2

A gentle melody flowed through Asuna’s mind as she dozed in the white light of morning. It was her wake-up alarm, a soft oboe tune. She let herself drift through the familiar melody in the weightlessness of sleep. In time, light strings joined the song, clarinets echoed the primary melody, and a faint humming came in…

Humming?

It wasn’t her singing along. Asuna opened her eyes.

The black-haired girl in her arms, eyes still closed, was humming along to the sound of Asuna’s wake-up alarm.

She wasn’t missing a beat. But that was impossible. Asuna had set her alarm to be audible to no one but herself, so it shouldn’t be possible for anyone to hear the song playing inside her head.

But there was something more important than that at the moment.

“K-Kirito! Kirito, wake up!” Asuna called out to her husband, still sleeping in the other bed. Eventually, she heard him rise, murmuring sleepily.

“Morning…What’s up?”

“Come quick!”

The floorboards creaked. Kirito craned over Asuna to peer into the bed. His eyes went wide.

“She’s singing…?”

“Y-yeah.”

Asuna gently rocked the girl in her arms. “Wake up, sweetie…Open your eyes.”

The girl’s lips stopped moving. Her long eyelashes fluttered, then her eyes slowly came to be fully open.

Wet black pupils trained directly on Asuna’s at close range. After several blinks, the girl’s pale lips began to open.

“Ah…uh…”

Her voice was fragile and pristine, like the ringing of delicate silverware. Asuna helped her up to a sitting position.

“Thank goodness you’re awake! Do you know what happened to you?”

The girl clammed up for several seconds, then shook her head.

“I see…What’s your name? Can you say it?”

“Na…me…My…name…” She tilted her head and a lock of that shining black hair fell over her cheek. “Yu…i. Yui. That’s…my name.”

“Yui! That’s a nice name. I’m Asuna, and this is Kirito.”

Asuna turned her head to indicate her partner, and Yui’s eyes followed her lead. She flipped back and forth between Asuna and Kirito, who was leaning over to get a closer look.

“A…una. Ki…to.”

Her lips moved hesitantly, struggling with the sounds. Asuna felt last night’s anxiety return. The girl looked about eight years old, and based on the amount of time since she must have logged in, she would actually be closer to ten now. But the halting way she was speaking was more akin to a toddler learning how to talk.

“Yui, why were you all alone on the twenty-second floor? Is your daddy or mommy around?”

Yui cast her eyes down and said nothing. After a moment of silence, she shook her head.

“I don’t…know. I don’t…know anything…”

They carried her over to one of the chairs at the table and handed her a warm cup of sweetened milk, which she took in both hands and started to sip. Asuna pulled Kirito off to the side to confer, checking on Yui out of the corner of her eye.

“What do you think we should do, Kirito?”

He bit his lip, glaring as he thought, then eventually hung his head.

“Looks like she’s lost her memory. But more worrying is the way she’s acting. She might have suffered some brain damage…”

“Yeah…I was thinking the same thing.”

“Dammit!” His face twisted, as though on the verge of tears. “I’ve seen a lot of awful things in this world…but this has to be the worst. It’s so cruel…”

When she saw his eyes moistened, Asuna felt something rise into her chest. She put her arms around him.

“It’ll be okay, Kirito. I’m sure we can do something to help her.”

“…Yeah. Yeah, you’re right…”

He looked up, placed his hands on her shoulders, then approached the table. Asuna followed him. Kirito rattled the other chair next to Yui and sat down.

“Hey, Yui, honey. Is it okay to call you Yui?” he asked brightly. She looked up from her cup and nodded.

“Good. Then you can call me Kirito.”

“Ki…to.”

“It’s Kirito. Ki-ri-to.”

“…”

Yui scrunched up her face in silent concentration.

“…Kiito.”

He grinned and patted her on the head.

“I guess it’s a bit too hard to say. You can call me anything you like. Whatever’s easiest for you.”

Yui sat in heavy thought. Asuna picked up her empty cup, refilled it with more milk, and placed it back on the table, but Yui still hadn’t moved.

In time, she slowly raised her head to look at Kirito, and spoke hesitantly.

“…Papa.”

She turned to Asuna.

“Auna is…mama.”

Asuna shivered unconsciously. It wasn’t clear if Yui had confused them for her real parents or was simply seeking those roles from the closest thing she could find in Aincrad, but Asuna wasn’t thinking about that. She desperately tried to hold back the emotions that were bursting upward through her.

“That’s right…it’s Mama, Yui-chan,” she said, beaming.

Yui finally showed off the first smile of her own. Those expressionless eyes finally flashed beneath her even bangs, and for an instant, she was like a doll that had come to life.

“Mama!”

Asuna’s heart throbbed when she saw the little hand extended toward her.

“Uhk…”

She barely stifled the sob that threatened to rip from her throat, but she did manage to keep her smile. Asuna lifted Yui from the chair and clutched the girl to her breast, feeling a tear of many mixed emotions welling up and falling down her cheek.

After another mug of hot milk and a little bread roll, Yui was apparently tired again. Her head began to sway wearily back and forth.

Asuna watched Yui from across the table, wiping her eyes. She turned to Kirito.

“I…I…”

She couldn’t put her feelings into words.

