Chapter 24

When I regained consciousness, I found myself in an otherworldly

place.

Here, the sunset made the entire sky seem as if it was burning.

I was standing on a thick crystal floor. The orange clouds rolled

past slowly beneath the transparent tiles. When I raised my head,

I could see a sky dyed by the sunset reach as far as the horizon. As

it spread outwards, the endless skies faded from bright orange, to

a bloody red, then to a shade of purple. I could also faintly hear the

wind blowing.

It was a small, round disk of crystal which floated amongst the

clouds in the empty skies; here I stood on its edge.

...What is this place? My body should have disappeared after

shattering. Was I still in SAO... or did I arrive in the afterlife?

I examined my own body. The leather coat, long gloves, and all my

other equipment were the same as before I had died, except that

everything had become somewhat transparent. It wasn't just my

equipment either, as even the exposed sections of my body shined

with the sunset colors as if it was made of semi-transparent glass.

I raised my right hand and waved a finger about. A window

appeared with the familiar sound effect. So, this place was still

inside SAO.

But the window contained neither an avatar nor a menu list. The

blank screen showed only the message [Executing the Final Phase,

54% completed]. As I stared at it, the number went up to 55%. I

had originally thought that my mind would die alongside the

destruction of my body, but what was going on here?

As I shrugged and closed the window, I suddenly heard a voice

behind me.

"Kirito-kun..."

It was like a voice from heaven. Shock coursed through my body.

Please don't let this be my imagination— I begged as I slowly

turned around.

She stood there with the burning sky behind her.

Her long hair was drifting softly in the wind. But even though her

gentle, smiling face was within my arms' reach, I could not move

the slightest.

It felt as if she would disappear if my gaze left her even for a

second— so I simply kept staring at her in silence. She was also

semi-transparent, and was the most beautiful thing in the world

as she stood there, shining in the light of the setting sun.

I forcibly held back my tears and managed to form a smile. In an

almost-whispered voice, I said:

"Sorry. I died as well..."

"...Idiot."

Tears ran down her face as she said this with a smile. I spread my

arms wide open and gently called out her name:

"Asuna..."

I held her tightly as she flew into my arms and cried. I swore that I

wouldn't let go again. No matter what happened, I would never

ever let go again.

After a long kiss, we finally managed to pull our faces apart to look

at each other. There were so many things about the final battle

that I wanted to talk to her about, that I wanted to apologize to her

about. But I felt like there was no longer any need for words.

Instead, I shifted my gaze towards the endless skies and opened

my mouth:

"This... Just what is this place?"

Asuna silently turned her gaze downwards and pointed with her

fingers. I looked in that direction.

Far below where we were— something floated in the skies. It was

shaped like a cone with the tip cut off. It was made from numerous

floors overlapping one another. As I focused my eyes, I could even

see the small mountains, forests, lakes, and cities.

"Aincrad..."

Asuna nodded as I muttered this. There was no mistaking it. It was

Aincrad. The huge floating castle drifted amongst the endless

skies. We had spent two years fighting within that world of

swords and battles, yet now it was below us.

I had seen the outside of Aincrad before I came to this world in

some information about SAO. But this was the first time that I saw

its outside with my own two eyes. I held my breath as an aweinspiring feeling overcame me.

The steel castle— was being destroyed.

Even as we watched silently, a section of the lowest floor scattered

into countless shards. As I focused my ears to listen, I could still

hear the thunderous noise dispersing amongst the winds.

"Ah..."

Asuna exclaimed softly. A large portion of the lower floors broke

off, and the countless buildings, trees, and rivers all fell off and

disappeared into the sea of clouds. Our house was somewhere in

that area. I felt a bittersweet sorrow pierce my chest each time a

floor of the castle that held two years' worth of memories

disappeared.

I sat down at the edge of the platform with Asuna in my arms.

I was feeling unusually calm. Even though I didn't know what had

happened to us or what was going to happen now, I didn't feel the

slightest bit of anxiety.

I had accomplished what I had to do, and for that I lost my virtual

life and was now watching the end of this world with the girl I

loved. This was enough— my heart was content.

Asuna must have felt the same way. Within my arms, she watched

Aincrad collapse with her eyes half open. I softly stroked her hair.

"An impressive sight."

