Chapter 6

Asuna/Yuuki Asuna's imprisonment had a double meaning ever

since January, 2025.

The first kind of imprisonment was being confined in a golden

cage. Although this human-sized cage was luxurious and beautiful, it

could not be destroyed, no matter what method was used.

The reason was because the one-centimeter thick bars were not

metal, but virtual 3D objects composed of digital code. The cage had

been designated as «indestructible» by the system, so even if the bars

were pounded with a sledgehammer, not a single scratch would be

found.

The second imprisonment was that of Asuna's consciousness,

which was trapped in a dive in the virtual world itself.

The name of this world was «ALfheim Online», referred to as ALO.

It was a large scale network RPG administered by «RECTO Progress» -

a type of game known as a VRMMO.

ALO itself was operating as a net game without anyone knowing

the difference; tens of thousands of regular players pay a connection

fee and enjoyed the game. However underneath the game, because of a

man's evil intentions, it was engaged in a massive illegal and inhuman

project.

The core operating systems of ALO were actually a copy of

«Sword Art Online» which shook and shocked Japan for two years from

2022 to 2024.

Development of SAO was controlled by «Argus», which had let ten

thousand people, regardless of age or sex, become captives in a virtual

world, with a death count of nearly 40%. In the aftermath of that

terrible incident, they went bankrupt. «RECTO», a major electronics

manufacturer's FullDive Research Division was commissioned to

perform maintenance on the SAO server. The man in question had an

important position and used a copy of the original SAO data to

successfully create ALO. After the death game was cleared, the minds

of all remaining players should have been liberated but he, using

«Consciousness Abduction», imprisoned the awareness of three

hundred players in the ALO server.

The man's purpose was to use these three hundred players'

brains as experimental materials, utilizing the FullDive system to study

human emotion and memory manipulation.

The man also imprisoned Asuna's consciousness inside the world

of ALO. Her avatar was shut in a bird cage hanging on a branch of the

«World Tree» in the center of Alfheim, at a height that no player could

ever reach. The man's motive was to ensure Asuna's slumber, and to

become her husband in the real world and therefore become the

successor to the CEO of RECTO, Asuna's father, Yuuki Shouzou. Now,

two months after the resolution of the SAO incident, he was close to

achieving his goals.

That man's name is Sugou Nobuyuki. His other name is the ruler

of Alfheim, «Fairy King Oberon».

Using the hard won passcode, Asuna opened the cage and stepped

onto the path leading from the golden birdcage. She glanced at the sun

which was setting over the horizon while she slowly crept forward.

Engraved with the ring pattern of a tree, the branches of the

«World Tree» formed a long and wide path. Smaller branches that

acted as railings gave it an organic feel. In addition to the branches,

there were also little birds and small animals which occasionally

showed themselves, adding to the illusion that this was «inside of the

game».

Fearing that monsters would appear, Asuna cautiously moved

forward. After a few minutes of walking, a huge wall, the main trunk of

the World Tree, came into view on the other side of a curtain of leaves.

A black, gaping hole appeared where branch and trunk met, leading

into the interior of the World Tree. Unconsiously dampening her

footsteps, Asuna warily approached the hole.

When she arrived in front of the oval hole which mimicked a

natural tree knot, she saw an unmistakably artificial rectangular door.

The only difference was that this door had no handle but beside it was

a touch panel. Praying with all her heart that it wasn't locked, Asuna

touched it with her fingertips.

Soundlessly, the door slid open to the right. After checking for

signs of life, she hurried in.

The pathway she found inside was off-white and led straight into

the depths of the tree. Dim light reflected off of the inorganic walls

from orange lights periodically set in the ceiling. Unlike the corridors

of trees that showed a stunning beauty outside, here it seemed like

nobody had taken the trouble to place objects, leaving it completely

undecorated.

It was as if someone had suddenly switched the game world with

an office or library. From the white floors, cold air flowed over her bare

feet, sending a chill through her entire body. It was as though she was

being forced to realize she was infiltrating enemy headquarters. Asuna

bit her lips and continued.

