,” said Rinko, sounding slightly anxious.

“What’s up?”

“…Is there no possibility that the people who attacked us are thinking the exact same thing? What did you just say? The secret to securing Alice is an internal operation?”

“Ah…yes, it is possible that they could do the same thing. Maincon down below has two STLs as well. But they don’t have the time to crack the login to use any high-level accounts, I bet. Only level-one civilians. That’s not the kind of character profile that will help them in the fray of the final stress test,” Higa explained, speaking rapidly.

But he had a brief moment of anxiety—a feeling that he was forgetting something important.

Unfortunately, the sight of the high-speed list of accounts scrolling past distracted him, and that concern never reached the surface.