Chapter 12

The game of Gun Gale Online did not feature the "class system"

traditional to most RPGs, with warriors, mages, and rogues.

Every player had six base stats such as Strength, Agility, Vitality, and Dexterity, as well as the ability to freely choose and level

up hundreds of skills such as weapon mastery, better bullet trajectory predictions, First Aid, Acrobatics, and so on. These combinations allowed a player to make their own unique "build." In

other words, that effectively meant that the game had as many

classes as there were builds.

The downside was that a poorly designed build—say, STR too

low to carry large weapons, plus a focus on heavy arms mastery—

limited one's battle ability. So naturally, a number of basic build

patterns emerged, as players learned that using this weapon effectively required that stat and skill. While every player's detailed

skill choices were different, this broke down their general builds

into a number of broad "class" patterns such as attacker, tank,

medic, scout, and so on.

Sinon's "sniper" class was one of those, albeit a rare one. She

prioritized Strength so she could equip her massive rifle, along

with Dexterity to improve accuracy, and a fair amount of Agility

for disengaging and retreating after every sniping attempt. In exchange, Vitality was her dump stat—if she got caught, she was

dead anyway, so why bother increasing health? As for skills,

Sniper Rifle Mastery was obvious, and she took everything related to accuracy. Again, no use for defensive skills. The tricky

part was that even with all the improvements to accuracy, the

pulse-measuring system demanded a basic level of player skill for

success regardless.

That feast-or-famine build actually put her at a serious disadvantage in the populous battle-royale format. It was all too easy

for someone to sneak up and ambush her while she was trying to

snipe at someone far away. And a sniper was helpless when set

upon by close-range attackers with SMGs or assault rifles. She

might get off one desperate shot from the hip—which probably

wouldn't land—and be pumped full of holes before she could

shoot a second time.

For that reason, if Sinon was on her own and fell prey to a

high-accuracy midrange attacker like Xiahou Dun with his Norinco CQ, she would lose.

But this time, it didn't play out like that. Through unexpected

circumstances, Sinon was accompanied by probably the only

lightswordsman in the entire game of GGO.

And when it came to high-risk builds, a sniper had nothing on

someone using a photon sword, which was inserted as nothing

more than a fun gag by some programmer on Zaskar's development team.

Its range was four feet, the length of the blade itself. That was

even shorter than the twenty-foot range of the Remington derringer pistol, the smallest gun in GGO. However, the pale, glowing energy blade contained unfathomable power—it split her

point-blank .50 BMG round in two.

If it could cut any shot, then in a way, that made it the greatest

defensive weapon in the game. But using a blade just an inch

wide to defend against a hail of supersonic bullets, even with the

predictive bullet lines, was just about impossible. It required the

precision to identify the paths and order of an onslaught of projectiles, the deliberation to quickly and accurately move the

sword to deflect, and most of all, the sheer pluck to stare down

automatic rifle fire without shrinking.

Sinon couldn't imagine what kind of practice would be neces-

sary to gain all of those skills. They might be beyond the bounds

of a VR game to begin with. It demanded the experience, will, and

soul power of the player behind the avatar.

Xiahou Dun finished reloading and opened a second hail of

fire with his CQ. As she watched Kirito cut down just the on-target bullets out of the storm of glowing lines, Sinon couldn't help

but reflect on these concepts.

Strength that transcended the wall between reality and virtual

reality. That was the exact boundary that she sought herself. She

needed the sniper's precision and bloodless cruelty to crush the

weakness of Shino Asada that dwelled within her. She had wandered these wastelands for the last six months in search of targets

who would bring her that strength.

If she summoned everything she had to fight and defeat the

powerful foe named Kirito, she might get there. This was Sinon's

overriding thought ever since their meeting yesterday.

But at the same time, a different feeling was growing within

her heart.

I want to know. I want him to tell me. About the place he was

before GGO. How did he live there, what did he feel, and how did

he survive? In fact, she even wanted to know what kind of person

he was in reality. And she had never felt that about anyone before…

"Sinon, now!" Kirito shouted, snapping her back to the situation at hand. He had just finished deflecting all of Xiahou Dun's

shots.

Her trigger finger squeezed the Hecate. It would be a sloppy

shot with her concentration as affected as it was, but the target

was less than a hundred yards away, and her accuracy was maxed

out. The bullet struck right in the center of Xiahou Dun's medieval body armor.

In a normal battle, an avatar that lost all its HP would shatter

like glass and disappear, but in the BoB final, different rules were

in effect that kept the body in place. Xiahou Dun flew through the

air, helmet tassel flapping, and landed, limbs splayed, on the dirt.

A red DEAD tag began to rotate over his prone form.

She stood up with a sigh of relief and switched out the

Hecate's magazine for a fresh one with the full seven rounds.

With her trusty friend resting on her shoulder, she turned to her

temporary partner.

The side of his face against the setting sun looked somehow

mysterious as he twirled the lightsword in his hands and returned

it to his waist carabiner. Sinon took a deep breath to suppress a

feeling much like her previous urge to know more about him, and

said, "The sound of that battle's going to draw more of them. We

ought to move."

"Right," he replied, casting a sharp gaze toward the nearby

river. "Death Gun must have headed north along the river. He's

probably going to hide out and pick his next target when the

satellite passes over again at nine. I want to stop him before there

are any more fatali—victims. Got any ideas, Sinon?"

She blinked, surprised that he would asked her, then shook

her head. She figured that given all the unexpected adjustments

she was being forced to make, no good ideas would come to her,

but to her surprise, the words emerged quickly.

"…Weird powers or not, Death Gun is essentially a sniper.

That means he'll be vulnerable in open space without cover. But if

you go north, the forest on the other side of the river fades out

pretty quick. All that's left until you reach the ruined city at the

center is a wide-open field."