“I’m sorry. I just…don’t know what to do…”

Kirito gazed at her with sympathy for a time. Eventually, he said, “You want to stay here and take care of her until she regains her memory, right? I know how you feel—I feel the same way. But it’s a real dilemma…It just means it’ll be that much longer before we can return to advancing the game, which is that much longer before she’s freed from this prison.”

“Yeah…that’s a good point.”

Asuna’s level was one thing, but Kirito was, without exaggeration, one of the most powerful forces advancing the game. As a solo player, he had contributed more labyrinth mapping than several major guilds combined. Their honeymoon was only meant to last a few weeks, but Asuna couldn’t shake a feeling of guilt that she was monopolizing Kirito for such a long time.

“We should start by doing what we can,” Kirito said, watching Yui as she began to snooze. “We’ll go to the Town of Beginnings to see if her parents or siblings are around. She’s obviously pretty unique within the game, so if anyone knows her, we should be able to find them.”

“…”

His idea was sensible. But Asuna realized with a start that she did not want to leave this little girl. She’d dreamed of this life alone with Kirito for so long, but somehow, she had no resistance to growing that number to three. It was almost as though Yui was their daughter. When Asuna thought about what that meant, she turned red all the way to her ears.

“…? What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing!!” She shook her head furiously. “A-anyway, we should visit the Town of Beginnings when Yui wakes up. We can take out a notice in the classified section of the newspaper, too.”

Asuna spoke rapidly, clearing the table while pointedly avoiding looking at Kirito. Yui was now solidly asleep in her chair, but in comparison to last night, her sleeping face somehow seemed to be at peace.

They moved Yui to the bed, where she slept for the rest of the morning. Asuna began to worry that she might have fallen into another comatose state, but the little girl woke again just as lunch was being prepared.

Asuna baked a fruit pie—not one of her standard dishes—just for Yui, but she seemed more interested in the mustard-slathered sandwich that Kirito was chowing down.

“Are you sure, Yui? It’s really spicy.”

“Uhh! I want the same thing as Papa.”

“Well, if you’re ready for it, go ahead. It’s important to experience new things.”

Kirito handed Yui a sandwich, and she opened her tiny mouth as wide as possible to take a huge bite. They watched her closely. Yui chewed, a look of stern concentration on her face, then swallowed and smiled.

“Yummy.”

“You’ve got guts!” Kirito laughed and rubbed her head. “We’ll have to go with an ultra-spicy entree for dinner tonight.”

“Let’s not get carried away! That’s not on the menu.”

But if they found Yui’s guardian in the Town of Beginnings, they’d be alone again when they returned. Asuna felt loneliness brush her heart once more.

Yui had helped finish the rest of the sandwiches and was happily sipping milk tea when Asuna asked her, “Want to take a trip outside this afternoon, Yui?”

“Trip?”

She looked confused. Kirito considered how best to explain it.

“We’re going to look for your friends, Yui.”

“What is…friends?”

Kirito and Asuna looked at each other. Many things about Yui’s “condition” were a mystery. It wasn’t so much that her mental age had somehow regressed, but that her memory had vanished in places.

In order to fix that, the best solution would be to find her true guardian, someone who could watch over her, Asuna told herself.

“A friend is someone who will help you, Yui. C’mon, let’s get ready.”

Yui looked skeptical, but she nodded and stood obediently.

The white, puffy-sleeved dress she wore was made of sheer material, nowhere near proper for the early winter weather outside. Being cold wouldn’t cause you to catch the flu or take damage—though there were no guarantees if you went streaking through the snow—but it was certainly unpleasant.

Asuna scrolled through her inventory and pulled out items of thick clothing, then found a sweater that suited the little girl. Suddenly, she stopped still.

In order to put on equipment and clothing, you needed to attach it on the mannequin in your status menu. SAO had difficulty modeling soft objects like cloth and liquids, so clothes were treated less like distinct objects to be interacted with, and more like an extension of the player’s body.

Kirito picked up on Asuna’s hesitation and asked Yui directly.

“Can you open your window, Yui?”

As they suspected, she only looked at them, uncomprehending.

“Okay, just trace your finger down in the air. Like this.” Kirito swung his finger, and a rectangular purple window appeared beneath his hand. Yui clumsily mimicked his action, but nothing happened.

“That’s what I was afraid of. The system must be bugged somehow. And what a horribly fatal bug to have, not being able to check your status. You can’t do anything.”

Kirito bit his lip. Yui had been waving her right index finger to no avail, so she tried it with her left hand. A glowing purple window popped up immediately.

“There!”

Yui giggled in delight, while Asuna and Kirito shared a shocked look over her head. What was going on?

“Can I take a look, Yui?”

Asuna crouched over to look at her window, but the status screen was only visible to the player herself by default, so there was nothing but a blank purple slate there.

“Here, let me see your hand.” Asuna took Yui’s little hand and moved her pointer finger over the spot where she thought she remembered the visibility mode checkbox would be.

Her aim was true, as familiar-looking information abruptly sprang onto the window with a beep. Despite the situation, it was incredibly rude to sneak a peek at another person’s status screen, so Asuna did her best to avoid looking at anything but Yui’s item list.

“Wh-what is this?!” she exclaimed in surprise as her eyes moved over the window.

