Chapter 19

Three days later, Nishida informed us in the morning that he was

going to fish for the local god. Around thirty people would be

there to watch, as it seemed that he had told his fishermen friends

about this.

"This is troublesome. Asuna... What should we do?"

"Hm~mmm..."

To tell the truth, we weren't all that happy about this. We had

come here to hide from the gossipers and Asuna's fans, so we

were a little hesitant about appearing before so many people.

"How about this?!"

Asuna gathered her hair and pushed it up. Then she covered her

face up to her eyes with a huge scarf. She didn't stop there and

pressed some buttons on her menu window to put on a plain

overcoat.

"Y-Yeah. Pretty good. You look like a proper farmer's wife."

"...Is that, a compliment?"

"Of course. In my case, they're not going to recognize me as long

as I don't equip battle gear."

Before the sun even rose, I walked out of the house with Asuna,

who was carrying our picnic basket. She could have just called it

out when we got there, but she insisted that it was part of the

disguise.

Today was warm for an early winter day. After walking through

the forest of huge pine trees for a while, we could finally see the

sparkling water between the trunks.

A lot of people had already gathered there. As I approached

nervously, a familiar stout figure waved to us as he laughed.

"Wa-ha-ha, it's a relief that we have such great weather today!"

"Hello, Nishida oji-san."

Asuna and I nodded our heads. He told us that the assembly of

people here from various age groups were all members of a

fishing guild that Nishida ran. We greeted everyone nervously, but

it seemed nobody recognized Asuna.

Putting that aside, Nishida oji-san was far more active than I

imagined. He must have been a good team leader within his

company. The atmosphere was already spirited, as the group had

been holding a fishing competition before our arrival.

"Eh~ so, today's main event will finally be starting!"

Nishida loudly announced this as he walked towards us with a

long fishing rod in his hand, and the spectators cheered in

excitement. I looked at the fishing rod he was carrying, my eyes

tracing down the pole without much thought before the item at its

end surprised me.

It was a lizard, an abnormally large one at that. It was as long as an

adult's forearm. Its poisonous-looking red and black skin shone as

if to emphasize its freshness.

"Hiiiii—"

Asuna noticed it even later than I did, and her expression froze as

she took several steps back from it. If this was the bait, then what

we were trying to catch must be unbelievable.

But before I had any time to ask, Nishida turned towards the lake

and raised his fishing rod. With a short shout, he swung it in an

impressive form, and the huge lizard drew an arc in midair before

falling into the water with a large splash.

Fishing required almost no waiting time within SAO.

Once you put the bait in the water, either a fish took the bite

within a few dozen seconds, or you lost the bait. We swallowed

involuntarily as we watched as the line sank into the water.

After just a few moments, the fishing rod twitched several times.

But Nishida didn't even move an inch.

"It's, it's here Nishida-san!"

"It's still too early!"

Behind Nishida's glasses, the two eyes that usually belonged to a

good-natured grandfather were shining with light. Nishida

continued to watch the end of the rod without moving as it

twitched.

Then the rod jerked harder.

"Now!"

Nishida strained his small body backwards and pulled the rod

using his whole body. I could tell the rope was really tight just by

looking at it, which also gave off a twanging sound effect.

"It took the bait!! I'll entrust the rest to you!!"

I cautiously pulled the rod that Nishida had handed over, but it

didn't even budge one bit. It felt as if the fish hook had caught onto

something embedded into the ground. I looked back at Nishida,

worried if the fish had really bitten, and then within the blink of

an eye—

The rope started pulling into the water with a burst of power.

"Ahhh!"

I quickly dug my feet into the ground and pulled it up again. The

strength-applied gauge quickly went past the normal mode.

"I-Is it okay to strain this?"

I asked Nishida as I worried about the durability of the fishing

pole.

"It's of the highest quality! You can pull on it all you want!"

Nishida nodded, his face already red from excitement. I corrected

my grip on the rod and then pulled with all my strength. The

fishing rod bent around the middle and became a huge U.

As each player levels up, they can choose to raise either strength

or dexterity. Axe-users such as Agil would opt for strength, while

rapier-users like Asuna would focus on their dexterity. Although I

was a normal sword user and raised both of them, my personal

preferences prioritized dexterity somewhat more than strength.

But I seemed to be winning this tug of war, most probably because

my level itself was so high. I slowly stepped backwards, steadily

forcing the huge thing out of the water.

"Ah, I can see it!!"

Asuna leaned over the water and pointed to it. I was leaning

backwards and further away from the lake so I couldn't check. The

spectators got louder and rushed forward to look into the water,

which quickly deepened as it left the shore. I couldn't suppress my

curiosity and focused all of my strength to tug at the fishing rod.