"Meaning that it's quite possible he'll choose that city for his

next hunting spot," Kirito muttered, glancing at the faded silhouettes of the high-rise buildings far, far to the north. The distance

effects made them look incredibly distant, but it was less than two

miles away in actuality. With enough agility and caution, it could

be traversed in just ten minutes.

"All right, let's head for the town. If we run along the river,

they won't see us from the sides."

"…Got it," Sinon replied. She turned back for a moment. At the

foot of the bridge still lay Dyne's body. Oddly enough, the fact

that his dead body was there proved that he was still alive. The

one who was actually—potentially—dead was Pale Rider, who was

gone entirely.

She wasn't ready to believe it just yet. But at the same time,

she couldn't accept that it was all a lie.

There was one thing Sinon was certain of, however. This Bullet

of Bullets was going to change her. Whether it was in a way she

wanted or not, and whether the one who changed her was Kirito

or the mysterious cloaked player, was still unknown.

All she could do was trust her instincts. Inspiration was the

one skill that no player build could boost.

While she didn't have as extreme a build as Spiegel, Sinon's

Agility was far from low. Numerically speaking, she ought to be

around the same as Kirito, who claimed to be a Strength-first

player.

But as they sprinted together, Sinon found that it was everything she could do to keep up with that long, fluttering black hair.

Something about the way he carried himself was different. Kirito

leaped over every countless rock and sudden crack at the water's

edge, as though he had their locations memorized. The way that

he occasionally looked back to check on her and seemed to be

slowing down to match her pace filled her with spite.

On the other hand, they reached the flatlands of the southern

half of the island much faster than she expected, thanks to the

way Kirito found the easiest route to run. Eventually the riverbed

beneath her feet turned to concrete, and the skyscrapers of the

city were just ahead. They finally reached the ruined city, the

main battlefield of the map.

"We never caught up to him," Sinon noted to Kirito as he

rested his legs. She'd been hoping that they might catch Death

Gun emerging from the river in an unarmed state, so they could

pick him off easily. "You don't suppose we passed him at some

point, do you?"

Kirito turned back and grimaced at the river behind them.

"No, definitely not. I was watching the water while we ran."

"Oh…"

For one thing, without an Aqua-Lung, he couldn't stay submerged in the water for more than a minute. Death Gun was already carrying the massive L115 rifle, so he couldn't have the

weight capacity for another big piece of equipment. He must have

sunk into the water, followed the current north, then gotten out

somewhere out of sight and run off.

"Then he must be hiding out somewhere in town already. The

river ends right over there," she pointed out, indicating the culvert beneath the city that the water flowed into. Thick metal bars

blocked the pipe, making it clear no player could slip in. Obstacles like that were programmed to be indestructible, even to a

hundred plasma grenades.

"Good point…Only three minutes until the next scan. And as

long as he's in this city, there's no way to hide from the satellite's

eye, right?" Kirito asked. Sinon thought for a second before nodding.

"Right. In the last tournament, you showed up even on the

first floor of a high-rise building. The only places to hide are the

water or the caves, both of which have major risks. There's no

other place to hide from the scan."

"Okay. Then once we learn his location in the next scan, we'll

rush him before he can shoot anyone else. I'll go in directly, and

you back me up."

"Fine," Sinon shrugged, "but there's one problem. Death Gun

isn't his character name, remember? We can't confirm his location on radar if we don't know which name refers to him."

"Oh…g-good point," Kirito murmured, his pretty eyebrows

wrinkling. "Well, there were three names you didn't recognize on

the list of thirty, right? I was chasing after Pale Rider, and that

wasn't him. Which leaves two…Musketeer X and 'Steven'… If one

of the two is in the city, then we'll know for sure."

"But if they both are, we don't have time to think it over. We

need to decide which one to attack right now. Oh, and by the

way…" She cleared her throat. "I couldn't help but notice that a

musket is a type of gun, and if you turn the X diagonally, it becomes a cross, like the sign he was making. I don't know, maybe

that's a little too convenient…"

"Hmm…Well, I think everyone's character names in MMOs

are generally pretty cliché. I mean, mine is just a wrinkle on my

real name. What about you?"

"…Same."

They shared an awkward look, then cleared their throats simultaneously. Kirito clearly wasn't able to decide yet. He mentioned, "Meanwhile, if this 'Steven' is a foreigner, like his name

suggests, that would settle the matter. Are there any foreign players in the BoB?"

"Umm…"

She checked her wristwatch—under two minutes until the

scan. Sinon tried to explain as quickly as she could. "For the first

tournament, you could choose either the US or JP server, and I

understand that a few non-Japanese players were on the JP

server, with the Japanese interface and all. I wasn't playing GGO

yet at the time, but from what Spiegel told me, the first BoB

champion was one of them. Supertough, just slaughtered all the

Japanese players with a knife and handgun alone."

"Huh…What was his name?"

"Um, Sub…Subti-something. It was a weird name. But by the

time I started playing, you could only connect to the JP server if

you were actually located in Japan, so all of the players in the second and third BoB have been Japanese…or at least residents of

Japan. So even though 'Steven' was written with the alphabet, it

must be a Japanese person."

"I see," Kirito muttered, blinking hard, then made up his

mind. "Okay, if they're both in the city, we'll go after Musketeer

X. If I get hit with a stun round like Pale Rider, don't panic. Just

get into sniping position. Death Gun will emerge and try to finish

me off with that black pistol. Shoot him then."

"Uh…"

Sinon forgot that there was only a minute left. Her eyes went

wide, staring into his big black pools. "Why…would you…"

…trust me so much? she finished without saying. "I mean,

what if I shoot you in the back, rather than Death Gun?"