The top screen of a player’s menu in SAO is divided into three basic areas. At the top is the player’s name in the English alphabet and two thin bars representing HP and EXP. The right half of the screen below that is the mannequin displaying the player’s equipment. The left half of the screen is a list of command buttons. The icons can be customized from countless sample designs, but the basic layout is unchangeable.

But for some reason, the top of Yui’s menu just featured the eerie name “Yui-MHCP001,” with no indicators for HP, EXP, or even level. There was an equipment mannequin but only two buttons on the left side: ITEMS and OPTIONS.

Kirito noticed Asuna freeze and came over to see for himself, then held his breath. Yui seemed to have no idea of the significance of her menu, and she stared up at the two quizzically.

“Could this be…another system bug?” Asuna wondered, but Kirito grunted deep in his throat.

“I don’t know…This looks less like a bug than it does something that was designed to be this way. Damn! I don’t think I’ve ever been this frustrated that there are no GMs around.”

“I’ve never even thought about wanting a GM, since SAO barely even has any lag, much less major bugs. I guess there’s no use wracking our brains over this…”

Asuna gave up and moved Yui’s finger to touch the ITEMS button. She placed the sweater on the surface of the window and it glowed for a second before vanishing into the inventory list. Once it showed up there, Asuna dragged the name onto the equipment figure in the window.

With a chime, Yui’s body flashed for an instant, and she was suddenly wearing a light pink sweater.

“Wow!”

Her face shone. She held out her arms and examined herself. Asuna then added a skirt in the same color, black tights, and red shoes, before returning Yui’s original one-piece to the window.

Yui was giddy over her new outfit, rubbing her cheek on the soft fabric of the sweater and pulling on her skirt hem.

“Well, shall we go?”

“Papa, carry me.”

She held up her hands, and Kirito picked her up with one arm around her side, smiling shyly. He looked to his wife.

“Asuna, make sure you’re prepared with your regular equipment in case anything happens. We’ll be staying in town, but it is the Army’s territory.”

“Yeah…we can’t be too careful.”

Asuna nodded and quickly checked her own inventory, then stood up with Kirito and proceeded to the door. She really did hope that they found whomever was responsible for the girl, but she was also dreading saying good-bye to her for some reason. They had only found her a day ago, but somehow, in that short time, the girl had monopolized all the tender parts of Asuna’s heart.

It was several months since their last visit to the Town of Beginnings on the first floor of Aincrad.

Asuna stepped out of the teleport gate and stopped, staring around with a conflicted heart at the massive square and its buildings.

This was the biggest city in Aincrad, of course, and it had more resources necessary to adventuring than any other place in the game. Prices were cheap and lodging was abundant, which made this the most efficient location for a hometown.

But as far as Asuna knew, none of her high-level acquaintances still hung around the Town of Beginnings. The Army’s presence was one reason for that, but the biggest had to be the memory of that moment—when everyone stood in this square, looking up at that stretch of ceiling.

It had all started on a whim.

Asuna Yuuki had been born to a businessman and a scholar, and she grew up with their hopes firmly imprinted on her mind for as long as she could remember. Both her parents were resolute and hard on themselves, and though they were kind to Asuna, she was terrified of how they would react if she disappointed them in any way.

It must have been the same for her brother. Asuna and her older brother went to the private school their parents selected, never got into trouble, and maintained top grades. After her brother left home for college, Asuna dedicated her entire life to fulfilling her family’s hopes. She trained in multiple subjects and only spent time with friends her parents accepted. In time, however, Asuna began to feel as though her world was tiny and compressed. It seemed like everything was funneled into one tiny path: the high school her parents chose, the college her parents chose, the marriage partner her parents chose. She grew terrified that she would be stuffed inside an incredibly small and tough shell, never to escape that prison.

Her brother came home and got a job at her father’s company. He used his connections to procure a NerveGear and a copy of SAO, his eyes sparkling as he waxed rhapsodic about the world’s first VRMMO. Asuna had never so much as touched a video game before, but his descriptions of a mysterious new world sparked something within her.

Of course, if he had simply stashed it away in his room for his own use, she would have forgotten all about the NerveGear. But the timing was poor; he would be overseas for work on the release day of Sword Art Online, so on a sudden whim, Asuna asked to borrow the game for the day. All she wanted to do was see a different world from the one she lived in…

And everything changed.

She could still keenly remember the excitement when she’d gone from Asuna the student to Asuna the adventurer, descending into an unfamiliar town full of unfamiliar people.

But soon after, when the empty god looming over their heads announced that it had become an inescapable game of death, the first thing Asuna thought of was her unfinished math homework.

I have to get back and finish that, or my teacher will scold me tomorrow. It would be an unacceptable blemish on Asuna’s life. The true severity of her situation went far beyond that, of course.

One week, two weeks—the days passed mercilessly without any salvation from outside. Asuna holed up in an inn room in the Town of Beginnings, curled up on her bed, wracked with panic. At times she screamed and beat on the walls. It was the winter of her third and final year of middle school. There would be tests soon, and then a new term. Falling off the course now meant the end of her life as she knew it.