Unlike Kayaba Akihiko, Sugou Nobuyuki had a different sort of

insanity.

Sugou, who was an employee of RECTO, used his position to

orchestrate the imprisonment of 300 players from SAO and started

dangerous human experiments with their brains. He was not just crazy

but almost greed personified. No matter how much he already had, his

bottomless hunger made him move to get more. Asuna who grew up

near him understood this point about him better than anyone.

Right now Sugou had control over a portion of Asuna and found it

very pleasurable to know he would have it all before long. If he knew

that Asuna had escaped from the cage, his rage would have no limits.

He would visit every possible humiliation upon her before using her as

a subject in his experiments. Just thinking about that made Asuna's

knees start to wobble.

But if she turned back now, if she returned to the cage, she would

have surrendered to Sugou. If it was Kirito he would never give up,

even if he didn't have a sword.

Asuna straightened her back, and looked at the passage.

Somehow, she managed to take a step with feet that seemed to be

made of lead. Once she took that first step, she didn't stop again.

The passage seemed to be endless. The wall panels at top, bottom,

left, or right had no seams or marks. It became increasingly difficult to

tell if she was moving at all. Following the occasional orange light from

the ceiling, Asuna single-mindedly continued forward. When she finally

saw another door in front, she involuntarily sighed in relief.

This door was identical to the door from before. Again, she

carefully touched the panel with her fingertips. The door slid open

soundlessly.

Behind it was the same passage, this time it continued left and

right. Feeling depressed, Asuna walked past the door. The surprising

thing was, after a few seconds the door automatically closed, but it had

melted into the wall, blending seamlessly. Asuna frantically touched

the door here and there, but it didn't re-open.

Asuna's shoulders slumped and she decided to forget about the

door. She had no plans to go back anyway. She lifted her head and

looked to her right and left.

What had been a straight path now seemed to curve in a gentle

arc. Thinking for a second, she started walking to the right. With faint

footsteps, she earnestly continued forward. She started doubting

herself 'Have I been walking in circles all this time'. While Asuna was

thinking that - something other than a wall finally appeared.

On the inside light-grey wall of the curve, there was something

like a poster. After rushing over to it, it turned out to be a guide map.

Asuna stared at the map, trying to imprint it in her memory.

At the top of the rectangular map «Complete Laboratory Map:

Floor C» was written in a nondescript font. Under that was a simple

illustration. There were three circular floors, and she was currently in

an outer passage of the top one.

There was only the round passage on this floor. The straight

passage that led to the bird cage was not displayed. However, on the

lower floors, A and B there were various rooms labeled on the inner

area, like «Data Reading Room», «Main Monitor Room», «Sleep Room»

and others.

Movement between floors seemed to be performed by an elevator

shown at the top of this floor's circular passage. One vertical line

connected all three floors and continued a long way to connect to

something down below.

Following the elevator line, at the bottom is a large rectangular

room. A chill ran down her back when she read the label next to that

room: «Experimental Body Storage Facility».

"Experimental Body..."

Those words left a bitter aftertaste in Asuna's mouth.

It seemed certain that this was Sugou's illegal research facility.

Indeed, if all of the testing was done in the virtual world, then it would

have been easy to hide. If it looked like they would be exposed, with a

touch of a fingertip, all evidence would disappear, leaving not a single

piece of paper.

If the purpose of the circular facilities and that room were

considered, one phrase would give it away, «Experimental Body». This

is where Sugou was keeping the players he had abducted from SAO.

Their consciousness was kept locked up in the storage facility shown

on the guide.

Asuna thought about it for a moment then turned and continued

walking down the curved passage. After walking for a few minutes at a

brisk pace, a slide door with no decoration appeared on the left hand

side of the passage. Next to the door a small inverted triangle stuck out

from the wall.

Asuna took a deep breath and pushed the button with her finger.

The door slid open immediately, opening into a small rectangular room.