Kirito's eyebrows shot upward in surprise. He grinned very

slightly. "I already know you wouldn't do that. C'mon, it's time.

Let's do this, partner." The lightswordsman dressed in black patted her arm and starting trotting up the stairs from the riverbed

to the city.

The spot he touched got the same odd, warm tingle she felt in

her fingertips yesterday. She followed him up the stairs. She had

already lost count of how many times she'd reminded herself

since yesterday that he was an enemy she needed to defeat.

They lined up near the top of the concrete steps, crouching just

below the spot where they could be seen from the city, waiting for

the fourth satellite scan of the day.

She had the satellite terminal in one hand and the chronograph on the other. In real-world time, it was 8:59:55…56… If the

battle was going at the same pace as the last time, they'd be in the

latter stages, with less than half the combatants remaining. In

fact, just moments ago they'd heard gunshots and explosions

from the city overhead. The sounds temporarily stopped—they

were all in hiding, watching their terminals now.

Eight seconds, nine seconds…Nine o'clock.

A number of white and gray dots appeared on the terminal

map.

"Start from the top, Kirito!" she commanded, touching the two

dots next to each other on the west bank of the river at the south

end of the city. The names that appeared were, of course, KIRITO

and SINON. Since no close-range battles would take fifteen minutes, the other players had to realize by now that they weren't

fighting, but working together. It wasn't against the rules, and

players had cooperated this way in the past, but they had to be

thinking, Sinon? Of all people? All she hoped was that none of the

stream cameras caught her in the act of working with him.

She kept all of this distraction at bay as she touched all the

northern dots, dead or alive, checking the names. No-No,

Yamikaze, Huuka, Masaya…all famous, recognizable names. If

neither of the two names they were searching for showed up in

town, it meant their theory was wrong from the very start…

Wait.

"…There!" they both shouted in perfect synchronization.

At the outer edge of a round, stadiumlike building in the center of the city. The name popped up at the perfect sniping location with a great view: MUSKETEER X.

She and Kirito shared a look, then returned to their terminals.

They cross-checked, Sinon from the north and Kirito from the

south. Five seconds later, they looked up again and nodded.

"Musketeer X is the only one in the city," Sinon whispered.

"And 'Steven' isn't," Kirito rasped. "That means Musketeer X

is Death Gun. And he's probably aiming for…"

He placed a finger on a dot over a building to the west of the

center stadium—the name was Ricoco. In order to move to another spot, he would have to expose himself to Musketeer X.

Even as Sinon noted this, Ricoco's dot started heading for the

building exit. The instant he stepped out into the street, he'd be

hit by that L115's stun rounds. They had to stop Death Gun before

he approached and shot his victim with that pistol again.

Kirito stashed his terminal away and faced Sinon. He was

about to say something, then closed his mouth, followed by a simple, "Cover me."

"You got it," she replied, getting up. She walked up the stairs

in front of Kirito, checked the area, then waved him onward,

bouncing up the last stair herself.

The ancient ruined city at the center of the island known as

ISL Ragnarok seemed to be modeled after New York City in the

real world. Soaring towers that combined practicality with traditional beauty split the evening sky, while English signboards and

advertisements covered the street-level surfaces. Naturally, they

were all cracked with age and covered in vines and sand.

Sinon and Kirito sprinted down the street that ran over the

river as it went underground. Aside from the two of them, Death

Gun, and his target, the city contained at least five or six other

players, but there was no time to worry about them now. Fortunately, the previous scan showed no one close enough to reach

their street at a moment's notice. There were also rotted-out yellow taxis and large buses here and there that served as excellent

cover. The pair ran north, weaving through the vehicles.

With their AGI-aided sprinting, they raced 700 meters in less

than a minute—half the length of the city—until the large round

stadium appeared before them. Sinon motioned Kirito over to the

shadow of a nearby bus. They peered out through its cracked

panorama window.

The outer wall of the stadium was about three stories high,

with entrances at each cardinal direction. If Musketeer X hadn't

moved since the satellite scan, he would be just above the western

entrance. Sinon stared up at the top of the wall. Thanks to her

Hawkeye skill, the distance effects faded away, bringing the distant objects into focus. At the lip of the crumbling concrete, there

was a little triangular split, just like an arrowhole…

"…Found him. Up there."

She'd seen the glint of a rifle barrel in the light of the setting

sun, and so had Kirito. He responded, "Looks like he's still waiting for Ricoco to emerge…Let's attack from the rear now, while

we have the chance. You get into sniping position from the building across the street."

"What…? But I'm going with you into the stadium," she started

to protest, but he cut her off with a look.

"This is the best way to make use of your ability. I'll be able to

fight him freely, knowing that you'll back me up with your gun if I

get into trouble. That's how a team works."

"…"

She had no choice but to agree with him. He grinned the tiniest bit and checked his watch. "I'll start combat thirty seconds

after splitting off from you. Will that be enough time?"

"…Yeah, more than enough."

"Good. Let's do it, then."

The black-haired swordsman pulled away from the bus, faced

Sinon directly for a moment, then took off running for the stadium's south gate without a sound.

Sinon felt a strange feeling in her chest as she watched his

slender back race off. Nerves? Concern? It was similar, but different. Was it—could it be—forlorn loneliness…?

What a stupid thing!

She clenched her teeth, cursing herself.

I'm acting entirely rationally, all in an attempt to win the

BoB and prove that I am the greatest player in this world. I

want to get rid of Death Gun so that he stops sowing chaos with

his mysterious system-transcending power, and temporarily

working with Kirito is a necessary step to achieving that. As

soon as we succeed, the lightswordsman becomes my enemy

again. We will split up, and the next time I meet him, I'll pull the

trigger without hesitation, defeat him, and forget him. I'll never

see him again after that.

She ran, ignoring the prickling sensation around her heart.

