2

“I’m sorry,” the swordsman in black said again. Silica desperately blinked back tears and shook her head.

“…No…It’s my fault…I was stupid. Thank you…for saving me…”

She had to squeeze out the words between stifled sobs. The man slowly approached, knelt before Silica, and spoke hesitantly.

“About that feather…Does it have a designated item name?”

Silica raised her head, confused by this unexpected question. She rubbed the tears away and looked at the pale blue feather again, concentrating hard.

Now that she thought about it, it seemed strange that just one feather was left behind. When things died in SAO, whether monsters or players, they disappeared entirely, from equipment to items. Silica extended a trembling hand, then tapped the feather with her pointer finger, like clicking a mouse. A translucent window appeared, listing the weight and name of the item.

PINA’S HEART.

Just before Silica could burst into tears again, the man hurriedly butted in.

“W-wait, wait. If her heart item is left behind, there’s a possibility you can revive her.”

“Huh?”

Silica snapped to attention. She looked up into his face, mouth half open.

“It’s not common knowledge, since it was only just recently discovered. On the south end of the forty-seventh floor, there’s an outdoor dungeon called the Hill of Memories. It’s actually pretty difficult for a pleasant name like that, though…Anyway, there’s a flower that grows on the top of the hill, and it’s supposed to resurrect famil—”

“R-really?!” Silica shrieked, hopping to her feet before he could finish. A light of hope was shining on her heart once again, which moments ago had been plunged into mourning. But…

“…The forty-seventh floor…”

Her shoulders slumped. That was twelve floors above, well out of her safe range. Just as she looked back to the ground dejectedly, the man murmured and put a hand to his head.

“Hmm…For travel cost and a bit extra, I could go get it for you. The problem is, I hear the flower won’t bloom unless the beast-tamer who’s lost her familiar goes there herself…”

Silica smiled at the surprising kindness of his words.

“It’s okay. I’m grateful for the information. As long as I work hard and level up, I’m sure someday…”

“It’s not that easy. You only get three days after the familiar has died to bring it back. Once you reach that point, the item name goes from Heart to Memento…”

“What? No!” Silica shouted.

Her current level was 44. If SAO was a typical RPG, it would be balanced so that the floor number corresponded with the player level best suited for it. But given the permanent consequences for dying, you wanted to be a good ten levels above your current floor.

Which meant that if she was going to the forty-seventh floor, she’d need to be level 55 at the lowest. But it was simply impossible to gain more than ten levels in three days—two, if she was giving herself enough time to actually get to the hill with the flower. Silica was very diligent in her adventuring, and it had taken her an entire year to reach her current state.

Silica slumped to the ground in despair once again. She picked up Pina’s feather and with both hands, she cradled it to her chest. She rued her stupidity and helplessness, and the tears came again.

Somewhere above, she heard the man rising to his feet. She wanted to thank him again before he left but didn’t have the willpower to open her mouth.

Instead, a shining, translucent system window popped into view: a trade prompt. She looked up to see that he was manipulating the same window above. Various items were appearing in the trading list: Silverthread Armor, Ebon Dagger…She had never seen any of them before.

“Um—” she started, but the man cut her off bluntly.

“This equipment should give you a boost worth five or six levels. If I go with you, we’ll probably manage.”

“Wha…”

Silica just stood there, mouth open. She stared at him, uncertain of his intentions. The system recognized her focus and brought up a green cursor to the upper right of his face, but in typical SAO fashion, it only displayed a simple HP bar—no name or level.

It was hard to guess his age. The commanding presence of his trim blacks, coupled with a relaxed manner, spoke of someone much older, but the eyes hidden behind his long bangs were naive, and the feminine roundness of his face suggested adolescence. Silica summoned the courage to ask.

“Why…are you doing all of this for me…?”

She was wary above all else. Much older men had approached Silica on several occasions, and one had even proposed to her. At age thirteen, this meant nothing but terror to Silica. She’d never even gotten a love letter from a classmate at school.