Asuna went inside, turned around and saw a control panel, very similar

to those in reality.

After a moment of hesitation, Asuna picked and pushed the

bottom button of the four lined up. The door closed and surprisingly

her body was wrapped in a sense of falling. The box that Asuna rode

descended silently down the inside of the virtual tree, stopping with a

virtual sense of slowdown after a few seconds. A vertical slit appeared,

where moments before was a solid white door, and the door opened

with the sides sliding to the left and right.

Asuna stepped out of the door with light footsteps.

What appeared before her eyes was the same bland passage as on

the floor above, going in a straight line. After making sure that there

were no signs of life, Asuna started walking.

Oberon had given Asuna only a thin, simple, one piece dress that

she didn't approve of, but being barefoot in this situation was not a bad

thing. If she had been wearing shoes, sound effects would have

inevitably occurred. When in SAO, to make sure that monsters did not

notice her so she could do back attack or ambush, she often went

barefoot, accepting the drop in defense.

Other than actual combat, with Aincrad's ruins region as a stage,

Kirito, Klein, Lisbeth and Asuna played a «Surprise Attack Game» many

times. For Asuna who usually had light equipment that didn't make any

noise, she was constantly in the top ranks. But whenever she tried to

back attack Kirito it never worked, not even once, so once she tried to

sneak up on him without shoes on and just as she was about to hit him

on the head with a wooden sword, he took notice and dodged, after he

avoided her attack Kirito had grabbed her leg and started tickling her

non-stop. She started laughing so hard that she thought she would die.

Instead of the now uncertain real world, she wished she could

have gone back to that time - That idea could not help but start to form

in her mind with tears forming in her eyes. Asuna shook her head to

brush aside the sad feeling.

Kirito was waiting for her in the real world. The only place she

wanted to be was in Kirito's arms. For that reason all she can do was

move forward.

The passage wasn't that long. While walking, a plain door came

into view.

If it was locked, she would have to return to the previous floor to

look for the control system. While thinking that she arrived in front of

the door, contrary to her thoughts the door silently opened to the left

and right. Inside there was a strong light, she instinctively squinted her

eyes.

"...?!"

As soon as she looked into the room, Asuna gasped.

It was an incredibly vast space.

You could even say the pure white room was about the same size

as a huge event hall. The distance could not be felt due to how large it

was and there was a lack of detail. The ceiling shone a with a white

light, same as the white floor - which had many neatly arranged short

pillar-like things.

Making sure that nothing in sight was moving, Asuna stepped into

the room and carefully moved forward.

From Asuna's view, those pillar-like objects were arranged in

rows of 18 pillars. If that space was square, there would be

approximately 300 of them. Fighting back her fear, Asuna moved

toward one of them.

Reaching up to Asuna's chest they were wide enough around that

it would probably take both arms to reach around them. The surface of

it was smooth, though there were gaps in which something floated.

That, however you looked at it - was a human brain.

Although it was the correct size, the color wasn't real. It is made

of a semi-transparent blue-violet material. The object was incredibly

detailed, instead of a holographic display, it looked like sapphire

sculpture.

Looking closely, she noticed that lights periodically appeared and

scattered throughout the model, as they disappear there was a pow of

colorful firework spread. It looked like a bundle of ultra-compact

fireworks.

Frowning, Asuna observed from the side, she noticed that the

light moving at a part of the network suddenly became stronger. The

ending spark that used to be yellow became red and flashed brighter,

then the sequence repeated. At the bottom of the brain-like object was

a transparent chart that recorded the peak activity. Watching the log

for the next minute, various numbers and symbols were displayed,

along with words like pain and terror.

...It's suffering.

Asuna realized intuitively.

The brain was being tormented, by incredible pain, sorrow and

fear. The sparks were like screams coming from the brain. In front of

Asuna's eyes surfaced the face belonging to the owner of the brain.

That face was distorted to the limit, mouth open in scream after

soundless scream.