Some buildings in the city could be entered and some couldn't,

and those that could had very obvious entrances. For instance,

the building to the southwest side of the wide, barren circle sur-

rounding the stadium featured a gaping hole where the wall

should be.

If she climbed up to the third floor, she'd be able to see over

the outer wall of the stadium. It was too close for proper sniping;

the target would almost certainly see her. But if Kirito creeped up

on Death Gun, the player would be too distracted to notice her.

She'd wait for an opening and shoot. Then she'd leave the city

and Kirito behind. That was the plan…

Sinon believed she was acting as calmly and rationally as she

always did. But she couldn't deny that a considerable part of her

was dominated by a very different, uncharacteristic thought.

She recognized this just as she was about to pass through the

crumbled part of the building wall, and felt a powerful chill in her

back. She started to turn around, but couldn't even do that before

she fell right into the street.

What…just…?!

At first she couldn't tell what had happened.

A shiver ran up her back…something shone on the left side of

her vision…she automatically raised her left hand, and a violent

shock ripped through the outside edge of her arm. She was about

to leap forward into the nearby building, thinking she'd been

shot, but her legs wouldn't move, and she sprawled out onto the

street.

Once all of that had properly registered in her brain, Sinon

tried to sit up, but her body wouldn't listen. All she could move

was her eyes. She tilted them down at her extended left arm, to

check the forearm for damage.

But it was not a bullet piercing the sleeve of her desert camo

jacket—more like a silver needle. It was about a fifth of an inch

wide, and two inches long. The base of the needle made a high-

pitched whir and glowed, while little stringlike sparks traveled

from her arm to the rest of her body.

An electric stun round.

It was the exact same projectile that had paralyzed Pale Rider

—noncompatible with assault rifles, machine guns, or handguns,

but usable only with certain large-bore rifles. And she hadn't

heard a shot.

There weren't many players using large rifles with suppressors.

But even after accepting all of this, Sinon couldn't bring herself to accept that it was him who had shot her. After all, the stun

round hit her from the south. But he was in the stadium to the

north. He was supposed to be aiming for a different target, unaware of Sinon's presence. And she was certain that no player

would be able to attack her from the south this early, based on

what she'd seen in the Satellite Scan. No-No, Huuka, and

Yamikaze were all on the other side of the severely collapsed region that would take time to navigate.

She couldn't understand. Why? Who? How?

It wasn't words that answered her, but a single sight.

Little dots of light fizzled into life in a space about sixty feet to

the south, where there should have been nothing. Someone appeared out of thin air, like a chunk had been cut out of the world

itself.

Her paralyzed throat opened in a fierce, soundless bellow.

Optical Camo!!

It was the ultimate camouflage material, sending light itself

through the surface of the armor and making the wearer invisible.

But that skill was supposed to be available only to a small subset

of extremely high-level unique boss monsters. Did they throw

some mobs into the map of the BoB as a new experiment? They

hadn't announced any such thing.

With a flap in the wind, the dark gray cloth cut through the

chaos of her racing thoughts.

A long, trailing cloak, the surface in tatters. A hood of the same

color that entirely covered the head. To her shock, her attacker

turned off the Optical Camo and revealed himself. It was the

cloaked player, who should not have been there.

Death Gun.

The silent assassin who had erased Pale Rider just minutes

ago, and possibly killed the previous champion, Zexceed, and the

major squadron leader, Usujio Tarako.

On the inside of the wavering cloak, she could see the barrel of

the massive rifle stretching nearly to his feet, and the sound suppressor fixed to the end. If the large cloak had camouflage abilities, it could cover the entire rifle and allow him to snipe while invisible. Even better, in fact—he could hide from the Satellite Scan.

It was the only explanation for why there hadn't been a dot near

the road on the latest scan.

Did that mean Death Gun wasn't Musketeer X…?

…Kirito.

Sinon called the name of the swordsman in the back of her

head, realizing that he was somewhere in the stadium behind her,

about to attack the wrong player. She didn't hear his voice respond, of course.

Instead, she heard only a soft, scraping footstep. The cloaked

player was sliding closer. In the depths of his dark hood, two

glowing red points blinked at irregular intervals.

The eerie, ghostlike presence stopped about six feet away from

Sinon's prone form. A hissing, creaking whisper came from his

hidden face.

"Kirito…This will tell, if you are real, or false."

The cloaked player knew that Kirito was in the stadium, and

yet was speaking to him, not her. The halting voice was metallic,

and nearly without emphasis of any kind, though it seemed to be

hiding some kind of enormous, burning emotion on the inside.

"I remember, seeing you, fierce with rage. When I kill this

woman…your partner, I will know, you are real, if you go mad

again. Now…show me. Show me, your anger, your bloodlust, your

madness, once again."

Sinon didn't understand a word of what he was saying. But the

cloaked man's terrible announcement actually had the effect of

lowering her shock and fear somewhat.

Kill? Me? A guy who has to skulk around and hide behind

camouflage?

Anger burst forth within her. The heat of that feeling overrode

the numbness in her body.

The stun round was still sparking madly, but because it hit her

in the left arm, she could just barely manage to move her right

hand. Fortunately, the grip of her MP7 SMG was just within

reach. She might be able to hold it, point it up, and pull the trigger. If she could fire a whole magazine into him, she just might

win.

Move. Move!

The commands Sinon sent from her brain through the Amu-

Sphere somehow overcame the game system's paralysis effect,

and her right hand began to crawl. Her fingers brushed the familiar grip of the MP7.

At the same time, Death Gun removed his empty left hand

from his cloak and lifted it slowly, ponderously. Two fingers

touched his hooded forehead. Though she hadn't noticed it before, there was a three-layered, pale blue circle in the air behind

Death Gun's head with a blinking red [•REC] in the middle—the

stream camera. Countless viewers within and without GGO were

watching footage of Death Gun in the midst of his triumphant

cross gesture, with Sinon collapsed miserably on the ground in

front of him.