Asuna’s everyday life was plunged into madness, until she came to one deep, dark certainty:

Her parents would not be worried about the well-being of their daughter; they would be terribly disappointed that she had failed her exams, all over a stupid video game. Her friends would lament her plight, then pity her for her failure, and eventually use her as the butt of a joke.

When these dark emotions had reached their saturation point, Asuna finally came to a firm decision and left her room. She wouldn’t wait for rescue. She would escape on her own. She would be the hero who conquered the crisis. It was the only way she could repair the bonds that tied together the people around her.

Asuna arranged her equipment, memorized the entire help manual, and headed into the wilderness. She only slept for two or three hours a day, dedicating the rest of that time to leveling up. She applied all of her intelligence and willpower to the task, and it did not take long until she was among the top players in the game. This was the birth of Asuna the Flash, the mad warrior.

Now, two years later, Asuna was seventeen, and she thought back on her old self with acute discomfort: not just her despondent state right after being trapped in the game, but the painfully compressed life she had led before that. The memories brought a heap of self-pity with them.

She didn’t know what “living” really meant. She was sacrificing her present life for some future she thought she was meant to have. To her, “now” was nothing but a step toward that proper future, and once each moment had passed, it turned into nothingness.

The lesson she’d learned from observing SAO was simple: It was pointless to have one without the others.

Those who only strove for the future drove themselves mad advancing through the game, the way she once did. Those who clung to the past hid in their inns on the first floor. Those who only lived in the present sought cheap thrills, sometimes turning to crime.

But even in this world, there were some people who could enjoy the present, remember the past, and work toward an eventual escape. It was a black-haired swordsman who’d taught her that, a year earlier. Once she realized she wanted to live like him, Asuna’s life took on real color.

Now she was equipped to break that tough shell the real world held. She felt like she was ready to live for herself—as long as she was by his side…

Asuna leaned closer to Kirito, who she was certain felt his own variety of conflicting emotions at the sight of the city. When she looked up at the baleful stone lid above them again, the pain was only a shadow of what it once was.

Asuna shook her head to clear away the painful cobwebs, then looked to Yui, who was still cradled in Kirito’s arms.

“Yui, do you recognize any of these buildings?”

“Umm…”

Yui concentrated on the stone buildings lining the open square, then shook her head.

“I don’t know…”

“Well, the Town of Beginnings is a gigantic city,” Kirito offered reassuringly, patting her head. “If we keep walking around, maybe she’ll remember something. Let’s check out the central market for now.”

“Good idea.”

They nodded together and headed for the main avenue running south.

As they walked, Asuna took a critical look around the square. She was surprised to see how few people there were.

The teleport gate plaza in the Town of Beginnings was enormous, big enough to hold all ten thousand players when the servers opened two years ago. It was a perfect circle of countless fitted paving stones with a large clock tower looming over the center and the rippling blue teleport gate beneath it. Surrounding the tower was a series of narrow, concentric flowerbeds lined with the occasional quaint white bench. It was the perfect place for players to enjoy a brief afternoon respite on such a lovely day, but all the people visible from here were heading to the gate or the plaza’s exits, and virtually none were stopping or sitting on the benches.

The teleport squares of the larger towns near the top of Aincrad were always a bustle of player activity. Between the chatters, the party recruiters, the simple street stalls, and the loiterers, it was sometimes difficult to even make your way out into the city.

“Hey, Kirito.”

“Hmm?” He turned to look at her.

“How many players do you suppose are here now?”

“Good question…there are about six thousand survivors, and about thirty percent of them are in the Town of Beginnings, including the Army. So maybe just a bit less than two thousand?”

“Don’t you think it seems awfully quiet around here for that?”

“Now that you mention it…Maybe they’re all in the market?”

But even after they headed down the street from the plaza toward the market area, where shops and stalls lined the path, the town was relatively empty. The energetic cries of the NPC shopkeepers echoed forlornly off the stone walls.

Asuna spotted a man seated beneath a large tree in the middle of the avenue and called out to him.

“Um, excuse me.”

He was staring at the branches above with an oddly serious look, and snapped, irritated, from his spot, rather than turn to look at her.

“What do you want?”

“Um…is there any kind of center around here for finding or advertising lost persons?”

The man finally turned his gaze to Asuna. He stared her full in the face, his eyes glinting.

“What are you, an outsider?”

“Y-yes. We’re looking for this girl’s guardian.” She pointed back at Yui, who was dozing lightly in Kirito’s arms.

The man wore a simple cloth tunic that made it difficult to discern his class. His eyes went wider when he saw Yui, but they were soon trained on the overhead branches once again.

“Lost kid? Don’t see many of those. There’s a buncha kids gathered at the church next to the river in sector E-7. Try there.”

“Th-thank you.”

Asuna bowed briefly, surprised to have actually gleaned some helpful information from the encounter. Suddenly she felt emboldened to ask another question.

“Um…what exactly are you doing? And why is the city so empty?”

He put on a grimace, but his tone of voice suggested that he didn’t mind answering.

“Company secret, you might say. But since you’re outsiders…why not? See that high branch up there?”

Asuna followed his pointing finger. The branches of the large tree were exploding with autumn leaves, but upon closer examination, there were small golden fruits growing here and there.

