The Safe Haven Incident

What's up with this chick?

Yeah, I know it was me who said the weather was nice and

worth taking a nap under, and me who was lying down in the

grass, and me who actually nodded off for a while.

But I certainly didn't expect to doze for less than half an hour,

only to wake up and find her completely passed out next to me.

Either she was extremely bold, exceedingly stubborn—or dangerously short on sleep.

I shook my head back and forth with great exasperation as I

gazed down at the peacefully sleeping face of Asuna the Flash,

vice commander of the Knights of the Blood.

This story began on a day so pleasant that I didn't feel like diving into a dank, smelly labyrinth. Lying on the low hill surrounding the town's teleport square so I could count butterflies seemed

like a better use of my time.

The weather was truly incredible. The floating, virtual-reality

castle Aincrad had seasons synchronized with the real world, but

they were a bit too dedicated to the re-creation, which meant that

every summer day was blazing, and the winter was truly freezing.

In addition to temperature, there were countless other climate

parameters like wind and rain, humidity, pollen, even swarms of

bugs. If some aspect were nice on any given day, something else

would be just as unpleasant to balance it out.

But today was different. The climate was sunny and warm; the

air was full of gentle sunlight; the cool breeze was pleasant, not

buffeting, and lacked swarms of bugs to boot. Even in the spring,

you didn't get all the parameters lined up this perfectly more than

five days a year.

Interpreting this as a sign that the god of digital realms intended for me to take a break from playing and enjoy a nap, I

faithfully indulged in His suggestion.

Yet as I lay my head down on the gentle grassy slope and felt

myself drifting off to sleep, white leather boots rudely interrupted

me by treading right near my head. Meanwhile, a familiar, harsh

voice hit my ears, snapping, "Who said that you ought to indulge

in napping, when the rest of the game's conquerors are so

valiantly vanquishing the labyrinth?"

Without opening my eyes, I replied, "I daresay this be the

finest weather we are likely to see this year, and it doth demand

savoring."

The even-more-irritated voice noted, "'Tis the same weather as

upon any other day."

To which I stated, "Lie down at my side and thou shalt know of

which I speak."

Okay, so the conversation was a lot more informal than that,

but for whatever reason, the chick actually lay down next to me

and just conked right out on the grass.

Anyway.

It was before noon, and the players milling around the teleport

gate in the square openly stared at the Flash and me as we lay on

the grass. Some were shocked, others giggled, and some shamelessly set off their recording crystals, flashing as they pho-

tographed us.

They couldn't be blamed. As the vice commander of the KoB,

Asuna was a figure who struck fear into the hearts of children

everywhere, the turbo engine who powered the extreme pace of

our game conquest, while Kirito the solo player was—against his

will—known as the bad boy of the class, the one who got together

with miscreants to cause mischief when he ought to know better.

Even I had to admit that I'd find the combination worthy of interest if I'd witnessed it. But I didn't want to wake her up and get

yelled at, so my best move would be to get up and leave her behind.

If only I could actually do that.

For as the Flash lay sleeping, she was opening herself to not

just several kinds of harassment, but the more-than-zero possibility that she could be PKed as she slept.

Yes, we were in the safe haven of the town square of the fiftyninth floor's main city.

Yes, we were within the Anti-Criminal Code Zone.

This place made it impossible for a player to harm another

player. A weapon strike would produce nothing but purple

sparks, a visual effect that did no HP damage, and no poisons

would have any effect, either. On top of that, stealing was absolutely impossible.

So within the safe haven, as the Anti-Criminal Code suggested,

it was impossible to commit any direct crimes against other players. This was as ironclad a rule within SAO as the one that said

you would die if your HP dropped to zero.

But unfortunately, there were a number of loopholes.

One of them involved sleeping players. When a player was in

an exhausted near-blackout sleep after hours of battling, they

might remain sleeping through moderate stimuli. Under this situation, a player could be challenged to a "full-finish" duel, and his

hand could be moved by another to touch the OK button on his

window. As such, he could be literally murdered in his sleep.

Bolder than that was the plan to physically transport a player

out of the safe zone. A player standing tall on his own two feet

was protected by the code, but someone placed on a stretcher

item was freely transportable.

Both of these cases had been tested and pulled off before. The

horrid, depraved dedication of the "red" players knew no bounds.