His bony hand, clad in black leather, crossed his breast to the

left shoulder. Meanwhile, Sinon had the grip of the MP7 in her

palm at last.

The guns in GGO had safeties, of course, but nearly all players

left them off in battle, prioritizing the increased quickness to fire

over the infinitesimal chance of firing accidents. Sinon was one of

them. She just had to aim and pull the trigger. She had time. She

would make time.

Death Gun finished his cross, stuck his right hand into his

cloak, and began removing it just as quickly. Sinon did her best to

raise the MP7 with her numbed hand. She nearly fumbled it several times, but recovered desperately in each case. The ultrasmall,

three-pound SMG was impossibly heavy. But Death Gun would

still need to cock the hammer before he fired. She would surprise

him by firing at that moment…

But the instant he removed his hand and she saw the automatic pistol, Sinon's entire body turned to ice, gun hand included.

Why? It was just an ordinary pistol. She'd been face-to-face

with much bigger Desert Eagles and M500s in the past. She

shouldn't be intimidated by this one. She just had to grip the

MP7, point it at the enemy, and pull the trigger.

But before she could jolt her arm into motion again, Death

Gun put his left hand against the slide, and she caught sight of

the left face of the gun. In particular, she saw the all-metal grip

with vertical serrations, and the little logo in the middle.

A star inside a circle.

A black star.

The Black Star. Type 54. The Gun.

Why…? Why now, why here, why that gun?

The SMG that was her final hope slipped out of her powerless

hands. She didn't even register the sound of it hitting the ground.

The hammer cocked with a click. His left hand enveloped the

grip, and he took aim at Sinon with the sideways Weaver stance.

Suddenly, the darkness under the hood of the cloak twisted eerily.

It wavered and dripped like a viscous liquid, revealing two eyes.

Bloodshot whites. Small black irises. Dilated pupils that

looked like deep holes.

It was him. The man who had barged into the post office at

that little northern town five years ago with a Type 54 and tried to

shoot Shino's mother. Little Shino had leaped onto the gun in a

mindless panic, wrested it away, and shot him with it—they were

the eyes of that very man.

He's here. He was here, hiding in this world, waiting for his

moment of vengeance.

She had no more sensation in any part of her body, not just

the right hand. The red sun and gray of the ruins was gone, leav-

ing only two eyes in the darkness and the barrel of the gun.

The sound of her heartbeat was huge in her ears. If she passed

right out, the AmuSphere's safety measures would automatically

log her out, but her mind stayed intact, waiting for the moment

he pulled the Black Star's trigger. The trigger creaked. Just a fraction of an inch more, and the hammer would hit the firing pin, releasing the .30-caliber full metal jacket. It wouldn't deliver numerical, game damage. It was a real bullet. It would pierce

Shino's heart, turn it off, and kill her.

Just as she did to that man.

This was fate. There would be no escape. He would have

tracked her down and found her, even if she hadn't chosen to play

GGO. It would have happened one way or another. Everything

was pointless. She shouldn't have even bothered trying to cut herself free from her past.

Amid that torrid whirlpool of resignation, there was one tiny

feeling like a single grain of sand.

She didn't want to give up. She didn't want this to be the end.

She was finally about to understand the meaning of strength. The

meaning of fighting. If she stayed with him and watched him go,

one day, it would all click…

The gunshot cut that line of thought short.

She didn't know where she'd been shot at first. Sinon closed

her eyes, waiting for the moment her mind turned to nothing.

But…

It was the cloaked player who lurched forward. The eyes inside

his hood vanished, returning to red glowing points. An orange

damage effect was gleaming on his right shoulder. Someone had

shot Death Gun. Before another thought could penetrate her

mind, there was a second shot. This bullet grazed the left shoulder of the cloak from behind. Based on the impact of the sound, it

was a very high-caliber gun. The cloaked man crouched and

promptly ducked through the hole of the nearby building to hide.

Sinon could still see Death Gun from her angle. He put the

Black Star back in its holster and pulled the L115 down from his

shoulder, exchanging the magazine—from the stun round to its

deadly .338 Lapua rounds, she guessed. Even Sinon, as a sniper

herself, had to admit that his movements were quick and precise

as he pointed the lengthy rifle, looked through the scope, and

fired without hesitation.

The silenced shunk of his shot happened at the exact same

moment that a third attack came from behind. But this wasn't a

gun. An object like a small gray can of juice rattled into the street

between Sinon and Death Gun—a grenade. Death Gun withdrew

further into the building.

She shut her eyes tight. She'd take massive damage if a

grenade went off this close to her. Still, that was better than being

shot by the Black Star. In fact, dying normally was much preferable. She'd bow out of the tournament, then leave GGO and VRMMOs entirely, living quietly in the real world. Living in fear of

when the man would track her down again…

But once again, things did not play out as Sinon expected.

The grenade that exploded half a second later was not the popular plasma type, or ordinary gunpowder or napalm—it was a

smoke grenade that emitted harmless gas.

"…!"

Sinon held her breath as her entire vision was shrouded in

white smoke.

If she was going to escape, this would be her final chance, but

the stun effect hadn't worn off yet. If she could pull the stun dart

out of her arm, she'd regain mobility at once, but she couldn't

even get her right arm to move around that far. More important,

she no longer had the spirit to stand.

She lay there on the ground, mind essentially nonfunctioning,

her eyes wide open—when someone grabbed her left arm.

She was dragged upward. Whoever it was dropped the large,

unfamiliar gun and pressed a hand to Sinon's back. Before she

had time to topple over, she and the Hecate on her shoulder rose

up into a pair of arms.