Unable to bear her imagination, Asuna backed up a few steps. In

her head she saw the map above, «Experimental Body Storage Facility»,

and heard Oberon's words «Techniques to Manipulate Emotions» in a

flashback. The scene before her finally put the pieces of the puzzle

together, and a certain picture appeared.

That meant the hundreds of brains here were not computergenerated virtual objects, but real-time monitoring of former SAO

players. When the game was completed these people should have been

freed, instead they were locked up by Sugou to be used in his devil's

research into thought, emotion and memory.

"This... this is too horrible..."

Asuna covered her mouth with both hands while whispering deep

in her throat.

The research being done, along with human cloning experiments

was absolutely taboo, something humans should never touch. It was

not just absolutely criminal. It was like trampling on a person's thought

and soul, the last dignity of that person was being destroyed.

Asuna turned painfully to the right. Two meters away there was

the same container, above it also floated a transparent blue brain. It

had the exact same attention to detail, but the lights flickering in

«somebody»'s brain were much slower. The color running through it

was a yellow shading to red, and it looked almost like a cloudy liquid.

On the other side... and beyond that, were a seemingly infinite

number of brains, all dyed in different colors, and all probably crying in

despair.

Suppressing her panic, Asuna wiped away tears forming in the

corners of her eyes.

It was not allowed. No, I would never forgive him. She and Kirito

had bet their lives in battle, and the results were being used by Sugou

for his experiments, that point could never be forgiven. His evil deeds

would be exposed, there was no punishment good enough for that man.

"Wait for me... I will save you soon..."

After saying that, Asuna gently touched the container holding the

tortured brain. Then she lifted her head, and walking between the

pillars headed toward the back of the room.

After walking past ten columns, she suddenly heard a human

voice. Asuna quickly flattened herself behind the nearest container.

Carefully glancing around, she searched for the source of the voice. The

voice seemed to coming from far to her right. Almost crawling, she

advanced in the direction of the sound.

After reaching the back of one of the columns, she saw something

strange ahead.

"...!?"

Panicking, she pulled back in a hurry. After blinking a few times

she fearfully looked once again.

The now gone 61st floor of Aincrad, was also known as «Insect

Land». As its name suggested, it was a floor full of bug monsters. For

the majority of women, including Asuna that place was the equivalent

to hell. One of the worst was a giant slug monster called «Blue Slug».

With slimy grey skin and black spots, they had three pairs of large and

small eyestalks, and tentacles protruding from their mouth for attack,

they were truly a nightmare—

Now, a few meters away from Asuna, there were two creatures

with their backs turned to her who were deep in conversation. Those

creatures were infinitely close to the Blue Slugs.

Those huge slug-like monsters seemed to be exchanging ideas

while watching a single brain. The slug on the right shook its eyes and

spoke in a squeaky voice.

"Oh, this guy is dreaming about Spica-chan again. B13 and B14

fields are off the charts. B16 is high too... he is really excited."

The slug to the left answered while using a tentacle to poke at the

holo-window near the brain.

"Isn't it a coincidence? This is still the third experiment, right?"

"Well, this formation is the result of an induced-emotion circuit. I

inserted the Spica-chan image into his memory, this display exceeds

the threshold frequency."

"Ok, we will continue monitoring the sample..."

Disgusted at the two slugs' annoying high-pitched voices, she

withdrew behind the pillar again.

They are Sugou's subordinates, engaged in this inhuman

experiment though it is uncertain why they have that appearance.

From their words, she could feel they had no moral hesitation.

Asuna clenched her right hand tightly. If she had a sword in her

hand right then... she would definitely give them the death appropriate

to their appearance.

Quelling the impulse to do what her anger demanded, Asuna

slowly backed away and after getting a certain distance from the slugs,

continued toward the depths of the room.

Carefully moving ahead at full speed she continued to walk past

columns of cylinders and finally arrived at the deepest parts of the

room. At the end of the room— in front of the white walls, Asuna found

a floating black cube.

This made Asuna think of the time when she was at Aincard's

underground maze's control system. If she could access it with

administrator privileges, it would be possible to log out of this crazy

world.