Eventually, Silica learned to avoid male players who seemed to have ulterior motives, and it was common knowledge that any deal in Aincrad that appeared too good to be true, probably was.

He scratched his head again, searching for the right answer. He opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again. Looking away, he finally muttered, “Well, this isn’t some comic book…so if you promise not to laugh, I’ll tell you why.”

“I won’t laugh.”

“You look…like my little sister.”

It was such a silly reason that Silica couldn’t help but burst into giggles. She tried to cover her mouth, but it wasn’t enough to stop them from escaping.

“Y-you said you wouldn’t laugh…”

He slumped his shoulders and sulked, a pained expression on his face. That just made her laugh harder.

He’s not a bad person after all…

It was while Silica was stifling her giggling that she decided it was worth a shot to trust the man’s good intentions. She was already prepared to die. She had nothing else to lose, and this was her only chance to revive Pina.

She gave him a slight incline of the head and said, “Thank you for your help. First you saved my life, and now this…”

Silica looked down at the window and entered all of her col into the trade margin. There were more than ten pieces of equipment on his side, and they all seemed to be rare items you couldn’t buy elsewhere.

“Um, I realize this is nowhere near enough for all of those…”

“Nah, I don’t need the money. These are all leftovers, and it sort of fits the reason I came here, anyway,” he muttered mysteriously. He hit the OK button without accepting the gold.

“Thank you…This is all too much. Um, my name is Silica.”

Just a little bit, she was expecting him to be surprised at the name—“You’re that Silica?!”—but it seemed he hadn’t heard of her. For a second she was disappointed, and then she reminded herself that being conceited was what had gotten her into this mess.

The man nodded, then extended a hand.

“I’m Kirito. Guess we’re working together for a bit.”

She grabbed his hand, and they shook.

The man named Kirito pulled a map of the Forest of Wandering out of the pouch hanging off his waist, checked to see which direction the exit of the forest was, and started walking. Silica trotted after him, putting Pina’s feather to her lips and silently reassuring it.

Just wait, Pina. I’ll bring you back, I swear…

The main city of the thirty-fifth floor was a pastoral farm town, full of houses with white walls and red roofs. It wasn’t that large of a place, but it was currently a hotbed of mid-level player activity, so it was swarming with people.

Silica considered Frieven to be her hometown, down on the eighth floor. But since she didn’t have the money to actually buy a home there, it was really no different from buying inn rooms on any other floor. The biggest difference was the taste of the food served by the NPC proprietors, and Silica found this cook’s cheesecake to her liking. She’d been in town for two weeks before finally starting on the Forest of Wandering.

Silica walked down the large avenue to the teleport square with Kirito in tow, looking around curiously. Soon, players she recognized began calling out to her. Word had gotten around that she was unaffiliated again, and the party invitations were flowing.

“U-um, I appreciate the interest, but…” Silica did her best to politely decline the offers, then glanced to the side at Kirito. “I’ll be in a party with him for a little while.”

The disgruntled crowd protested, then shot suspicious looks at her new partner.

Silica had seen his ability for herself, but his unassuming looks and reserved manner did not currently project an aura of strength to the crowd.

He wasn’t even equipped with any expensive-looking gear—he wore no visible armor, just an old, faded leather coat over his shirt. A single sword was slung over his back. Not even a shield.

“Hey, you.” A tall man with a greatsword who was the most persistent of her suitors approached Kirito and looked down on him. “I haven’t seen you around before, and I don’t appreciate your cutting in line. We’ve been after her for ages.”

“That said…that’s just the way the cards fall sometimes, you know…?”

Kirito scratched his head, uncomfortable with the attention. Silica turned to the accoster, slightly disappointed that Kirito hadn’t given him more of an argument.

“Um, I asked him to join me. Sorry!”

She bowed deeply one more time, then grabbed the sleeve of Kirito’s coat and walked away briskly. The men waved longingly after her, announcing they’d send more messages. She cut across the teleport square and down the main street, which stretched northward.