After that, she felt acceleration nearly crush her body. The

wind whipped in her ears. Eventually the surrounding smoke

thinned out, and as her vision returned, she caught sight of the

player who was running with her in his arms.

Pure white skin. Eyes black as obsidian. Long hair trailing in

the wind.

Kiri…to.

She couldn't form the sounds. His girlish face was too beautiful, and the expression on his features too serious—no, desperate

—for her to speak. She could tell that he was giving the commands to his avatar so fiercely and intently that his nervous system was practically charring itself.

It made sense. Even if Kirito was a STR-first player with only a

lightsword and handgun for equipment, adding Sinon and the

Hecate had to put him just at his weight-carrying limit. The fact

that he could run this fast in those circumstances was nothing

sort of miraculous. And on second examination, he wasn't unharmed. There were fresh damage splashes on his right shoulder

and left arm. The brightness and volume of light said that the

cause was very high-caliber bullets. As an American VRMMO,

GGO was programmed with a fairly low pain-absorption level, so

while serious wounds like this wouldn't actually hurt, there would

be significant numbness.

It's okay…Put me down and go.

But she couldn't say it aloud. Her entire body, her whole mind,

was numb.

So when the high-caliber round came screaming just past her

face from behind, Sinon did no more than blink. In its slowed-

down state, her mind processed the details. She didn't hear a

gunshot, which meant the bullet came from Death Gun's L115. It

was way too close and precise a shot to have passed through the

smoke, which meant he was pursuing them. She didn't know

what kind of build Death Gun had, but he had to be at least as fast

as Kirito. He'd catch them eventually.

Kirito had to understand that as well. But the lightswordsman

never slowed down or made a move to drop Sinon. He just gritted

his teeth, panted heavily, and kept sprinting.

They circled around the east side of the stadium, trying to pass

into the north half of the ruins. Just as on the south side, a main

street went straight north. There were more abandoned cars and

buses here, but not enough for them to stay out of sight until they

left the city. Where was Kirito taking her…?

That question was answered by a half-busted neon sign that

appeared on the side of the road.

The blinking sign, barely visible in the evening light, advertised RENT-A-BUGGY & HORSE. It was an unmanned rental vehicle

business, just like the one in Glocken. Nearly all of the threewheeled buggies in the parking lot were destroyed, but there was

one that seemed like it might still be functional.

But that wasn't the only vehicle. As the sign advertised, next to

the buggies were several large, four-legged animals—horses. But

these were not living creatures. They were robot horses whose

metal frame and gearworks were exposed to the air. Once again,

there was one that might be functional.

Kirito raced into the parking lot and waffled for just a second

between the three-wheeled buggy and the robot horse. Through

her stiffened jaw, Sinon was just able to grunt, "No…horse. It

moves fast, but…too difficult to ride."

Very few people could master the manual-shift buggy, either,

but the robot horses were even harder. It was more of a player

skill issue than a statistical numbers game, so lots of tedious

practice was necessary to master it. With less than a single year in

the books for GGO, no player had had enough time to dedicate to

learning such a task yet.

Somehow, her advice didn't make up Kirito's mind for him,

but he eventually gave in and trotted over to the surviving buggy.

He touched the start-up panel and turned on the engine, put

Sinon on the rear step and hopped into the seat, kicking the accelerator on. The thick rear wheels screeched, and the buggy

turned hard, sending up a cloud of smoke.

Once he had the vehicle pointed north with the street, Kirito

shut off the machine for a second and shouted, "Sinon, can you

blow up that horse with your rifle?"

"Huh…?"

As movement finally started to return to her right arm, she

pulled out the stun round at last. Only when she turned back to

look at the robot horse did she understand. Kirito didn't want

Death Gun chasing after them with it. That seemed quite unlikely

to her, but she nodded anyway.

"F-fine, I'll try…"

Her arms were still trembling as she tried to hoist the Hecate

back up. She pointed the gun toward the cold, gleaming horse

barely twenty yards away. That was close enough that her skill

level would automatically hit the target, even without looking

through the scope. She put her finger on the trigger to bring up a

pale green bullet circle, then focused it tight on the horse's flank.

She squeezed…

Click.

Her eyes went wide. It didn't give.

She couldn't pull the trigger. She looked down at the side of

her trusty gun to make sure she hadn't somehow turned on the

safety, but that wasn't the case. She squeezed again. But the sensation was as tough as if the trigger was welded into place.

"Huh…? Why…?"

Click. Click. It was still the same. She looked down at her finger and saw something she never expected: her finger wasn't even

touching the trigger. Between her pale fingertip and the smooth

steel was empty space a fraction of an inch wide. No matter how

hard she squeezed, she couldn't close the gap…

"I can't…pull it… What the…? I can't pull the trigger!" she

wailed in a little squeak. It wasn't the voice of Sinon, the sniper

with ice in her veins, but the whimpering of Shino Asada in the

real world.

Just then, a black figure came into view through the haze of

smoke around the east end of the stadium.

It wore a tattered cloak that flapped and kicked violently in the

wind. A massive rifle in the right hand. It was Death Gun—or the

man who had always tormented her, taking Death Gun's form.

Her vision went dark. Her legs went limp. Her body was cold.

No…no, it's the onset of one of my spasms. I've never had one

while I'm here, while I'm Sinon. And I was even fine on my very

first dive, when they shoved a pistol into my hand…

"Sinon! Hang on!" came a loud voice, and a hand gripped her

arm hard. She clutched Kirito's torso as he guided her. A moment

later, the ancient fossil-fuel engine roared. The front lurched up

into a wheelie, and the buggy shot forward onto the road.

Each time Kirito stomped on the shift pedal, the corresponding lurch in acceleration threatened to pull Sinon off the vehicle.