"...?"

Suddenly, something startled all the spectators that had been

leaning over the water. Each one of them took a few steps back.

"What's wrong...?"

Before I even finished talking, they all turned around and ran

away. Even Asuna and Nishida ran past me from either side with

white faces. I was about to look back towards them when— the

weight lifted from my hands and I fell down on my backside.

Ah, did the rope snap!?

As I thought that, I threw the rod away and ran towards the lake.

At that moment, the glittering water surface of the lake suddenly

surged upwards.

"Eh—!?"

I froze on the spot with my eyes wide open, and at this moment I

heard Asuna's faraway voice:

"Kirito-ku——n, it's dangerous——!!!"

When I turned around, I saw Asuna, Nishida, and everyone else

had already gotten up the embankment that rose from the edge of

the lake, which was quite far away from me. I could hear the water

splashing loudly behind me as I finally began to understand the

situation. Then, with a feeling of uneasiness, I turned back around.

The fish was standing.

To be more precise, the creature was like a Coelacanth3, a cross

between fish and reptiles, except this one leaned more towards

the reptile side. It stood there on the grass with its six powerful

legs and looked down upon me as water streamed off it like

waterfalls.

I said "looked down" because this thing was at least two meters

tall. Its mouth, which seemed like it could swallow a cow whole,

was positioned just a bit higher than my head with a familiar

looking lizard leg sticking out of it.

From either side of this ancient colossal fish's head, two

basketball-sized eyes met with those of my own. A yellow cursor

appeared automatically to mark it as a monster.

Nishida had told us that the local god of this lake was a monster in

a different sense from those that appeared in the fields.

How was it different? This thing was a monster in every sense of

the word.

I forced a smile and took a couple of steps backwards. Then I

turned around and scrambled off. The huge fish behind me gave a

thunderous roar and then started following me with steps that

shook the ground.

3 Coelacanth, a rare and nearly extinct order of fish, related to the lungfish

I pushed my dexterity stats to the limit and ran as if I was flying. I

reached Asuna within a few seconds and complained loudly:

"Th-Th-That was unfair! Running away by yourself!!"

"Uwa, thisisn'tthetimetobesayingthatKirito-kun!"

I turned around and saw the huge fish running towards us with an

impressive speed despite its sheer size.

"Ooh, it's running on the ground... So it's a dipnoan4...?"

"Kirito-san, this isn't the time to be saying pointless things like

that!! We should run away quickly!!"

This time it was Nishida who shouted in fear. The dozens of

spectators were in a state of shock from the situation, and quite a

few of them were sitting on the ground with blank expressions.

"Kirito-kun, did you bring your weapons?"

Asuna said as she brought her head right next to mine. Yeah, it

would be pretty hard to get everybody ordered enough to escape

in this sort of situation—

"Sorry, I didn't..."

"Oh well, I don't have any choice then..."

Asuna shook her head as she turned to face the huge fish that was

nearing us. She quickly manipulated the menu with a sure hand.

As Nishida and the other spectators watched with surprise, Asuna

took off her overcoat and scarf with her back to us. Her chestnut

hair danced wildly in the wind as it reflected the sunlight.

Although she wore only a grass-colored long skirt and a shirt of

hemp cloth, a rapier shone at the left side of her hip like a mirror.

She drew it with her right hand, and the sword gave a clear

ringing noise as she waited resolutely for the huge fish to come.

4 Probably some sort of lungfish; freshwater fish belonging to the Dipinoi subclass, giving them the

ability to breathe air.

Nishida, who was standing beside me, finally got back to his

senses and shook my arm while shouting:

"Kirito-san! Your, your wife is in danger!!"

"No, we can just let her handle this."

"What are you saying!? I-If that's what you're going to say, then

I'll..."

He snatched a fishing rod from a nearby companion and prepared

to rush to Asuna with a tragic expression on his face. I had to

quickly stop this old fisherman.

The gigantic fish didn't slow down one bit. It opened its huge

mouth, which was lined with countless sharp teeth, and threw its

entire body at Asuna as if trying to swallow her whole. Asuna

turned the left side of her body away from the fish while her right

hand flew out with a silver-white light streaming behind it.

A blinding flash of light erupted from the fish's mouth with an

explosive sound effect. The fish was thrown high into the air, but

Asuna hadn't even moved from her spot.

Although the sheer size of the monster induced fear, I had guessed

that its level couldn't be very high. There was no way that a

monster from such a low floor, especially one from a fishingrelated event, could be that strong. After all, SAO was a game that

kept to the normal pattern of online games.

The fish fell onto the ground with a crash, its HP greatly reduced

by Asuna's attack. Then, Asuna mercilessly launched into a chain

of consecutive attacks worthy of her title «Flash».