Once the crowd of players was no longer in sight, Silica gave a sigh of relief and looked up at Kirito.

“I-I’m sorry about all of that.”

“No worries.” Kirito grinned at her, as if to show it didn’t bother him in the least. “I didn’t realize you were so popular, Miss Silica.”

“Just call me Silica. And I’m not…They’re just inviting me to be their mascot, to make them look better. And…I let that attention get to my head…and wound up alone in the forest…and that’s when…”

Thoughts of Pina brought back the tears.

“It’ll be all right,” Kirito said, perfectly calm. “We’re going to bring Pina back. Don’t worry about it.”

Silica wiped away her tears and smiled at him. Oddly enough, she couldn’t help but believe him.

Eventually, a two-story building much larger than the others came into view on the right side of the street. It was the Weathervane, Silica’s inn of choice. Suddenly, she realized that she’d brought Kirito here without checking with him first.

“Oh, um…where is your home, Kirito?”

“I always stay on the fiftieth floor…but it’d be a pain to go back, so I’ll just stay here for the night.”

“Great!” Silica clapped her hands. “The cheesecake here is fantastic.”

But just as she was pulling Kirito into the inn, a group of four or five people emerged from the item shop next door. It was the party she’d been working with for the previous two weeks. The men in front headed toward the square, oblivious, but the woman in the back just happened to turn around, and Silica looked straight into her eyes out of reflex.

“…!”

It was the very last person she wanted to see: the spearwoman she’d squabbled with, leading to her breakup with the party in the Forest of Wandering. She hid her face and tried to sneak into the inn without comment.

“Oh, is that Silica?”

She had no choice but to stop now.

“…Hello again.”

“Well well, you made it out of the forest. How fortunate of you.”

The woman with flashy red curls of hair, whose name was something like Rosalia, chuckled with a sneer.

“No use crawling back to us now, though. We already divvied up the items.”

“I told you I didn’t want any! Excuse me, I’m busy.”

She tried to cut the conversation off short, but the woman wouldn’t let her go. When she noticed the empty space on Silica’s shoulder, a nasty leer crossed her lips.

“Oh? What happened to your little lizard?”

Silica bit her lip. A familiar couldn’t be placed in item storage or kept elsewhere. If she didn’t see Silica’s friend around, there was only one explanation. Rosalia knew that, of course, but she played dumb, a smile sneaking across her lips.

“Uh-oh, does that mean what I think it does…?”

“She died…but—!” Silica glared at the spearwoman. “I’m going to bring Pina back to life!”

Rosalia’s smug eyes widened slightly. She gave a soft whistle.

“Oh, so you’re going to visit the Hill of Memories. Can you actually handle it at your level?”

“She can,” Kirito cut in. He stepped forward, swinging his coat in front of Silica. “It’s not that hard of a dungeon.”

Rosalia gave Kirito an appraising look, and her red lips twisted into another sneer.

“Oh, did she lure you into working with her, too? You don’t look all that tough.”

Silica was shaking with helpless anger. She hung her head, trying to fight back tears.

“Let’s go.” Kirito put a hand on her shoulder and guided her into the inn.

“Good luck, I guess.” Rosalia chuckled after them, but they didn’t turn around.

The first floor of the Weathervane was one large restaurant. Kirito sat Silica at a table in the back, then went up to the NPC at the desk. He checked them in, clicking the menu above the counter, then returned.

When he sat back down across from her, Silica prepared to apologize for that bit of unpleasantness, too. But Kirito held up a hand to stop her, and he was smiling.

“Let’s get something to eat first.”

The waiter came by at that moment with two steaming mugs. They were filled with a curiously scented red liquid.

Kirito gave a toast to the formation of their new party, and Silica took a sip of the hot beverage.

“…Tasty…”

The spiced scent and sweetly sour flavor reminded her of the hot wine her father had let her taste ages ago. But Silica had tried every drink on the menu during her two-week stay and didn’t remember this particular flavor.

