Chapter 13

Asuna battled with the dread that welled up endlessly from

within her, awaiting the moment.

She logged out from the virtual apartment in Yggdrasil City

and returned to the second floor of the Dicey Café in the real

world. Three minutes ago, she had called a cell phone number.

She accosted the person who'd answered and demanded a meeting in ALO at once, then jumped back into virtual space to rejoin

the others. It had been less than a minute since she dove back in,

but each second felt like an eternity.

"I don't suppose it would do any good to tell you to calm down,

Asuna," Lisbeth said from her spot next to the virtual sofa.

Asuna let out a small breath at last and answered tensely,

"Yes…I'm sorry. But…I just get this bad feeling. The only reason

Kirito would convert to that game without telling us about the

Laughing Coffin connection is because of something very serious…Perhaps even some kind of real-life danger."

"Sadly, I can't tell you you're overthinking this. Not after what

we just saw," Lisbeth said, referring to the eerie event they'd witnessed on the stream of the Gun Gale Online tournament.

The player in the tattered cloak had shot his opponent with

one measly pistol bullet. But the target disconnected and vanished. Then the cloaked player turned to all of the people watching the event and announced, "It's not over. Nothing's over. It's

showtime."

As soon as he heard those words, Klein announced with shock

that the cloaked man had to be a former member of the SAO red

guild Laughing Coffin.

Asuna had experienced many large-scale battles during the

two years she'd spent in that floating castle, and easily the worst

experience of them all was the battle of the front-line players to

eliminate Laughing Coffin. No other battle of player against

player ended up with over thirty fatalities.

In all honesty, the fine details of the battle were lost from her

memory. The most vivid detail in her mind was the back of the

black swordsman who fought like a demon when their group was

ambushed and in danger of falling apart. If it weren't for Kirito's

efforts, the entire vanquishing party could have perished.

The battle was far, far shorter than any floor boss encounter,

and it left about ten dead from the party, and over twenty dead

from Laughing Coffin. All of the survivors of the killer guild were

sent to the prison in Blackiron Palace, and the dead were briefly

mourned. Since then, no one had spoken of the battle. Asuna,

Klein, and Kirito each forgot about what happened in their own

way. They forgot everything…she had thought.

But she was shocked to find that bloody event of the past coming back like this, a year after everyone had been freed from SAO.

Silence settled over Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica, and even the

unrelated Leafa. They simply waited for the arrival of someone

who knew more about the situation than they did.

The knock on the door came about a minute after Asuna

logged back in. He had probably dived in as soon as humanly possible after receiving the summons, but Liz gave voice to everyone's honest opinion when she greeted him with "You're late!"

"I…I flew as quickly as I could from the save point. If ALO had

a speed limit, I'd have my license revoked," quipped the visitor, a

mage of the undine race like Asuna. His slender form was

wrapped in a plain robe, his marine-blue hair was styled in a simple part, and his thin, pleasing features were outlined by round,

silver-framed glasses.

His character name was Chrysheight. Four months had passed

already since he began playing ALO as a companion of sorts to

the group. Only Asuna and Kirito knew that his alias came from a

combination of chrysanthemum and height, two of the kanji

characters in his real name.

In the real world, his name was Seijirou Kikuoka—member of

the government's Virtual Division and onetime agent of the SAO

Incident Rescue Task Force. After Kirito returned safely to the

real world, Kikuoka had offered all kinds of help to Kazuto, and

even helped him rescue Asuna. As for why such a person would

bother to have his own ALO character, he had claimed it was "to

better get along with you and your VRMMO friends," but Kirito

himself claimed that it was just a facet of his information-gathering duties. Asuna herself felt that Kikuoka was a rather fishy

character, but she didn't have a good reason to refuse him, so

they had adventured together on a few occasions as partners.

Until today.

Chrysheight—no, Seijirou Kikuoka—closed the door behind

him and strode forward much more comfortably than he had four

months ago, when he first dove into the game.

Asuna strode over, boots clicking, until she was right in front

of him, stared into the soft eyes that he shared with the real

Kikuoka, and asked, "What's going on?"