As a result of those tragedies, every player now made sure to fall

asleep in a home or inn room with a locking door. Before I

napped on the grass, I made sure to set my Search skill to warn

me of incoming targets—and I did not go into a deep sleep, either.

And yet it was clear to see that the Flash was emitting some

hardcore delta waves next to me. I could scribble on her face with

makeup items and she wouldn't wake. Either she was extremely

bold, exceedingly stubborn, or—

"Totally exhausted, I bet," I muttered to myself.

Depending on your build in SAO, solo play was the most efficient way of leveling up. And yet she took care of leveling her

guild members and was managing to upgrade her own numbers

at a pace approaching mine. She had to be cutting back on sleep

to farm mobs late at night.

I knew how tough that could be. Four or five months ago, I'd

been on the same hard EXP pace—and once I fell asleep, I was

guaranteed out for several hours afterward.

I swallowed a sigh, taking a beverage out of my inventory, and

sat back down in the grass, preparing for a long haul.

It was my suggestion that she sleep. So it was my responsibility to wait there until she awoke.

Asuna the Flash finally arose with a tiny sneeze when the light

filtering through the outer aperture of Aincrad was orange with

the sunset.

She'd achieved a full eight hours of sleep; this was far more

than just a simple nap. My stomach grumbling with the lack of

lunch, I stared at her, eagerly anticipating the face she would

make when the callous, unforgiving vice commander realized

what had happened.

"…Unyu…" she mumbled, blinked, and looked up at me.

Her shapely eyebrows contracted only slightly. She unsteadily

pushed herself up to a sitting position, her chestnut brown hair

waving as she looked right, then left, then right again. Lastly, she

looked at me, sitting cross-legged next to her.

Her pale white skin instantly went red (probably shame), then

slightly blue (probably panic), then red again (probably rage).

"Wha…Why…How…" the Flash stammered.

I gave her my brightest smile and said, "Morning. Sleep well?"

A hand clad in white leather twitched. But in keeping with her

lofty position as the subleader of the most powerful guild in the

game, Asuna won the saving roll to maintain clear judgment and

did not draw her rapier or sprint away on the spot.

Through gritted white teeth, she grunted, "…One meal."

"Huh?"

"I'll buy you one meal, anything you want. Then we're even.

Deal?"

I rather liked that direct nature of hers. Even fresh out of

sleep, she instantly recognized that I had stayed with her the entire time—and not just that I had been protecting her from PKers

within the safe haven, but ensuring that she got all the sleep she

clearly needed to recharge.

I smirked with one cheek, honestly this time, and agreed to the

deal. I could have saucily proposed a homemade meal in her personal kitchen, but I too maintained my composure. I rolled back

and hopped up onto my feet, then held out a hand.

"There's a place on the fifty-seventh floor that's pretty damn

good for an NPC restaurant. Let's go there."

"…Fine," she said bluntly, grabbing my hand and looking away

from me. She stretched luxuriously, trying to suck the sunset into

her lungs.

A year and five months had passed since the start of Sword

Art Online, the game of death.

At the start, the path to the hundredth floor of the floating castle Aincrad seemed impossibly long, but we were nearly 60 percent done now, with the current player frontier being the fiftyninth floor. That meant that we'd been tackling the floors at a

pace of one every ten days. As I was right in the middle of it, I

couldn't say if that was a fast or slow pace, but given that it was at

least a steady one, here in the middle floors, there was now something of a confidence to actually enjoy one's time.

This attitude was found in abundance in Marten, the main city

of the fifty-seventh floor. Just two floors below the current front

line, this large settlement was both a base camp for the frontier

players and a popular tourist destination. In the evening, the conquerors from above would return, and the players from below

would come visit for their dinner.

Asuna and I teleported from the fifty-ninth floor and found

ourselves squashed shoulder to shoulder among the mass of humanity on the main street. It was enjoyable to see the shocked

looks of many who passed us. It was only natural, given that the

pristine, valuable flower with her own fan club was walking side

by side with a cocky, unsavory solo player. Asuna probably

wanted to use every last point of agility to race into the restaurant, but unfortunately for her—and fortunately for me—I was the

only one who knew where we were going.

After five minutes of walking and savoring a feeling that I

knew I would never experience again through the very last day of

SAO, a large restaurant came into view on the right.

"This is it?" Asuna asked, equal parts hope and suspicion. I

nodded.

