3

Tek.

…Tek.

The sound stopped right before me.

Then someone called my name.

“…Kirito.”

It was a voice of pure crystal, a voice I never thought I’d hear again.

“As usual, you turn into a crybaby on your own. I know that about you…I know everything.”

I lifted my tearstained face.

There stood Asuna, hands behind her back, head tilted a little, smiling down at me.

I didn’t know what I should say. So I didn’t say anything. I just looked up into those familiar brown eyes of hers and stared and stared.

A little breeze picked up, and the fluttering butterfly between us rode the wind up into the blue sky. Asuna watched it go, then looked back at me and held out her hand.

I had a feeling it would vanish into illusion if I touched it. But the gentle warmth I felt radiating from her white palm told me that the person I loved most of all was right there.

Asuna knew the stakes. She knew this world was going to be sealed shut—and that return to the real world would come only at the end of an unfathomably vast length of time.

And that was why she’d stayed. For me. Just for me, who she knew would probably make the same decision in her situation.

I reached out and squeezed her delicate hand.

With her support, I got to my feet so I could look into those beautiful eyes from up close.

Still I had no words.

But I didn’t feel like I needed to say anything. All I did was draw her slender body close and hold her tight. Asuna let her head drop against my chest and whispered, “When we get back there…Alice is going to be angry, isn’t she?”

I thought of that confident golden knight, blue eyes flashing like sparks as she scolded me, and I laughed. “It’ll be fine as long as we remember her. As long as we don’t forget a second of the time we spent with her.”

“…Yes. You’re right. As long we remember Alice…and Liz and Klein and Agil and Silica…and Yui…everything will be all right,” she said.

We ended our embrace, nodded to each other, and looked to the empty shrine together. The World’s End Altar had ceased to function, and it slumbered silently beneath the gentle sun at the very edge of the world.

I turned to her, held her hand again, and started to walk down the marble path. We continued past the colorful flowers until we were at the northern end of the floating island. The world seemed to continue forever beneath that deep-blue sky.

Asuna looked at me and asked, “How long do you think we’ll be living in here?”

I was silent for a good long while, then told her the truth. “A minimum of two hundred years, apparently.”

“Ah,” Asuna murmured. She gave me a smile that hadn’t changed for as long as I’d known her. “Even a millennium with you wouldn’t feel too long…C’mon, Kirito. Let’s go.”

“…Yeah. Let’s go, Asuna. We’ve got so much to do. This world is still just a newborn.”

Then we joined hands, spread our wings, and took the first step into the infinite blue.