“What is this?”

Kirito gave her a wry smile. “NPC restaurants let you bring in your own bottles. This is an item of mine called Ruby Ichor. A cup of it will raise your agility stat by one.”

“B-but that must be so valuable…”

“Hey, keeping liquor stuffed in your inventory doesn’t make it taste better with age. Besides, I don’t know many people, so there are few occasions to open it up…”

He shrugged theatrically. Silica giggled and took another sip. The strangely familiar flavor seemed to loosen her heart, shrunken and hard after a day of much sadness.

Even after the cup was empty, she kept it clutched to her chest, trying to savor its warmth. She looked down at the table and muttered, “Why…would she say such awful things…?”

Kirito’s face turned serious. He put down his cup.

“Have you played any other MMOs aside from SAO?”

“It’s my first.”

“I see. Well, lots of people change personalities when they take on a new character in an online game. Some turn good, some turn evil…That’s the basis for the term role-playing game, see. But I think things are different with SAO.”

His eyes hardened for an instant.

“I mean, even trapped here…I do realize it’s impossible for every single player in the game to work together toward the goal of clearing. But even then, there are far too many who delight in the misfortunate of others, those who steal…even those who kill others.”

Kirito stared right into Silica’s eyes. Within the rage, she could see the color of an intense sadness.

“I think those who commit evil here are the ones who are truly sick in real life,” he spat. But then he noticed the intimidated look on Silica’s face and apologized with a smile.

“Then again, I don’t have much room to talk. I’m not out there saving people left and right. I’ve even abandoned my partners to die before…”

“Kirito…”

Silica realized dimly that the black swordsman before her had to be harboring some incredible anguish. She wanted to share her sympathy but cursed her shallow vocabulary for not having the words she sought. Instead, she found herself grabbing his fist on top of the table with both hands.

“You are a good person, Kirito. You saved me.”

He tried to pull his hands back briefly, surprised, but stopped just as quickly. A gentle grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“And now I’m the one being cheered up. Thanks, Silica.”

In that instant, Silica felt a painful throb deep in her chest. Her heart began beating faster for no apparent reason. Her face was hot. She hastily let go of Kirito’s hand, then clutched hers to her breast. But that deep ache would not disperse.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, leaning over the table. She shook her head vigorously, trying to summon a smile.

“I-it’s nothing! I’m just hungry.”

Once they’d finished dining on stew and black bread with cheesecake for dessert, it was already past eight o’clock. They decided it was best to get an early rest before tomorrow’s visit to the forty-seventh floor, so they headed up the Weathervane’s stairs. A long procession of doors lined the wide hallway.

Kirito’s room just happened to be next to Silica’s. They looked to each other once more in tandem, and, laughing, said good night.

Before she changed into her nightwear, Silica decided to practice some combos with the new dagger Kirito had given her. She tried to focus solely on the extra weight of this unfamiliar weapon, but the throbbing pulse in her chest wouldn’t leave her alone.

Despite the distraction, she eventually managed to pull off a five-hit combo without a mistake. Silica opened her window and unequipped her gear, then flopped into the bed in just her underwear. She smacked the wall to call the pop-up menu, then turned out the lights.

She thought she’d sink right to sleep, given her fatigue, but for some reason, that relief did not come.

Every night since she’d become friends with Pina, she’d slept cradling that warm, fluffy body. Now her bed felt large and empty. After endless rolling back and forth, Silica finally gave up and rose to a sitting position. She looked at the wall on the left that separated her room from Kirito’s.

I want to talk to him some more.

She was slightly alarmed at the realization. She’d only known him for half a day, and he was a boy. She’d always been careful not to get too close to them, so what made this enigmatic swordsman any different? Silica couldn’t explain how her own mind worked.

She glanced at the lower right-hand corner of her vision to see that it was nearly ten o’clock now. The footsteps of players passing through the street below her window had died out, and the only sound from outside was the distant howling of a dog.