But from that point on, there was not a single place to hide. Asuna

took a deep breath, and jumped out from behind the cylinder with grim

determination.

Running toward the console as silently as possible. The ten

meters seemed to be incredibly far away.

Every step she took, she tasted the feeling of fear that someone

might shout to stop her coming from behind, but she continued moving

her legs, and at last, she arrived at the console. At that point she turned

around, and looked beyond the cylinders. With their antenne shaking,

the slugs still seemed to be in the middle of an argument.

Asuna turned again to the black console. The slant cut top was

dark and silent, on the right side there was a thin slit which remained

plugged with a silver key card. Praying to herself, Asuna reached out,

and grasping the card, slid it down.

A Poon sound effect rang out and Asuna ducked her head. To the

left of the card slot, a light blue window and holo-keyboard appeared.

There were many, close packed menus in the window. Asuna

crushed her inner anxiety, and carefully read the small English font.

At the bottom left was the button labeled [Transport], Asuna used

trembling fingers to push this button. With Bun sound, a new window

appeared. On it there was a map that displayed the entirely laboratory.

It seemed that it was possible to jump directly to anywhere in the

laboratory using that system.

But she had no use for that now. Desperately searching, Asuna

found a small button shinning on the right hand side labeled [Exit

Virtual Lab].

"This is it...!"

With a small cry, Asuna touched it. Above it another window

appeared. On the rectangular window there appear the words [Execute

log-off sequence?] followed by 'OK' and 'CANCEL' buttons.

God—

With her heart desperately praying, she moved her right hand to

push the button—

Suddenly, from behind her came a gray tentacle which grabbed

her right hand.

"...!!"

Asuna endured, throttling down a scream, as she tried to force

her finger closer to the button, but the tentacle held onto her like steel

wire and and didn't even budge. She tried to use her left hand, but just

as she started to move it, a new tentacle twined around her arm. Asuna

hands were pulled into the air, the rest of her body following.

Asuna's captors slowly turn her body around. As expected, it was

same two slugs from earlier.

Their 4 tennis ball sized eyes set with orange irises, moved to and

fro on their stalks. The expressionless eyes turned to inspect Asuna's

body and face, then the left slug's circular mouth moved oddly, a

rasping voice coming out.

"—Who are you? What are you doing in this place?"

Asuna fought back her fear, and pretending nothing was wrong

replied in a casual voice.

"Put me down now! I am a friend of Sugou. I came here to observe

and now I'm leaving."

"Oh? I haven't heard anything about that?"

The slug on the right, turned two of its eyes as if it was tilting its

head.

"You heard anything?"

"Not at all. 'sides, ain't it bad if outsiders see these?"

"Oh... wait..."

One of its eyestalks lengthened, the round eye getting a closer

look at Asuna's face.

"...It's you right. You're the person Sugou-chan locked up at the

top of the World Tree..."

"Yes. I heard about that. How selfish, the boss keeping such a cute

girl to himself."

"Arg..."

Asuna looked over her shoulder at the console and extended her

left leg to try to push the button. However, from the mouth of the slug

came another tentacle that entangled her foot. Asuna struggled to

reach the console, but her efforts amounted to nothing.

Because of going over the time limit, it returned to the initial

screen.

"Hey, hey, don't try to act violent."

The slug extended more tentacles, and wrapped up her entire

body. Enfolded mercilessly, the wire-like tentacles cut into the flesh of

her stomach and thighs.

"Ouch...! Stop... Let go of me, you monster!"

"Oh, how cruel. Especially when I'm still experimenting with

bathyesthesia mapping."

"That's right. Manipulating this body like this needed a lot of

training."

Being warped in silk like sharp pain that only exist in the

illusional world, Asuna frowned and she desperately said:

"You two are scientists right...!? Participating in this... illegal,

inhumane research, do you not feel ashamed!?"

"Ah, I feel this is much more humane than when we experimented

with an animal's exposed brain by using electrodes. These guys are

really just dreaming."