Nishida and the other spectators watched wordlessly as Asuna

activated one skill after another while she stepped gracefully as if

dancing. Was it Asuna's beauty or her strength that mesmerized

them? I thought that it was probably both.

As Asuna swung her sword with a presence that overwhelmed

everything around her, she saw that her opponent's HP had gone

into the red zone and jumped back to widen the distance between

them. After landing, she went straight into a charge attack. She

dashed towards the fish, leaving a trail of light behind her as if she

was a comet. It was one of the highest level rapier skills: «Flashing

Penetrator».

With a sound effect similar to a sonic boom, the comet penetrated

the fish from its mouth to its tail. As Asuna skidded to a stop, the

huge monster behind her fragmented into numerous bits of light

and scattered. There was a loud smashing sound which created a

huge ripple on the lake's surface.

Asuna sheathed her rapier with a *clink* and walked nonchalantly

over to us. Nishida and the other fishermen were left with their

mouths gaping wide open, unable to even move.

"Hey, good job."

"It's not fair, making me fight by myself. You're buying lunch next

time."

"Our money is shared data now."

"Oh, right..."

As Asuna and I went on with our relaxed conversation, Nishida

finally managed to blink and open his mouth.

"...Ah, that was surprising... Madam, you, you're really strong. This

might be a bit rude, but how high is your level...?"

Asuna and I looked at each other. Staying on this topic for too long

might be dangerous for us.

"Be-Before that, look, the fish dropped an item."

Asuna pressed a couple of things on the window and a silver

fishing rod appeared in her hands. Since an event monster had

dropped it, it was most likely an unsellable rare item.

"Oh, ooh, this is!?"

Nishida received the fishing rod with sparkling eyes. All the

spectators became interested in this as well. Just as I thought that

we had managed to safely avert this crisis...

"Are...Are you Asuna from the Knights of the Blood...?"

A young player took several steps closer to Asuna and stared

intently at her face. Then his face brightened.

"Yeah, you are! I've even got a picture!!"

"Ah..."

Asuna forced a smile and took a few steps back. The spectators

then doubled their excitement.

"It's, it's an honor! To be able to see Asuna-san fighting so close

up... Oh yeah! Can, can you give me an autogra..."

The young man suddenly stopped talking and then shifted his gaze

between Asuna and me a few times. He finally muttered with a

surprised expression:

"Are...Are you two... married...?"

It was now my turn to force a smile. As both of us stood there with

unnatural smiles plastered on, shouts of anguish rose up all

around us. Only Nishida continued to blink without any idea of

what was going on.

Our secret honeymoon ended like this after only two weeks. But

maybe we should consider ourselves lucky to take part in such a

fun event at the end.

That night, we received a message from Heathcliff, requesting us

to take part in fighting the 75th floor boss.

The next morning.

As I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the ground, Asuna,

who had finished getting ready, walked over to me while the iron

soles of her boots clanked against the ground.

"Hey, you can't be like this forever."

"But it's only been two weeks."

I replied childishly and raised my head. But I couldn't deny that

looking at Asuna in her white-red knight uniform for the first time

in a while was very attractive.

Seeing as we had temporarily left the guild, we could decline the

request. But the last line of the message, that "some people had

already died," laid heavily on our minds.

"Well, we should at least go listen to what's going on. Come on, it's

already time!"

As she tapped me on the back, I finally stood up with reluctance

and opened the equipment screen. Since we weren't part of the

guild right now, I put on my familiar black leather coat and a

minimalistic set of armor, then slung my two swords onto my back

with the scabbards crossing each other. The heavy weight on my

back felt like they were complaining about being left in the

inventory for so long. With a quick movement, I drew them

slightly and then sheathed them again; a high and clear metallic

sound rang through the room.

"Yeah. This appearance suits you best."

Asuna smiled and hung onto my right arm. I looked back and bade

farewell to our new home, which we were going to be away from

for a while.

"...Let's get this over with quickly and then come back."

"Yeah!"

We looked at each other and nodded. Then we opened the door

and stepped outside into the cold winter air.

At the gate plaza of the 22nd floor, we found Nishida waiting for

us with a fishing rod in his hand. We had told only him the time

when we were going to leave.

"Could we talk for a bit?"

I nodded to Nishida's request, and the three of us sat down next to

each other on a bench in the plaza. Nishida started talking slowly

as he stared up towards the upper floors.

"To tell the truth... until today, stories about how people were

fighting to clear the game on the upper floors sounded like they

came from another world... Perhaps I had already given up on the

thought of leaving this place."

Asuna and I listened to him silently.

