9

“Yawwwn…”

As soon as she realized class would be over in just five more minutes, Asuna Yuuki felt yet another wave of fatigue crash over her.

It was twelve forty-five on Monday, September 28th. The specialty high school that Asuna attended, colloquially known as returnee school, started on the late side, with its first period at nine AM. That was helpful for her, because of her long commute, but it also meant that fourth period ended that much later, and it was a test of her wakefulness on days when she was short on sleep.

Asuna lived in the neighborhood of Miyasaka in Setagaya Ward. The closest train station was Miyanosaka, where she took the Setagaya Line to Shimo-Takaido, followed by a single-station trip on the Keio Line to Meidaimae, then a switch to the Inokashira Line to Kichijoji Station, where she took a bus to the school campus in Nishitokyo at last. Kazuto had told her it was “only thirty minutes by motorcycle,” which she laughed off as a joke, but lately she was taking the idea more and more seriously.

Of course, her parents wouldn’t allow her to get a motorcycle license. And long-distance commuting wasn’t that bad if she considered it a part of her rehabilitation, but only when she was in good condition. Yesterday—well, this morning—she stayed up until five o’clock and only slept for an hour and a half, so she had zoned out on the train and nearly missed the first station where she needed to switch lines. She had no choice but to put on her Augma so Yui could give her regular wake-up alarms. Ultimately, she started coming up with Kazuto-like daydreams, like wishing that Yui could autopilot her physical body until it got to school.

While in class, she had to fight desperately against the repeated assault of sleepiness, but she had no regrets. It was worth the trouble; the full repair of their log cabin had seemed impossible at one point, but they’d gotten it done.

At this moment, their avatars were resting in the living room of their restored cabin. That was because of Unital Ring’s bizarre choice to keep their avatars present in the world while logged out, but at the very least, it seemed that unrelated players couldn’t break into a home—Lisbeth tried it as a test before she joined the official party. There was no worry of unknown strangers killing their lifeless avatars while they were away.

But that didn’t mean they were totally safe. The log cabin itself was not an indestructible object. According to Kazuto, it was probably vulnerable to explosives, catapults, and attacks from large monsters. At the moment, Aga the long-billed giant agamid and Yui were guarding the cabin, but if someone attacked, she and Kazuto had no means of fighting back without diving in from school.

So before they logged out this morning, the group decided on a new goal: building as sturdy of a wall as possible around the cabin and taming more monsters to protect it. They wanted more crafting equipment as well, and that involved acquiring tons of resources. There were so many things to do, she wanted to just rush home, stick the AmuSphere on her head, and lie down on her bed.

I always swore to myself that I’d keep my VRMMO commitment to a responsible level. And here I am, as swept up as I’ve ever been.

She was just smirking to herself with chagrin when a classical music chime signaled the end of class.

Asuna stood up and bowed with her classmates. Once the teacher left the front door of the classroom, the air in the room relaxed, like always. But this time, it felt like there was a faint tension and excitement in the mix. She looked around and saw that the students who admitted they were VRMMO players had grouped up into little circles, muttering and whispering among themselves. They all had to be trading information about Unital Ring after being absorbed into the game.

Asuna was supposed to meet up with Rika, Keiko, and Kazuto at the cafeteria during lunch to discuss their next steps, too. They were going to use Augmas to bring Suguha and Shino the GGO player into their discussion, as they went to different schools.

Sinon had accounts in both GGO and ALO, but it was her main GGO account that had been converted. They hadn’t been able to contact her yesterday, either, because she’d gotten spat out somewhere in the game world and went through an adventure of her own. Asuna would get to hear about it today.

The Internet was ablaze with the topic, and the wiki sites were in total chaos, but Yui was sifting through tons of information for them. She was upset that she was treated like a normal player without any special privileges now, but to tell the truth, Asuna was just a little bit happy about it. Her daughter had saved them so many times up to this point, and now Asuna would have the chance to protect Yui instead.

Having HP meant she could die. But they’d never let anyone harm her. Asuna would do whatever it took to keep Yui safe until the abnormality was over, and they could return to Alfheim…or until they reached what the mysterious voice called the land revealed by the heavenly light.