“The decorative trees in town are indestructible objects, of course, so even if you climb up there, you can’t pick the fruit—or a single leaf, for that matter.” He continued. “A few times a day, one of those fruits falls off. It rots and disappears within a few minutes, but if you pick it up before then, you can sell it to the NPCs for a decent chunk. Tastes good, too.”

“Oooh.”

Asuna had mastered her Cooking skill, so the topic of food ingredients piqued her interest. “How much do they sell for?”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone…? Five col a pop.”

“…”

Asuna was stunned into silence by the pleased look on his face. She could not believe how meager an amount it was, completely at odds with the amount of work it took to watch this tree all day long.

“Um…that doesn’t seem worth it…I mean, just a single worm out in the wilderness will get you thirty col.”

Now the man’s eyes really went wide. He looked at Asuna as if she had to be insane.

“What, are you serious? If I go out there to fight monsters, I could die!”

“…”

Asuna had no response. He was right: Fighting monsters could get you killed. But from her current perspective, he might as well be arguing that one should never walk on the sidewalk, out of the danger of being hit by a car. It was allowing fear to control your life.

Was she just numb to the danger of dying within SAO, or was it that the man was overly fearful? At the moment, Asuna couldn’t be sure. Perhaps there wasn’t a “correct” answer between the two of them. However, his logic was probably the prevailing opinion here in the Town of Beginnings.

He continued, oblivious to Asuna’s inner confliction. “What was the other question again? Why isn’t anyone here? They’re still here; they’re just hanging out in their inn rooms. You might run into the Army’s tax collectors during the day, after all.”

“T-tax…? What is that?”

“It’s a stick-up with a fancy name. Watch out; they won’t hesitate to go after outsiders. Wait, one’s about to fall! I’m done talking here…”

He clammed up, concentrating furiously. Asuna bowed in thanks, then realized that Kirito hadn’t said a word during the entire conversation.

She turned around to find him focused sharply on the yellow fruit, his eyes narrowed as though preparing for battle. He was clearly ready to snatch the fruit before it fell to the ground.

“Stop that!”

“B-but I’m curious.”

Asuna snatched him by the back of his collar and dragged him away.

“Aww…but they look so tasty,” he wailed. This time she yanked on his ear to force his gaze away.

“Focus! Where’s sector E-7? He said there were a bunch of young players hanging out at the church there, so let’s go check that out.”

“…All riiight.”

Asuna took Yui, now fully conked out, and matched Kirito’s pace as he walked off, checking his map. Yui was the size of a ten-year-old, so in the real world, Asuna’s arms would give out within a few minutes, but thanks to her strength stat, carrying the girl was like carrying a feather pillow.

They continued southeast down the wide, empty streets for more than ten minutes until they reached a spacious garden-like area. Colorful, leafy trees whistled mournfully in the chilly breeze of early winter.

“According to the map, this is E-7…so where’s this church?”

“Is that it over there?”

Asuna tilted her head to indicate a tall spire on the other side of the copse of trees on the right-hand side of the path. A metallic ankh made from a circled cross shone above the blue-gray tiles of the roof. It was definitely a church. There was at least one in every town, and the altar inside offered a few special perks, such as undoing monster-inflicted curses or blessing weapons to do extra damage to the undead. Magic was nearly nonexistent in Sword Art Online, so churches were the most mysterious and supernatural places in the game. With enough regular offerings, some churches allowed you the use of a room, acting as de facto hotels.

“Wait a minute,” Asuna called out to Kirito as he started off toward the church.

“Huh? What’s up?”

“Umm…I just…want to be sure. If we do find Yui’s guardian here, are we…leaving her behind?”

“…”

Kirito’s black eyes were soft with concern. He approached and enfolded both Asuna and the sleeping Yui in his arms.

“I don’t want to say good-bye to her, either. When she was with us, it was almost like…that little house in the woods was a real home. I felt it, too…But it’s not as though we’ll never see her again. If Yui gets her memory back, I’m sure she’ll come visit us.”

“Hmm…I suppose so.”

Asuna nodded briefly, rubbed her cheek on Yui, then steeled herself for what had to be done.

The church was small in comparison to the scale of the city itself. It was two floors and had only one steeple. There were multiple churches in the Town of Beginnings, and the one nearest to the teleport square was nearly the size of a small castle manor.

Asuna pushed open one of the large double doors with a free hand. It was a public facility, so it wasn’t locked. The interior of the church was dim, with only the light of the candles at the altar ahead weakly glimmering off the stone floor. At first glance, there was no one else inside.

Asuna leaned over the entryway and called out: “Is anyone here?”

Her voice echoed and trailed away, but no one answered.

“I guess it’s empty…”

But Kirito disagreed, his voice low. “No, there are people here. Three in the right room, four in the left. A couple upstairs, too.”

“How high do you have to get your Search skill before it can detect the number of people behind walls?”

“Once you reach about nine eighty. It’s useful; you should get there.”

“No way—it’s so boring to raise, I’d go crazy…Anyways, why do you suppose they’re hiding?”

Asuna cautiously stepped into the church. The building was dead quiet, but she felt like she could hear people holding their breath.

“Um, excuse me! We’re searching for someone!” she called out, louder this time. The door on the right opened a crack, and a frail female voice emerged.

“You aren’t…from the Army?”

“No, I’m not. I came down from a higher floor.”