"Yup. I'd recommend the fish over the meat."

I pushed the swinging door open and held it in place so the

fencer could duck through confidently. Even as the NPC waitress

guided us through the somewhat crowded restaurant, I felt eyes

on my skin. The pleasure was giving way to exhaustion by now. It

couldn't be easy to attract that much attention every day.

But Asuna boldly strode across the floor toward a window

table in the back. I awkwardly pulled out the chair for her, which

she took smoothly.

Dinner was on her, but I began to feel like I was the one escorting her around instead. I sat down across from her and decided to make the most of my free meal by ordering an aperitif,

appetizer, main dish, and dessert all at once, sighing with relief

when it was over.

Asuna took the delicate glass that appeared instantly and

tasted the drink, then let out her own long sigh. Her light brown

eyes were slightly less sharp than before, and in a voice just

barely audible, she murmured, "Well…I guess I owe you…

Thanks."

"Wheh?!"

I stared at her in shock.

"I said, thank you. For guarding me."

"Er…well, um, I, y-you're welcome."

I was so used to her usual cutting remarks and strategic orders

in the boss planning meetings about where the boss's weak points

were and who should fight at front or rear that I couldn't put together a proper sentence. Asuna chuckled and leaned against the

chair's backrest. She looked up into the air with much gentler

eyes than usual and murmured, "I think…that might have been

the best sleep I've had since I came here…"

"I-I'm sure that's just an exaggeration."

"No, it's true. Usually I wake up within about three hours of

falling asleep."

I wet my tongue with the sour liquid in my glass. "Not because

you have an alarm set, I take it?"

"No. It's not quite insomnia…but I usually bolt up in my sleep

from nightmares."

"…Yeah."

I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I saw the face of someone who

had once said the same words to me.

The Flash was a human being like the rest of us. The fact that

it took me this long to properly process that made it difficult to

string words together.

"Uhh…well…I guess if you want another nap outside, just hit

me up."

It was a pretty stupid line, but Asuna favored me with another

smile.

"Good idea. Maybe I'll take you up on that if the game gives us

a perfect weather day again."

That smile made me painfully aware of just how beautiful she

was, and it stopped the language center of my brain altogether.

Fortunately, that potentially awkward pause was broken by the

NPC waitress and the plates of salad. I shook some mystery spices

onto the mystery vegetables and shoved a forkful into my mouth.

After chewing it down, I tried to break the mood by noting,

"Isn't it weird how we still eat these raw vegetables when they

have no nutritional content?"

"Well, they're tasty, aren't they?" Asuna rebutted, chewing on

a leafy green.

"I mean, they're not bad…but they could sure use some mayonnaise."

"Oh, totally. One hundred percent agree."

"And some dressing…Some ketchup…and—"

"Soy sauce!" we said at the same time, and burst into laughter.

At that very moment, there was a distant but unmistakable

scream of terror.

"…Eeyaaaaa!!"

—?!

I took a sharp breath and rose to my feet, hand over my back

to my sword hilt.

Asuna had her own hand on her rapier in similar fashion, her

voice suddenly sharp.

"That was from outside!"

She leaped out of her chair and raced for the exit of the building. I hurried after the white knight's uniform. When we reached

the main street, there was another hideous, ear-splitting scream.

It was probably from the square a block away from us. Asuna

glanced back at me and began a proper full-speed sprint. I raced

as fast as I could to keep up with the bolt of white lightning,

sparks flying from the soles of our boots as we turned east around

a corner and leaped into the circular plaza.

I was greeted with a sight I could not believe.

At the north end of the plaza was a stone building that looked

like a church. There was a rope hanging from the decorative window in the center of its second floor, and a man hung from the

noose at its end.

It wasn't an NPC. He was dressed in full plate armor and a

large helmet, probably on his way back from a hunt. The rope bit

deep into the neck of his armor, but that was not the source of

terror for the packed crowd below. It wasn't possible to die of asphyxiation from a rope in this world.

The root of their horror was a black short spear plunged deep

into his chest.

The man had both hands on the hilt of the spear, his mouth

working soundlessly. As the seconds passed, red lighting effects

spilled from the wound in spurts, just like blood.

In other words, he was taking steady, continuous damage. It

was a piercing DOT (damage over time) effect, something that

only occurred with certain piercing weapons.

That particular short spear had to be a weapon designed to inflict that effect. I could see countless barbs along the body of the

spear.