Ready to head to the cafeteria with renewed determination, Asuna started to get up from her desk—but someone was standing before her.

The person said, “Are you…Asuna Yuuki?”

“…?”

Asuna looked up and saw a girl looking down at her with a hint of a smile. She didn’t know this student. And in fact, the gray blazer with dark-blue lapels didn’t even belong to the returnee school.

The girl’s hair was as long as Asuna’s and as black and glossy as crow feathers. Her skin was as pale as snow, and her features were so pristine and delicate that Asuna could almost feel the chill of ice emanating from them.

“Yes, that’s me…,” Asuna said, standing up. “Who are you?”

The girl was about Asuna’s height. She bowed and said, “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Shikimi Kamura…I transferred here just today. I’m looking forward to getting to know you.”

“Fwahuawh……”

I yawned tremendously and dug into my uniform pocket. In it was the eye-drop bottle I brought from home. I popped off the cap and was about to tilt it upside down toward my eye when I felt another yawn rising to escape.

In the old SAO days, I could hunt until morning, nap for two or three hours, then go back to fighting like it was nothing. And now after one measly night of hard work, I was a total wreck. I’d grown soft. I blinked and blinked again, waiting for the sleepiness to pass.

It was finally lunch break, and the classroom was buzzing a bit more than on your typical Monday. There were more than a few VRMMO players in the class, and they were all talking about the UR incident in hushed tones. It only made sense. Over twenty hours had passed since the mass conversion happened, and the cause was still unexplained. Ymir and all the other developers had only announced that they were “investigating.”

Of course, I had no way of knowing what had happened, either. But there was one guess on my mind. If there was any human being capable of pulling off an unbelievable feat like unifying all The Seed Nexus worlds, it would be the man who created The Seed Package and its predecessor, the Cardinal System: Akihiko Kayaba.

Technically, Kayaba was no longer a human being. He had performed a high-resolution scan of his own fluctlight in a prototype STL, frying his brain and killing himself in the process…but his consciousness still lurked somewhere out there on the networks of the world as computer code. Yui was always on the lookout, but she’d only ever found trace evidence of his presence.

Did Kayaba’s ghost cause the Unital Ring incident? And if so, why…?

I considered this topic several times during class, but that question was always the dead end that stopped me. I clenched my eyes shut, then remembered that I was still holding the dropper and lifted my face.

“I’ll drip ’em for ya,” said a voice just in front of my desk. Without opening my eyes, I held out the bottle and said, “Sure…thanks.”

Fingertips brushed mine as they took the container. Then they pulled the lid of my right eye back, and the tube right before my eye let loose a clear droplet. The process repeated for my left eye.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the powerful sensation and let my brain work again. Who was out there? I knew I’d heard that voice before, but it wasn’t Lisbeth or Silica or Asuna, and it certainly wasn’t Suguha or Sinon, because they didn’t go to this school. The stinging was finally wearing off, so I opened my eyes and caught sight of the mystery person with, once again, clear vision.

It was a shorter student. She was wearing a black sailor-style uniform top that didn’t belong to this school, with a khaki-brown jacket. Her hair was a short bob with the color a bit bleached out. Her face was…kind of familiar but not really…

“Um…who are you…?” I asked, unsure.

The girl rolled her neck and shrugged in annoyance. “Awww, c’mon. That’s not cool. I finally got transferred here, and you don’t even remember Big Sis?”

That strange, distinct way of speaking. Casual but with a nasal twist.

Wait. Wait…wait.

“Huh? Hang on…But…”

I started to rise from my seat, and the girl pulled the hood of her jacket over her head, then used her fingertips to draw a series of three lines on her right cheek.

“Ah…aaaaaah!!”

I yelped awkwardly with understanding the moment it clicked. The classroom went quiet. I could feel the stares of my classmates on me, but I couldn’t possibly pay attention to them now.

“A-Argo…?! Is that you?! Why…? How…?!”

You’re alive! I wanted to say, but my mouth just opened and shut without noise.

With a mischievous grin, the elite information dealer known as Argo the Rat, who once held all the information of Aincrad under her thumb said, “It’s been a while, Kiri-boy.”

(To be continued)