Asuna and Kirito didn’t even have their swords on, much less any battle armor. Army members wore their uniform of heavy armor at all times, so a simple glance would prove to these people that they were unrelated.

Eventually, the door opened all the way, and a single female player reluctantly appeared.

She had short, dark blue hair, and the green eyes behind her large black-framed glasses were wide with fear. She wore a simple navy dress and she clutched a tiny dagger in her hand, still sheathed.

“You’re really…not the Army’s tax collectors…?”

Asuna smiled and nodded to reassure the woman.

“That’s right. We just came here today from up above, because we’re looking for someone. We have nothing to do with the Army.”

“From above? Does that mean you’re real warriors?”

A high-pitched, boyish voice echoed from behind the woman. The door swung wide and several people came rushing out. The door to the left of the altar opened, and more figures emerged.

Asuna and Kirito silently watched, taken aback, as the group of young players, no more than boys and girls, rushed to line up on either side of the bespectacled woman. They appeared to be between the ages of twelve and fourteen and were clearly fascinated by the sight of these new visitors.

“What did I tell you? Stay hidden in the back rooms!” cried the woman, who seemed to be around twenty years old. She tried to push the kids away, but not a single one of them paid any heed to her command.

Almost immediately, one of the first children to appear—a boy with short, spiky hair—voiced his disappointment with the visitors.

“What the heck? You don’t even have any swords. Did you really come from above? Don’t you have a sword?” He directed the end of his challenge at Kirito.

“W-well, yes, I do, but…” Kirito answered hesitantly, and the children’s faces lit up again. “Show us, show us,” they demanded.

“Hey! Don’t be rude to people you’ve never met before—I’m sorry, they’re not used to visitors like this…”

The woman bowed so apologetically that Asuna had to rush to reassure her. “No, it’s all right. You’ve got a few weapons stashed in your inventory, right, Kirito? Why don’t you show them?”

“Um, okay.” He nodded and opened his window, fingers flashing. About ten different weapons materialized in turn, piling up on the pew next to him. These were weapons that he’d looted from monsters recently and simply hadn’t taken the time to sell for cash yet.

Kirito produced all the extra items in their inventory that weren’t pieces of equipment already in use, then allowed the excited children to come closer and see. They picked up swords and maces, exclaiming over the weight and cool factor of each. It was a sight to make any protective parent faint, but in the safe zone of the town, they couldn’t hurt themselves with the blades.

“I’m really sorry about this,” the woman said with clear concern, but the delight of the children brought a smile to her face. “Please, come this way. I’ll prepare some tea…”

She led Asuna and Kirito into the small room on the right side of the chapel and served them each a hot, relaxing cup of tea.

“Now, you said you were searching for someone?” the bespectacled woman inquired, seated in the chair across from them.

“Ah, yes. Um…first of all, I’m Asuna, and this is Kirito.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry; I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Sasha.” They bowed to each other.

“And this is Yui,” Asuna continued, stroking Yui’s hair as she slept in her lap. “We found her lost on the twenty-second floor. She seems to be…missing her memory…”

“Oh dear.” Sasha’s deep green eyes went wide behind her glasses.

“She had no equipment or items aside from the clothes she was wearing, and it was hard to imagine that she was living on an upper floor, so we decided to come to the Town of Beginnings to search for her parents or guardian—anyone who might know her. We received word that there were many children living here in this church, so here we are.”

“Ah, I see…”

Sasha’s glance dropped to the table, her hands cradling her teacup.

“There are around twenty children living in this church, from elementary-to middle-school age. I think it’s basically all of the children in this town at the moment. When the game started…”

Her voice was thin, but she spoke firmly.

“Nearly all of the children their age panicked and suffered real mental trauma from the experience. Some of them did venture out of the town to tackle the game, but I think they were an exception to the rule.”

Asuna had been in her final year of middle school when it happened, and she’d experienced what Sasha was describing. She knew that in the days of solitude locked inside her inn room, she’d been dangerously close to a total mental collapse.

“It’s only natural. They’re still at an age where they want to rely on their parents’ protection, but then they’re told they can’t get out and might never return to the real world. These children fell into a state of despondency. Some of them even…severed their connections.”

Sasha’s mouth twisted sharply.

“For the first month after the game started, I was out in the world, leveling up to help beat the game…but one day, I spotted one of these kids on a street corner in town. I just couldn’t leave him to fend for himself, so I brought him to live in my rented inn room with me. Once I’d started that, I couldn’t stop thinking about other children in his situation, so I went around the city trying to round up all the kids I could find. Next thing I knew, I was doing this right here. Seeing people like you, who are fighting for all of us up above…I feel ashamed that I dropped out of our quest.”

“No…no!”

Asuna shook her head, desperately searching for the right words, but they caught in her throat. Luckily, Kirito finished the thought for her.

“That’s not true at all. You’re fighting in your own way, Sasha…and much more bravely than I am.”

“Thank you. But I’m not doing it out of a feeling of duty. It’s quite fun to live with the children.” Sasha grinned, then looked at the sleeping Yui with concern.

“Anyway, for the last two years, we’ve taken a single area of the city each day and looked around every single building there, checking for needy children. I’m certain I would have noticed such a tiny girl. I’m sorry to disappoint you…but I don’t think she was living here.”