Suddenly I could hear a voice beside us. When Asuna and I turned

to the right, we saw a man standing there.

It was Kayaba Akihiko.

He appeared not as the red paladin Heathcliff, but in his real form

as the developer of SAO. He wore a white shirt with a necktie and

white overalls on top. Only the two metallic eyes on his sharp face

felt exactly the same. But those two eyes were filled with a gentle

light as they looked upon the disappearing castle. His body was

also semi-transparent like ours.

Even though I had fought to the death with this man just minutes

prior, my calmness continued to persist after seeing him. Maybe

we had left behind all of our anger and hate in Aincrad before we

came to this place. I turned my gaze away from Kayaba and back

onto the castle.

"What exactly is going on?"

"Perhaps you can call it... a metaphorical rendering."

Kayaba's voice was also quite peaceful.

"Currently, the SAO mainframe that's stationed in the

5th basement floor of Argus headquarters is in the midst of

erasing all data from its memory banks. In another ten minutes,

this world will be completely erased."

"What about the people who lived there... what happened to

them?"

Asuna suddenly asked.

"There's no need to worry. Just a moment ago—"

Kayaba moved his right hand and took a glance at the window that

appeared.

"All of the remaining 6,147 players have been successfully logged

out."

Then this meant Klein, Agil, and all the other people whom I had

come to know during these two years had managed to return

safely to the other side.

I firmly closed my eyes and allowed my tears to flow before

asking:

"...What about those who died? Both of us are already dead, yet we

continue to exist here. Doesn't that mean you can return the other

four thousand dead to the original world as well?"

Kayaba's expression didn't change. He closed the window, put his

hands into his pockets, and then said:

"Life can't be recovered so easily. Their consciousness will never

return. The dead will disappear— this fact remains true in every

world. I created this place only because I wanted to talk with you

two— one last time."

Was that something that somebody who had killed four thousand

people should be saying? Although I thought that, I didn't feel any

anger for some strange reason. Instead, another question popped

into my mind. It was a fundamental question which all the players,

no, everyone who knew about this incident would have asked.

"Why— did you do this...?"

I could feel Kayaba smile bitterly. After a long silence, he finally

spoke:

"Why—? I had forgotten a long time ago. Just why did I do it? Ever

since I found out that a FullDive system was being created— No,

even before that, I had wanted to build that castle, a place that

exceeded the limits set upon the real world.

Then, in those final moments... I saw even the rules of my world

being surpassed as well..."

Kayaba first turned his peaceful eyes towards me, and then

immediately shifted them away.

Kayaba's overalls and Asuna's hair fluttered as the wind grew

stronger. Half of the castle had already been destroyed. Algade, a

city full of my memories, was being scattered into the wind and

absorbed by the clouds.

Kayaba continued to speak:

"Don't we all have many dreams since the time we were kids? I

have already forgotten how old I was when the image of a steel

castle floating in the skies began to enrapture me... it was a vision

that didn't fade from my mind no matter how much time passed.

As I grew older, the image became more and more realistic, more

and more expansive. Leaving the real world and flying straight

into this castle... that was my only dream for a long time. You

know, Kirito-kun, I still believe— that in some other world, this

castle really does exist—"

Suddenly, I felt as if I had been born in that world, where I

dreamed of becoming a swordsman. The boy would one day meet

a girl with hazelnut-brown eyes. The two would fall in love, finally

get married, and live happily ever after in a small house in the

middle of a forest—

"Yeah... That would be nice."

I murmured. Asuna nodded in my arms as well.

Silence returned between us. I turned my gaze towards the

distance again and saw that other parts of the castle had begun to

collapse. I could see the endless sea of clouds and red skies being

consumed by a white light far away. The erosion began in all

directions and was slowly coming this way.

"Ah, I forgot to mention this. Kirito-kun, Asuna-kun...

Congratulations on clearing the game."

We looked up at Kayaba when he said this. He looked down upon

us with a calm expression on his face.

"Well then— I should be going now."

The wind blew and seemingly swept away his figure— by the time

we noticed, he was no longer anywhere in sight. Only the red

setting sun continued to shine through the crystal plate. We were

alone once again.

I wonder where he went? Did he return to the real world?