When she called him on the phone from Dicey Café, all she

said was that she had a question about Kirito's conversion to

GGO, and she wanted him to come to her place in Ygg City. As he

was a bachelor and government official on a Sunday night, she

knew this request was a big one, but he was fortunately home at

the time, and she didn't need to twist his arm any more than that.

For being "home," his reception sounded poor, and there was

some kind of rumbling sound coming over the call, but she didn't

have time to ask about that. He was there in barely two minutes,

so if anything, she ought to apologize for calling on him so suddenly, but the feeling of haste urging her on cut that short.

Chrysheight's narrow eyes blinked several times behind his

humorous round glasses. Asuna knew Kikuoka well enough to realize that it was not an act of surprise, but a defense mechanism

to allow his high-speed mind enough time to think of an answer.

The mage cleared his throat and began to lecture in the tone of

a professor. "It might take some time to explain everything for

you. And where to even begin…?"

Asuna was about to round on him for dodging the question,

but she was cut off by the appearance of a tiny figure who

emerged from among the glasses and cups on the table, who

looked up at Kikuoka and said, "Then I shall do it for you."

It was Yui, of course. Her normally lovable little face had taken

on Kirito's serious look. In a clear, ringing voice like a tiny bell,

she stated, "The first appearance of a player in Gun Gale Online

claiming to be called 'Death Gun' was late at night on November

9, 2025. He fired his gun at a TV monitor in a tavern zone within

GGO's capital city of SBC Glocken…"

For the next two minutes, Yui ran through the situation to a

frightening level of detail. Death Gun made two meaningless gunshots within the crime-controlled zone of town where all attacks

were nullified. But they were immediately followed by a disconnection that seemingly had to be a result of those shots. The two

players who were shot hadn't logged in again since. And there

were two strange deaths that fit the time of the shootings.

"…No media outlet went more in-depth than to say that the

deceased were logged in to a VRMMO at the time, so I cannot be

certain if they were playing GGO. But based on the extreme similarity in the cases, I do not need to hack into the network of the

coroner's office to make a good case that the victims were Zexceed and Usujio Tarako. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion

that Pale Rider, the player who was forcefully disconnected by

Death Gun six minutes and forty seconds ago, is already dead in

reality," Yui finished. She leaned against a nearby glass. Asuna

reached out and scooped up the little pixie, cradling Yui to her

chest.

The ability of Yui's AI to sift through media reports and individual testimony and process them into a logical conclusion, then

phrase it into a grammatically proper statement, was nothing

short of stunning. The flip side of that was the fragility of her

emotional circuits. When she was still a mental-care counseling

program in SAO, she was unable to process the overflow of fear,

desire, and malice from the player population, and was most of

the way to a total breakdown when they found her.

To Yui, compiling and selecting from all the information regarding Death Gun had to be a terrible burden. Asuna leaned

down and whispered, "Thank you," even as she reeled from the

enormity of the information she had just learned.

That shock extended to Leafa, Lisbeth, Silica, and Klein as

well. No one spoke.

It was Chrysheight's gentle voice that broke the silence. "This

is quite a surprise. I'd heard that little fairy was an ALO Navigation Pixie…but I didn't know they could compile and analyze so

much information in such a short time. Do you feel like taking a

little job in Ra…er, in the Virtual Division?" the mage joked.

Asuna shot him a dirty look. Kikuoka raised his hands in surrender. "Sorry, sorry. I have no intention of playing dumb at this

point. Everything the little one just said…is true. Zexceed and

Usujio Tarako died of heart failure right around the point that

Death Gun shot them."

"All right, Chrys. You're the one who hired Kirito for this,

right? So you're sayin' you knew about the murders, and you still

sent him into the game anyway?!" Klein demanded, hopping

down from the bar counter to accost Chrysheight. The mage held

up a hand to stop him in his tracks. The light glinted off of his

glasses, hiding the expression in his eyes.

"Just a moment, Mr. Klein. This is not a murder case. That

was the conclusion that Kirito and I came to, after a lengthy discussion about the two incidents."

"What…do you mean…?"