“I see,” Asuna murmured, then squeezed Yui again. She pulled herself together to look into Sasha’s face. “Um, I don’t mean to pry, but how are you making enough money to survive each day?”

“Ah. Well, I’m not the only one. There are some older kids who are working to protect this place, and they’re at a high-enough level to be absolutely safe in the fields outside of town. They make sure that we have enough money to eat. It’s just not a very extravagant amount.”

“That’s splendid, though. Based on what we heard earlier, it sounds like people around here consider hunting monsters in the wilderness to be outright suicide,” Kirito said.

Sasha nodded. “I believe virtually everyone remaining in the Town of Beginnings feels that way. I can’t blame them—it’s absolutely true that the risk of death is out there. But in comparison, we’re actually earning more than the average player in this city.”

She had a point. Permanently renting out the private rooms in this church would likely cost a hundred col per day, well in excess of what that fruit hunter could raise.

“But that just means they’ve singled us out now…”

“Who has?”

Sasha’s gentle eyes turned steely hard. She was about to explain when—

“Miss! Miss Sasha! Come quick!”

The door to the room slammed open, and several children piled inside.

“Hey! Show our guests some respect!”

“This is more important than that!” the feisty red-haired boy from before shouted, tears in his eyes. “Gin and the others have been rounded up by the Army!”

“Where?!”

Sasha bolted to her feet, instantly taking charge.

“In the empty lot behind the item shop in sector E-5. About ten soldiers have the alleyway blocked off. Only Cotta managed to get away.”

“All right, I’m coming. I’m sorry about this,” Sasha apologized, turning to Asuna and Kirito, “but I’ve got to help save the children. We’ll continue this later, if that’s all right…”

“We’re going with you, Miss Sasha!” the redhead cried, the other children soon joining in. He raced over to Kirito to plead his case. “Hey mister, let us use your weapons! If we show up with those, the Army will run away!”

“Absolutely not!” Sasha barked. “You will wait right here!”

Kirito had been watching the scene unfold in silence, but now he raised his hand to calm the children. He was typically aloof and distant, but at times like these, he always exhibited a sudden presence. The children quieted down.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” he began calmly, “but those weapons are too powerful for you to equip them. We’ll help rescue your friends. Believe it or not, this lady with me is incredibly powerful.”

He shot a quick glance to Asuna, who nodded in assent. She stood up and turned to Sasha.

“Please let us help you with this. The more people, the better.”

“Thank you. That’s very generous of you.”

Sasha bowed deeply, then pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

“We’d better get running, then!”

Sasha burst out of the church doors and took off at a sprint, her dagger swaying at her hip. Kirito and Asuna, still clutching Yui, followed behind her. Asuna looked back to see that a gaggle of children was pursuing in the rear, but it didn’t seem like Sasha would waste any energy keeping them in the church.

They wove through the trees into the E-6 sector and then down an alley. Sasha was taking them on a shortcut that would offer the most direct route. They raced past NPC shops and through backyards, until a group of figures blocking a narrow alley came into sight. There were at least ten of them, all wearing equipment colored gray-green and black—the uniform of the Army.

Sasha plunged into the alley before finally skidding to a halt. The Army players noticed her approach and turned around, wicked leers upon their faces.

“Well, well, here comes the nanny.”

“Give me back the children,” she commanded, her voice steely.

“You make it sound like we’ve kidnapped them. Don’t worry, you’ll have them back—after we’ve taught them a lesson about how society works.”

“That’s right. Citizens have a duty to pay their taxes.”

The men laughed, their voices cruelly high-pitched. Sasha’s clenched fists began to tremble.

“Gin! Cain! Mina! Are you there?!” she called out over the men, and a frightened girl’s voice came back immediately.

“Help! Please, help us!”

“Forget about the money! Give it all to them right now!”

“But…we can’t,” wailed a boy this time.

“Kee-hee!” One of the men blocking the alleyway giggled involuntarily. “You’ve been lagging on your tax payments, I’m afraid…This is going to cost more than just money.”

“That’s right. We’ll need an equipment tribute. Drop your armor and weapons…everything you’ve got.”

As the men cackled gleefully, Asuna understood what was happening behind them in the alley. These armed “tax collectors” were demanding that the trapped children remove everything they owned, right down to their clothes. A bloodthirsty rage swelled inside of her.

Sasha had arrived at the same conclusion, and she tore into the men as though she might start throwing fists.

“Move it…Get out of the way! Or else I’ll…”

“Or else you’ll what, Nanny? You gonna pay the tax for ’em?”

The gloating men showed no signs of moving.

Within the town zone, a program known as the anti-crime code was in effect at all times, which meant that it was impossible to harm another player or force him to move against his will. The flipside of this code was that malicious players could not be dispersed, either. The result was that certain tactics existed for player harassment—there was the “block” formation being employed here, which trapped players in a tight space, or the “box,” in which the victims were completely surrounded on all sides.

But this only applied to movement on the ground. Asuna turned to her partner and said, “Ready, Kirito?”

“Yeah.”

They nodded to each other and easily leaped into the air. Their agility and strength stats fed directly into the jump height, sending them soaring well over the astonished faces of Sasha and the soldiers and into the blocked-off empty lot.