She just barely kept her wits from surrendering to terror and

clung to the skinny body with all she had. Only the faint bit of

body heat she felt from him kept the encroaching darkness from

swallowing her entirely.

Now in top gear, the buggy's screech echoed off the walls of

the ruins as it raced up the main street.

Are we going…to escape?

She didn't have the courage to look around and see. It was at

this point that she realized her whole body was shaking.

Sinon moved her shaking fingers and pushed the Hecate back

up onto her shoulder just before Kirito shouted nervously, "Crap,

not yet! Stay alert!"

She turned around out of habit to see the robot horse she'd

failed to destroy leaping out of the now-distant parking lot. Her

eyes went wide with disbelief, but she didn't need to check who

was riding it.

The rider's cloak billowed out like the black wings of an ominous raven. The L115 was slung over his back, and his hands

clutched the wire reins. The way he stood up in the saddle and

bucked with the movement of the horse was that of an experienced rider. The heavy rumbling of its hooves as it galloped

churned up the innermost part of her brain.

"But…how…?"

He shouldn't be able to ride it. She'd heard that even experience with real horses didn't prepare one to ride these mechanical

horses. But the black knight smoothly steered around the husks

of cars in the street, leaping over one on occasion, pursuing the

buggy at the same pace.

He no longer looked like a player to her, but an incarnation of

the fear that poured out of her. She wanted to look away, but she

couldn't help but focus on the face of the rider over two hundred

yards behind them. It was too far a distance to make it out on

sight, but even still, Sinon saw two eyes and a large, leering

mouth in the darkness of the hood.

"He's going to catch us… Go faster…faster…faster!" Sinon

shouted shrilly, nearly a shriek.

Kirito responded by gunning the gas even harder. But just as

he did, one of the rear wheels went over a piece of debris and lost

its grip, causing the buggy to slide to the right.

Sinon screamed and leaned left, trying to regain her balance. If

the buggy spun out here, Death Gun would be upon them in

barely ten seconds. Kirito desperately tried to control the lurching

vehicle, swearing at it with all he had.

After several seconds of high-pitched tire squealing and

snaking back and forth, Kirito had it under control and speeding

up again. But in that short delay, Death Gun closed much of the

distance.

More and more obstacles appeared on the highway that split

the city, taunting them and forcing the buggy to corner to the best

of its ability. On top of that, small piles of sand formed here and

there on the road, making it harder for the wheels to maintain

their grip. It swayed to the sides with each little dune, causing

Sinon's heart to skip a beat each time.

These conditions applied to their pursuer as well, but the obstacle course was more of a handicap for the buggy than the fourlegged mount, and Death Gun smoothly piloted it around the broken vehicles, gaining ground all the way. On top of that, he had

one absolute advantage.

Both the three-wheel buggy and robot horse were meant to

seat two. One of them was carrying two people, while the other

had a single rider. The buggy's acceleration was clearly slower

than the horse's.

Each time it passed behind cover and showed up again, the

rider's silhouette grew steadily larger. Though it was much too far

away to reach her, Sinon felt the hissing, grating breath against

the back of her neck.

Just when he closed the gap to about a hundred yards, Death

Gun took his right hand off the reins and pointed it at them. In

his grip was the black handgun: the Type 54 Black Star.

Sinon stared at the gun, her body frozen, unable to hide on the

back step of the buggy. Her teeth trembled and chattered irregularly. Without a sound, a red bullet line touched her right cheek.

Sinon's neck craned to the left on its own, without her willing it to

move.

The next moment, the barrel of the gun flashed orange like a

demon opening its jaws…

Clang! The deadly bullet passed about four inches to the right

of Sinon's cheek with a high-pitched roar.

Even after the bullet raced in front of the buggy and hit a

wrecked, old car in front of them, tiny little particles of light hung

in the air and touched her cheek. She felt a sharp, cold pain, as if

she'd just touched dry ice to the spot.

"Aaaah!!" she screamed, turning away from the grim reaper

behind her and burying her face in Kirito's back. A second bullet

hit the rear fender of the buggy, sending a hard shock through her

legs.

"Oh no, oh no…help…help me…"

She shrank up like a baby, whimpering. The gunfire stopped,

but the hoofbeats grew steadily louder as Death Gun switched to

a new strategy that would get him a better shot.

"Sinon… Can you hear me, Sinon?!" Kirito shouted, but she

couldn't respond. She could only crouch down on the buggy's rear

step, moaning to herself.

"Sinon!!"

This final, fierce bellow caused her to stop at last. She slowly

craned her neck until the rear view of Kirito's flowing hair came

into sight. He was staring straight ahead and gunning the gas, his

voice calm despite the obvious tension.

"Sinon, he's going to catch up with us at this rate. You need to

snipe him."

"I…I can't…"

She shook her head like a sulking child. The weight of the

Hecate II pressed into her shoulder, but instead of the usual drive

to fight, the sensation brought her nothing.

"You don't need to hit him! Just keep him at bay!" Kirito continued, but she could only shake her head.

"I…can't… He…he's…"

Sinon knew that even if she put a 12.7 mm bullet in the heart

of the ghost from her past, he would not stop. A warning shot

would produce nothing.

Instead, Kirito turned around, his black eyes flashing. "Then

you take over driving! I'll shoot that gun instead!!"

That shook something tiny that still remained within Sinon—a

meager amount of pride, perhaps.

The Hecate…is part of me. No one else…can use it…

The fragmented thoughts sent a tiny pulse through her trigger

hand. She ponderously took the massive rifle off of her shoulder,

set it down on the roll bar across the buggy's rear, then hesitantly

got up and peered through the scope.

Even at the minimum magnification level, the short distance

to the target—less than a hundred yards—made Death Gun and

his robotic horse take up a third of the view. She reached up,

ready to bump up the zoom to get a better shot at the center of his

body, then stopped.