"I think you already know this, but the IT industry progresses

almost daily. I had started this career when I was young, so I was

able to keep up with the industry back then. But now I had been

out of the field for about two years, I figured it would be

impossible for me to catch up now. Since I don't know whether I

could return to my old job or not, or if I would be treated as a

hindrance and simply tossed away, I thought that it would be

better for me to keep fishing here—

He stopped talking and formed a smile on his old, wrinkled face. I

didn't know what to say. I suppose I couldn't even imagine all the

things he lost when he became imprisoned in SAO.

"I also—"

Asuna suddenly started talking.

"Until half a year ago, I also thought about those sorts of things

and cried by myself every night. As each day passed here, it felt as

if everything: my friends, my family, going to college, everything

related to the real world was being ruined. I always dreamed of

the other world when I slept... I thought that all I could do was to

get stronger quickly, to clear this game faster, and the only way to

do so was to fanatically train my weapon skills."

I looked at Asuna in surprise.

Although I never paid much attention to others before... but I

never felt anything like this from her during all our interactions.

Well, this wouldn't be the first time that I had guessed someone's

personality wrong...

Asuna caught my gaze and smiled briefly before continuing:

"But on a day about half a year ago, after I had just teleported to

the city on the front-lines, I saw someone taking a nap on the grass

of the plaza.

He looked as if he was at a pretty high level, so I got angry and

said, 'If you have time to kill here, go into the dungeon and try to

clear some more of it...!'"

Then she covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.

"Then that person unexpectedly replied, 'It's the best season in

Aincrad, and the weather setting is really good too. It would be a

shame to go into the dungeon on a day like this.' Then he gestured

to the space next to him and said, 'Why don't you take a nap as

well?' He was so rude."

Asuna stopped smiling; her eyes became distant before she

continued:

"But what he said surprised me. I realized that 'this person was

actually living properly within this world.' He didn't mind losing

days in the real world and instead focused on experiencing each

day within this world. I discovered that there were actually people

like this, so I sent away the other guild members and tried laying

down next to him. Because the wind felt so good... just the right

warmth for people, I fell asleep. I didn't have any nightmares that

time. It was probably the first time I had such a good sleep since

coming to this world. By the time I woke up, it was already in the

afternoon, and that person was looking at me impatiently. That

person was him..."

As she finished, Asuna tightly grasped my hand. I felt extremely

embarrassed. I did sort of remember something like that, but...

"Sorry, Asuna... I didn't mean anything that deep by it; I just

wanted to take a nap..."

"I knew that even if you didn't tell me!"

Asuna pouted, then she turned back towards Nishida with a

smiling face before continuing:

"From that day on... I went to sleep thinking of him, and as a result

the nightmares went away. I found out where his hometown was

and would set aside some time to go see him every once in a

while... Then I began to look forward to the coming of each day...

When I realized that I was in love, I was so happy and swore to

treasure this emotion. That was the first time when I thought that

coming to this world was a great thing..."

Asuna lowered her head, rubbing her eyes with her gloved hands,

and then took a deep breath.

"Kirito-kun is the meaning behind the two years of my life spent

here. He is also the proof that I'm alive and the reason for looking

forward to tomorrow. I had put on the NerveGear and come to this

world in order to meet him. Nishida oji-san... It might not be my

place to say this, but I think you've definitely achieved something

within this world. There is no doubt that this is a virtual world,

that everything we see and touch is an imitation created from

data. But to us, our hearts do exist within this reality. If that's true,

then everything we're experiencing here should also be true."

Nishida blinked continuously and nodded several times. His eyes

were moist behind his glasses. I was also trying my best to hold

back my tears.

It was me, I thought. I was the one who was saved when I couldn't

find the reason for being alive, whether when I was in the real

world or after I came to this one.

"...Yes. Yes, you're right..."

Nishida looked up at the sky again and spoke.

"What I have heard here is also a priceless experience. Having

caught a five meter fish is also one... It seems that my life here

hasn't been meaningless. It was not meaningless at all."

Nishida nodded once and then stood up.

"Ah, it seems that I've taken up too much of your time.

I firmly believe that if people like you are fighting to free us, then

we should all be able to return to the real world soon... Although

there's nothing that I can do to help, I could at least encourage you

and cheer you on."

Nishida held our hands and shook them.

"We'll come back. Please keep us company when we do."

As I promised with my index finger, Nishida nodded with a huge

smile as tears streamed down his face.

We firmly shook hands with Nishida and then walked over to the

teleport gate. As we entered the space that shimmered like an

illusion, Asuna and I looked at each other and then opened our

mouths at the same time:

"Teleport— Granzam!"

The blue light that started to cover our vision erased the image of

Nishida as he kept waving at us.