That would be silly. I should just go to sleep.

But contrary to her thought process, Silica silently slipped out of her bed. I’ll just knock real quietly, she told herself. She checked her equipment menu and put on the cutest tunic she owned.

A few steps into the candle-lit hallway, she hesitated before his door. Many moments later, Silica finally raised her right hand and gave two hesitant knocks.

By default, all doors in the game are completely soundproof and do not let voices in or out. The only exception is within thirty seconds of a knock, and Kirito’s response came almost immediately. The door opened.

Kirito had taken off his equipment and was wearing a simple shirt. His eyes grew wide when he saw her.

“Is something wrong?”

“Um…”

Silica panicked, just now realizing that she had no good excuse for coming over. Saying that she “wanted to talk” was just too childish to admit.

“Um, well, uhh…you see…I w-wanted to ask about the forty-seventh floor!”

Fortunately, he accepted her reason without further question.

“Oh, sure. Want to go downstairs, then?”

“Well, actually, I was hoping to talk in your room,” she answered automatically, then hastily added, “b-because we wouldn’t want anyone overhearing that valuable information!”

“Uh…well…that’s true, but…”

Kirito scratched his head uncomfortably but finally muttered, “Okay then,” and opened the door wide to let her in.

His room was exactly the same as hers: The bed was on the right, and a single tea table and chair were on the other side of it. There were no other fixtures in the room. The lantern built into the left-hand wall was giving off an orange light.

Kirito gave Silica the chair and sat on the bed, then opened his menu. He produced a small box with familiar ease.

The box contained a small crystal ball. It glinted with the light of the lantern.

“It’s so pretty…what is it?”

“It’s called a Mirage Sphere.”

Kirito clicked the sphere with his finger to bring up another menu. He hit some buttons and pressed OK.

The orb began glowing blue, and a holographic image appeared above it. The picture seemed to be of an entire floor of Aincrad. The towns and forests were depicted in fine detail, down to the individual trees. It was nothing like the simple maps you could view from your system menu.

“Wow…”

Silica was spellbound by the transparent blue terrain. She felt that if she squinted hard enough, she might even be able to make out tiny people traveling the roads.

“This is the main town, and here’s the Hill of Memories. We take this path here…but there are some tricky monsters around this area…”

Kirito pointed out the various features of the forty-seventh floor with his finger, easily recalling all the pertinent information. His calm, steady voice filled Silica with a gentle warmth.

“…and once we cross this bridge, the hill will be in sight—”

Suddenly, his voice cut off.

“…?”

“Shh…”

Kirito had a finger to his lips, his face stern. He cast a sharp glance at the door.

Like a bolt of lightning, he burst off the bed and to the door, wrenching it open.

“Who’s there?!”

Silica heard thumping footsteps racing away. She hurried to the doorway, sticking her face around the frame beneath Kirito’s body, and saw a figure just before it rushed down the staircase at the far end of the hall.

“Wh-what…?”

“I think we were overheard…”

“B-but…I thought you couldn’t hear voices through doors…”

“If your Eavesdropping skill is good enough, you can. But few people bother to level it up that high…”

Kirito walked back inside and closed the door. He sat down on the bed, lost in thought. Silica seated herself next to him, her arms wrapped around her body. She was plagued by looming unease.

“But why would someone eavesdrop on—”

“I think we’ll find out soon enough. Hang on, I’m going to write a message.”

He gave her a dry grin, put away the crystal map, then opened a message window. His fingers flew over the holo-keyboard.

Silica curled into a ball on the bed behind him. Memories from her long-lost real life were flooding back. Her father was a freelance news writer. He was always hunched over an ancient computer, tapping the keys with a grimace on his face. She had always liked watching his working form from behind.

Her fear was gone now. As she gazed at the side of Kirito’s face, Silica was wrapped in a long-forgotten warmth and was asleep before she knew it.