"Just think about it. How would he kill them? The AmuSphere

is not a NerveGear. You should know that better than anyone.

The AmuSphere was designed with every possible safety measure,

and no matter how hard you try, it can't put a scratch on anyone's

brain—and it certainly can't stop the heart, over which it has no

direct influence whatsoever. Kirito and I met last week for a long

debate, and that was our ultimate conclusion. There is no way to

kill a player's real body with a gunshot from within the game,"

Kikuoka explained, calmly and logically, like a teacher lecturing

an overexcited student. Klein grumbled, but returned to his stool.

Next it was Leafa's turn to break the following silence with a

hoarse murmur. "Then why did you ask my brother to go to GGO,

Chrys?"

The shapely legs extending from her bright green skort

pounded the floor. The sylph warrior got to her feet and slowly

crowded in on Kikuoka, as if she were in a kendo bout. "You felt it

too…In fact, you can feel it now, can't you? Just like us. There's

something to this. Whoever Death Gun is, he's hiding some terrible, horrifying secret."

"…"

Kikuoka fell silent at last. Sensing that even he didn't know

what they knew, she offered him their shared secret. "Chrys,

Death Gun is…Well, he's an SAO survivor, just like us. And he

was a former member of Laughing Coffin, the horrible killer

guild."

The tall mage froze, sucking in a sharp breath through thin

lips. Even the cool, elite agent couldn't hide his shock this time—

his normally soft, narrow eyes bolted wide for an instant. Two

seconds later, his voice was subdued.

"…Is this true?"

"Yes. We can't remember his name, but both Klein and I took

part in the battle against Laughing Coffin. That means it's not the

first time Death Gun killed someone in a game. Are you going to

continue claiming that this is all a coincidence?"

"B…but…what are you stating, Asuna? That ESP and curses

are real? That Death Gun's had some abnormal power since SAO,

and is using it to kill people again?"

"…Well…"

Asuna bit her lip. She had no answer for that. A moment later,

Lisbeth broke in.

"H-hey, Asuna? Does Chrysheight know about SAO? I thought

he was some kind of government employee involved with networks in real life, and was playing ALO as a way to study VRMMOs…"

Surprisingly, it was Kikuoka himself who confirmed this first.

Perhaps he had no intention of hiding this from the start. He explained, "Lisbeth, that is essentially correct, but I was doing a different job before it. I was a member of the SAO Incident Rescue

Task Force…not that we ever managed to develop any kind of

plan to counteract it. Our team was all name, no results…"

Lisbeth's eyes went wide, and she looked conflicted.

Chrysheight was being self-deprecating, and selling himself short.

The task force worked quickly after the start of the SAO Incident

in November 2022, promptly transferring all ten thousand victims to hospitals around the nation. There was difficulty in acquiring funds for the beds and hospital costs, but according to

Kirito, it was Kikuoka himself who had negotiated hard to gain

the cooperation of the appropriate government ministries. Every

SAO survivor today knew how hard the task force fought, and

were grateful for it, not bitter.

Liz, Klein, and the others were, in fact, stuck between their

anger at Kirito's dangerous job and their debt to Kikuoka for

helping save their lives, and they couldn't take him to task.

Instead, Asuna stepped in and quietly said, "Chrysheight, I

don't know how Death Gun is killing people, either. But that

doesn't mean that I can just sit back and watch Kirito battle this

figure from the past on his own. Isn't it possible for you to figure

out the real address and name of whoever is playing Death Gun?

I'm sure it's not easy, but if you consult the list of the Laughing

Coffin survivors and cross-reference it against all the Internet

providers for whoever's connected to the GGO servers…"

"H-hang on. First of all, I'd need a court warrant for that, and

it would take hours just to explain the situation to the investigation office…"

Kikuoka held his hands out to placate Asuna, but he seemed to

notice something as he spoke and trailed off, blinking. He shook

his head.

"No, in fact, that wouldn't be possible to begin with. All the

SAO player data the Virtual Division has is real name, character

name, and final level. Guild names and number of kills are completely unknown. So just knowing that someone was a former

Laughing Coffin member won't help us track down their real

name or location."