"Yes, yes. Sometimes we even let them have good feeling dreams.

They should be thanking us!"

"...You are crazy..."

Asuna whispered, her body wrapped in a freezing chill. Those

people, their true forms were those unfeeling slugs.

Paying no attention to Asuna, the two slugs start consulting each

other.

"The boss is on a business trip, right? You go back to the real

world and ask for instructions."

"Che, guess I have no choice. Yana, don't enjoy yourself while I'm

gone."

"I know, I know. Hurry and go."

The slug removed some of the tentacles from Asuna's body and

dexterously operated the console with one tentacle. After pushing the

buttons a few times, that huge body of his disappeared without a sound.

"...!!"

After seeing that, Asuna was driven by scorching frustration, she

shook her tied up body recklessly. Right there in front of her - was the

exit to the real world she had dreamed of. The exit opened a little, and

the bright light from the outside lit up the floor.

"Let me go!! Let me go!! Let me go back home!!"

Asuna cried almost crazily, but the tentacles showed no signs of

loosening.

"I can't do that, the boss will kill me. More importantly, aren't you

bored in this place with nothing? How about we play with some

electronic drugs? I was getting tired of those dolls anyway."

As he said those words, the cold, damp tentacles stroked Asuna's

face.

"S...Stop!! What do you...!?"

Asuna desperately resisted, but the slug immediately extended

new tentacles. Touching the skin of Asuna's leg, the tentacles slowly

reached up into her dress.

Asuna endured this unpleasant feeling, and pretended to lose all

the strength in her body, and the ability to resist. The slug, taking

advantage of that, moved a tentacle toward her mouth. Just as it was

about to touch her lips -

Asuna raised her head and bit down -hard- on the tentacle.

"Ayhaa!! Ouchhhh!!"

Asuna ignored the screams of the slug and continued to bite down

without mercy.

"S, stop, ouch, I understand, I understand!!"

After confirming that the tentacles were removed from her

clothes, Asuna opened her mouth. The slug hurriedly retracted the

injured tentacle.

"Ouch, I forgot to cut off the pain absorption..."

The slug withdrew an eye stalk and complained, then a pillar of

light appeared beside him. The other slug appeared with some sound

effects.

"...? What are you doing?"

"Nothing. What did the boss say?"

"He was crazy furious, he wants us to immediately put her back in

the birdcage above the laboratory, change the door's passcode, and

monitor her 24 hours of the day."

"Che, when I had finally found something to play with..."

Extreme depression caused her sight to dim. A golden

opportunity had slipped through her fingers.

"At least we could walk her back instead of using the teleport

function. I would still like to feel her a little more."

"You like it too."

The slug once again wrapped its tentacles around Asuna's body,

using its legless body to move toward the entrance of the room. At that

moment, when the two slugs were not looking, Asuna quickly stretched

out her right leg, and with her toes, pulled out the key card that was

still in the slot of the console.

The screen disappeared, but the slugs didn't seem to notice it.

Bending her body like a shrimp, she moved the card from her toes to

her hand.

"Come on now, you mustn't act violently."

The slug once again lifted up Asuna's body and aimed for the exit.

With a clank, the latticed door to the birdcage closed. The slug

used its tentacles to manipulate the number lock then waved it at

Asuna.

"So long. If you have the chance, come and play again."

"I never want to see your face again."

After saying that bluntly, Asuna walked to the other side of the

cage. The two slugs kept staring at her, but they finally turned around

and crawled over the branches.

After a while, the world was wrapped in the darkness of night.

Asuna stared at the blinking lights of the city far below, she whispered

to herself:

"I won't lose, Kirito-kun. I will never give up. I'll definitely get out

of here."

She turned to look at the silver keycard in her hand. It was useless

without a console, but now it was her only hope.

Asuna walked over to the bed, and pretending to lie down, hid the

keycard under her pillow.

As she closed her eyes, fatigue fell over her and slowly wrapped

her in a veil of sleep.