It occurred to her that if she zoomed in any further, she'd get a

good view of the face under the hood. Her fingers stopped moving. Sinon moved her right hand to the grip and entered sniping

position.

Death Gun should have noticed what she was doing, but he did

not stop or show any signs of evading. He kept coming straight

for them, hands on the reins. She knew he was disrespecting the

threat she posed, but she didn't feel any anger—all she felt was

fear at the possibility that he might once again pull out that

cursed reincarnation of the Type 54 that once attacked Shino.

One shot. Just one shot. Even if he saw the bullet line, she

might be close enough that he couldn't dodge in time. It was a

weak, passive hope, but that was all Sinon had to scrape together

at this point. She moved her index finger to the trigger, ready to

pull.

But once again, that strange stiffness crept into her finger and

prevented it from working.

No matter how hard she squeezed, her finger would not touch

the trigger. It was as if the Hecate itself, her trusty partner, was

rejecting her…

No, that wasn't it. She was rejecting it. Inside of Sinon, Shino

was refusing to fire the gun.

"…I can't shoot," Sinon/Shino rasped. "I can't shoot. My finger

won't pull the trigger. I…I can't fight anymore."

"Yes, you can!" a stern voice belted, right into her back.

"Everyone can fight! The only choice is whether to fight or not to

fight!"

Even with that challenge from the man she chose as her greatest rival, the vanishing flame within Sinon's heart barely wavered.

A choice. Then I choose not to fight. I'm tired of feeling this

pain. Every time I thought I found hope, it was taken away and

destroyed; I'm tired of it. It was an illusion that I could be

stronger through this game. I have to bear my hatred for that

man and fear of guns for the rest of my life. I have to look down

at the ground, hold my breath, don't look, don't feel…

Suddenly, a burning flame enveloped her frozen hand.

Sinon's eyes opened wide.

Kirito had turned his body around on the front seat of the

buggy and leaned over her back. He stretched out his arm as far

as it could go and grabbed her hand just before she could pull it

off the Hecate's grip, squeezing it tight.

He must have fixed the pedal to keep the buggy going at top

speed, because they weren't slowing down, but sooner or later

they would hit an obstacle in the road if he didn't turn back

around to steer. Kirito paid no mind to any of that. He shouted in

her ear, "I'll shoot with you! So just move that finger once!"

Sinon didn't even know if the game would allow two people to

fire one gun together. But she did feel a blazing warmth where

Kirito's palm touched her, slowly thawing her frozen fingers.

The index finger twitched, the joint creaked, and her skin

touched the metal of the trigger.

A green bullet circle appeared ahead, but it extended well past

Death Gun's body, bouncing and pulsing wildly with the racing of

her heart and the rattling of the buggy. At this rate, Death Gun

wouldn't even need to worry about dodging.

"It's n-no good…There's too much shaking to aim," she

groaned weakly.

His reassuring voice sounded in her ear. "Don't worry, the

shaking will stop in five seconds. Ready? Two…one…now!"

There was a sudden bounding noise with a terrific shock, and

the rumbling simply stopped. The buggy had climbed up something and jumped into the air. She caught sight of the ground out

of the corner of her eye and noticed a wedge-shaped sports car

stuck in the ground like a primitive ramp. Kirito must have

pointed the buggy straight for it before he turned around.

How can he stay so calm in these circumstances? Sinon wondered for just an instant. But she denied it just as quickly. No…it's

not being calm. He's going all out. He's not making excuses, he's

choosing to use every ounce of ability he has to fight. That's it—

that's his strength.

The previous day, in the final of the preliminary bracket, she

asked Kirito if he had that much strength, what could he possibly

be afraid of?

But that question itself was a mistake. True strength was facing forward despite fears, troubles, and suffering. There was only

one choice there: to stand or not to stand. To shoot or not to

shoot.

She couldn't imagine herself doing what Kirito did. But, if not

forever—at least now.

Sinon tried with all of her mind and body and soul to pull the

trigger of her beloved gun. The spring, tuned to be light, felt un-

bearably heavy. But with the help of the warm hand doubling

hers, her finger steadily sank into it. The bullet circle shrank just

enough to make her feel a bit better, but the enemy's silhouette

didn't even fill half of the sphere.

It probably—definitely—won't hit him, she thought as she

pulled the trigger, the first time she'd ever made a shot as a sniper

with that attitude.

The Hecate II positively exploded, releasing its pent-up dissatisfaction in a blinding flash from the muzzle.

Her uneven support prevented her from eliminating the recoil,

knocking her backward, but Kirito was there to keep her steady.

As the buggy passed the peak of the jump and began to descend,

Sinon kept her eyes wide, watching the course of the bullet. The

projectile cut a spiral in the evening air, just barely passing to the

right of the reaper's horse behind them.

I missed…

There were more bullets in the magazine, but Sinon didn't

even have the willpower to pull the bolt handle anymore.

But perhaps because the "goddess of the underworld" had too

much pride to miss entirely, the enormous antimateriel round did

not just open a harmless hole in the asphalt; it rammed into the

side of a large truck stretching across the highway.

Nearly all of the man-made objects placed around the GGO

environments could be used as cover for players to hide behind.

But since this was taking as many cues from an FPS as an

MMORPG, there were certain risks involved with that. When objects like barrels and large machinery took enough damage, they

might explode. Every once in a while, a decrepit old car rotting in

the road still had gas in the tank, and if a bullet struck true…

A small flame licked out of the side of the large truck. Death

Gun noticed this as he was about to pass around it, and tried to

have the robot horse jump to the other side of the street.

But an instant before he could, an enormous fireball erupted,

bathing the truck and horse in blinding orange light.