"…"

Asuna bit her lip hard. She was sure she remembered Death

Gun's way of speech and actions. She was certain that she'd come

face-to-face with him at some point between the big battle and

the aftermath. But she couldn't remember the name. In fact,

maybe she'd never even tried to learn it. She just wanted to forget

everything she knew about the group as quickly as she could…

"I think my brother is in the midst of that battle now, so he can

remember that name," Leafa suddenly mumbled. In a way, she

was the closest to Kirito—Kazuto—in real life. She clutched her

hands together. "When he came back home last night, he had a

terrible look on his face. I think he must have realized that

Laughing Coffin was in GGO during the preliminaries last night,

and that this person was actually killing again, somehow. So I'm

positive he went to settle the score. He went to figure out the

player's name, and stop them from PKing again."

Asuna held her breath when she heard this. Though it pained

her a bit to admit it, Leafa's guess had to be right. In fact, Kirito

had to feel that it was his responsibility. As a member of the

group that came together to vanquish Laughing Coffin, he felt a

duty to ensure their wicked deeds were eradicated once and for

all.

Oh, Kirito. You always have to…You just can't help yourself…

"You…goddamn…fool!" Klein bellowed, pounding the bar

counter. His scruffy jaw twisted into a howl. "Don't just leave us

outta the loop! If you'd said one damn word about this…I woulda

converted without even askin' what game we were goin' to…"

"Indeed…but Kirito would never say. If he felt there was any

danger, he would try his hardest to keep us out of it. That's just

what he's like," Silica said, wearing a tearful smile.

Leafa smiled and nodded. "Yes…that's right. He's always been

like that. In fact, I bet he's even found some enemy combatant in

this tournament to protect, right about now."

Out of habit, everyone looked over to the huge screen on the

wall. Here and there in the multiwindowed display was the bright

flash of gunfire. But as usual, Kirito's name did not appear, and

the player who called himself Death Gun in the tattered cloak

hadn't shown up since his last exhibition.

Then again, no one present had seen Kirito's GGO avatar, so if

he had been the target at any point, rather than the character

named as the viewpoint player, they might not have recognized

him. Still, KIRITO hadn't disappeared from the player list on the

right edge of the screen, and he was still listed as ALIVE as more

and more combatants' status shifted to DEAD. Somewhere on that

vast island battlefield, he was locked in a subtle, secret struggle

with Death Gun.

Even if Asuna converted to GGO right at this moment, she

couldn't enter the tournament or help Kirito. But she wanted to

do something. She needed to support him, protect him, encourage him.

Filled by this sudden emotion, Asuna turned to Leafa and

asked, "Leafa, you said Kirito's not diving from his own room,

right?"

"Yes. But all I know is that he's coming from somewhere in the

center of Tokyo."

Asuna had already heard as much—that was why she was diving into ALO from Dicey Café in Okachimachi rather than her

home in the more distant Setagaya Ward, so she could meet up

with Kirito sooner once the tournament was over. She nodded

and turned to Kikuoka.

"Chrysheight, I'm certain you know the answer. Where is Kirito diving from?"

"Uh…well, that would be…" mumbled the robed mage, his seablue hair waving. Asuna took a firm step forward, and this time

he answered in the affirmative. "Yes, I know. I set it up, in fact.

The security is airtight, and he's being monitored. There's someone with him, so I can guarantee that his physical body is in no

danger…"

"Where is he?"

"…Uh, well, that would be…at a hospital in Ochanomizu, Chiyoda Ward… But don't worry, just because he's in a hospital. It was

only chosen because they have heart monitors there, not because

we anticipated any bodily harm," Kikuoka said, trying not to

make it sound like an excuse. But Asuna waved her hand and cut

through his chattering.

"A hospital in Chiyoda?! You mean the same one that he visited for physical rehab?!"

"Well, yes…"

That's close. Dicey Café in Okachimachi and Ochanomizu are

only separated by Suehiro in between. It might take five minutes

if I can catch a cab, Asuna realized. Her mind was set.

"I'll be going now. To Kirito in real life.