No— He wouldn't have. He would have erased his own mind and

left to find the real Aincrad in some other world.

Only the top part of the castle remained now. The 76th floor that

we never had a chance to see started to collapse. The veil of light

that was erasing this world gradually approached us. As the

wavering aura touched the clouds and the skies, they disappeared

and returned to nothingness.

I could see the red palace and its magnificent spires on the highest

floor of Aincrad. If the game had proceeded as planned, we would

have fought there against the final boss, Heathcliff.

Even as the foundation of the top floor disappeared, the ownerless

palace continued to float in the air as if resisting its fate. The red

palace that was left in the middle of the orange sky seemed like

the heart of the floating castle.

Eventually, the destruction engulfed the red palace as well. It

broke apart, starting from the bottom and travelling upwards, and

scattered into innumerable fragments before disappearing

amongst the clouds. The highest tower disappeared at almost the

same time as when the veil of light consumed its surroundings.

The enormous castle of Aincrad had been completely destroyed,

and all that remained in this world were a few clouds and this

small platform where Asuna and I sat.

We probably didn't have much time remaining. We were using

only the short period of time that Kayaba had given us.

With the destruction of this world, the NerveGear would carry out

its final function and erase all that remained of us.

I placed my hands on Asuna's cheeks and slowly pressed my lips

over hers. This was our final kiss. I sought to use up every last

second and engrave her very being onto my soul.

"I suppose this is goodbye..."

Asuna shook her head.

"No, it isn't. We'll be disappearing together. So, we'll be together,

forever."

She whispered in a clear voice before turning around in my arms

to stare straight at me. Then she tilted her head a little and smiled.

"Hey, can you tell me your name Kirito-kun? Your real name?"

I didn't understand at first, but then I realized that she meant my

name in the other world which I had left behind two years ago.

It felt as if the days where I had lived with another name and

another life were tales from some distant world. I spoke my name

as it drifted up from the bottom of my memory, feeling somehow

emotional.

"Kirigaya... Kirigaya Kazuto. I should have turned sixteen last

month."

At that moment, I felt time started ticking for the other me. The

mind of Kazuto, which had been deeply buried within the

swordsman Kirito, drifted up slowly. I felt the hard armor that I

had surrounded myself with in this world fall off piece by piece.

"Kirigaya...Kazuto-kun...."

Asuna voiced my name, concentrating on every syllable, then

laughed with a slightly perplexed expression.

"So you're younger than me. I'm... Yuuki... Asuna. Seventeen this

year."

Yuuki... Asuna. Yuuki Asuna. I repeated these five syllables in my

mind over and over again.

Suddenly, I became aware of the tears rolling down my cheeks.

My emotions began to shift at last in the middle of this perpetual

sunset. A painful feeling coursed through my whole being, as if my

heart was tearing apart. For the first time since my arrival in this

world, tears flowed freely down my cheeks. I felt a lump in my

throat, clenched both my hands, and began to cry loudly like a

little kid.

"I'm sorry... sorry.... I promised...to send... you back... to the other

side... but I..."

I wasn't able to continue. In the end, I couldn't save the person

who was most precious to me. Because of my own weakness, her

once bright and sunny path had come to a close. My regrets took

the form of my tears and poured down endlessly from my eyes.

"It's alright... It's alright..."

Asuna was crying too. Her sparkling tears rolled down endlessly

like small jewels before evaporating.

"I was really happy. The time I met Kazuto-kun, and lived

together, was the most enjoyable time in my entire life. Thank

you... I love you..."

The end of the world was right in front of us. The steel castle and

the endless sea of clouds had all been erased by the bright light,

leaving only the two of us behind.

Asuna and I hugged each other tightly, waiting for the final

moment.

It felt as if our emotions were being purified by the light. All that

remained inside of me was my love for Asuna. I continued to call

out her name even as everything was being unraveled and

scattered.

Light filled my vision. Everything was being covered by the pure

white veil and disappeared after becoming tiny particles of light.

Asuna's smile mixed in with the overflowing light that engulfed

this world.

—I love you... I love you—

Her voice rang out like the sweet chiming of a bell as the last of my

consciousness disappeared.

The final line that separated us disappeared and we became one.

Our souls seeped into each other, combined, and then scattered.

Finally, we disappeared.