“Wha—?!” Several of the men leaped backward in shock.

Trapped in a corner of the alley were two boys and one girl in their early teens, huddled together. They’d already removed their equipment and were dressed only in their simple undergarments. Asuna bit her lip, then approached the children and gave them a reassuring smile.

“It’s all right now. Put your equipment back on.”

The wide-eyed kids nodded and rushed to pick up their armor, fiddling with their menus.

“Hey…no, no, no!” bellowed one of the soldiers, who had finally returned to his senses. “Who do you think you are? You’re interfering with Army business!”

“I’ll handle this,” said a man in heavier-looking armor as he strode forward. He appeared to be their leader.

“I don’t recognize you people. Do you understand what it means to defy the Aincrad Liberation Force? We can continue this conversation at our headquarters, if you like.”

His narrow eyes glinted dangerously. He drew a large broadsword from his waist, then approached lazily, slapping the flat of the blade against his palm. The face of the sword caught the light of the low west sun; his armor shone dully, with the unique glow of metal that had never been damaged or repaired.

“Or do you want to take this ‘outside,’ where we can settle it for real? Huh?”

Asuna’s teeth ground audibly at that last comment. She’d thought that settling the matter quietly was best, but from the moment she saw the frightened children, her rage had passed its limit.

“Kirito, can you take Yui?”

She handed the sleeping girl to him, and he tossed back her rapier. She caught it, slid it out of its scabbard, and strode over to the leader.

“Uh…uh…?”

The man’s face was a blank mask of incomprehension, his mouth half agape. Asuna unleashed a thrust at full power into his dumbfounded mug.

Purple lights. An explosive shock wave. The man’s ugly face jerked backward, and he fell onto his rear end, eyes wide with shock.

“If you want a fight, we don’t have to take it outside the city.”

Asuna closed the distance and her right arm flashed again. Another burst, another explosion. The leader’s body shot backward.

“Don’t worry, you’re not losing any HP. But that just means I can keep doing this as long as I want.”

Asuna continued her steady pace. The leader looked up at her, lips trembling. He finally understood what she was doing.

Within the bounds of the city’s anti-crime zone, an invisible wall protected every player from weapon attacks and other damage. But that rule had one other consequence to it: Without damage, an attacker would never be identified by the system as a criminal player.

There was a form of training called “zoned battle” that took advantage of this rule. But as the attacker’s stats and skills increased, the color and sound of the code’s nullifying effect intensified, until sword skills could even knock back the target a little bit. To those unfamiliar with it, the shock was hard to ignore, even if it carried no HP damage.

“A-ah…s-stop…” he wailed each time he was dashed to the ground. “D-don’t just watch…Stop her!!”

The other soldiers came to their senses and drew their weapons. They came from both sides of the alley, realizing that something was going terribly wrong.

They formed a semicircle around Asuna, whose eyes were flashing the way they did in the days when she’d been as driven and focused as a berserker. She leaped without a word, attacking the group head-on.

The alley was suddenly full of sound, the roar of explosions and screams.

Three minutes later, Asuna regained her wits and lowered her rapier. Only a few soldiers remained in the empty lot, fallen with shock. The rest had abandoned their leader and fled.

“Hahh…”

She sighed and sheathed her weapon, then turned around—and found Sasha and the children from the church standing stock-still in silent shock.

“Oh…”

Asuna gasped and took a step back. She looked down, certain that her fiery, uncontrollable rage must have terrified the children. But the spiky-red-haired boy burst with excitement, his eyes sparkling.

“Wow…that was amazing, lady! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“What did I tell you? She’s incredibly powerful.” Kirito grinned proudly. He was still carrying Yui in his left hand, but he held a sword in his right—he must have taken care of a few soldiers himself.

“Uh…ha-ha.”

Asuna laughed uncomfortably, but the kids all cheered and leaped onto her. Sasha clutched her hands to her chest, beaming, tears in her eyes.

That was when it happened.

“Everyone’s…hearts,” a tiny voiced echoed. Asuna looked up with a start. Yui was now awake in Kirito’s arm, looking out into space, her right hand outstretched.

Asuna followed the direction of her gaze, but there was nothing there.

“Everyone’s hearts are…one…”

“Yui! What’s the matter, Yui?” Kirito cried. She blinked a few times, seemingly bewildered. Asuna rushed over and held Yui’s hand.

“Do you remember anything, Yui?”

“I…I…”

She squinted, looked down.

“I wasn’t…here…I was in…the deepest deep…”

Yui’s face scrunched up as she tried to remember. She bit her lip, and suddenly—

“Aaah…aaaah!!”

Her head tilted back and a high-pitched scream ripped from her throat.

“…?!”

Asuna was hit with a noise she hadn’t before heard in SAO—a crackle like radio static. Yui’s rigid body began to vibrate powerfully, as though it was going to dash into pieces.

“Y-Yui!” Asuna screamed, holding the little body in an attempt to calm it.

“Mama…I’m scared, Mama!” the little girl wailed. Asuna pulled her out of Kirito’s arms and squeezed her tightly. Within a few seconds, the strange phenomenon stopped, and Yui’s tense body relaxed.

“What was that all about…?” Kirito murmured softly. His question echoed through the silent alley.