I snapped out of my momentary shock and shouted up, "Pull it

out!!"

The man looked at me. His hands slowly attempted to remove

the spear, but the weapon was in too deep. The fear of death was

paralyzing him, sapping his strength.

His avatar was stuck to the wall of the building at least thirty

feet off the ground. It was too far for me to be able to jump, given

my agility stat. Could I cut the rope with a throwing pick? What if

I missed and hit him instead? What if that knocked his HP to

zero?

Of course, this was the safe haven, so that wasn't possible. But

it wasn't possible for that spear to be damaging him, either.

While I hesitated, Asuna was giving orders.

"You go under and catch him!"

She took off for the entrance to the church with astonishing

speed. She was going to go inside to the second floor and cut the

rope.

"Got it!" I shouted back, dashing for the spot beneath the helpless man.

But just barely halfway to that spot, I noticed that the man's

eyes were trained on a single spot in the air. Instinctually, I knew

what he was looking at.

His own HP bar—specifically, the moment it went empty.

Amid the screams and shouts of the square, I thought I heard

him yell something.

And with a sound like infinite glasses shattering, the night was

lit with blue. I could do nothing but watch, dumbstruck, at the

flying polygonal shards.

Without its weight, the rope dangled limp against the church

wall. A second later, the black spear—the murder weapon—struck

the cobblestones with a heavy thud, sticking in place.

The screams of the crowd drowned out the pleasant, peaceful

BGM that played over the town. Even in my shock, I had enough

presence of mind to look carefully over the entire crowd of the

plaza centered around the church. I was looking for something—a

feature that had to be present.

The message announcing the winner of the duel.

We were right in the middle of town, within the realm of the

Anti-Criminal Code Zone. There was only one way that a player

could suffer HP damage, especially all the way to death: to accept

a "full-finish" duel, and lose.

There was no other way.

So the moment that he died, there had to be a large system

window appearing, announcing the winner's name and time of

duel. If I could spot that, I would instantly know who had killed

the plate-armored man with that short spear.

And yet…

"…Where is it?" I mumbled to myself.

There was no system window. Not anywhere in the plaza. And

it would only be displayed for thirty seconds.

"Everybody, look for a duel winner notice!" I shouted, loud

enough to be heard over the crowd. The other players caught my

meaning instantly and began to peer in every direction.

But no one called out with an answer. Fifteen seconds had

passed.

Could it be inside a building? Perhaps inside a room on the

second floor of the church, where the man had been hung? If so,

Asuna might see it.

At just that moment, the white uniform of Asuna the Flash appeared through the very window in question.

"Asuna! Did you see a winner notice?!" I demanded, an abnormally rude way to question her, given our relative unfamiliarity,

but time was of the essence. Her face, as pale as her garb, only

shook from side to side.

"No! There's no system windows in here, and no people!!"

"…How…?" I mumbled, looking around helplessly.

A few seconds later, someone else muttered, "It's no good…

That's at least thirty seconds…"

I passed the NPC nun parked permanently at the entrance of

the church and raced up the staircase.

The second floor contained four small rooms that looked like

bedrooms, but unlike an inn's, these did not lock. The first three

rooms did not have any signs of players, either visually or

through my Search skill, as I passed. I bit my lip and entered the

doorway of the fourth.

Asuna turned away from the window toward me, putting on a

brave face, but I could tell that she was as shocked as I was. I

couldn't hide the consternation in my brows, either.

"No one else is inside the church," I reported.

The KoB vice commander promptly asked, "Is it possible they

were hidden with a cloaking cape?"

"Even on the front line, there have been no drops powerful

enough to override my Search skill. Just in case, I have people

standing in a line outside the entrance to the church. Even if invisible, they'd be automatically revealed if they tried to go outside

among that much attention. There's no rear exit to this building,

and the only window is this one."

"Hmm…all right. Look at this," Asuna said, pointing to a corner of the room with her white glove. It was a simple wooden

table, a "fixed-location object" that could not physically be

moved.

A thin but sturdy-looking rope was tied around one of the

table legs. By "tied," I don't mean it was done by hand. Tapping

the rope for a pop-up menu, hitting the TIE button, then clicking

the target object would automatically tie the rope. Once tied, that

rope could not be undone unless it held a weight over its durability rating or was sliced by a sharp blade.

The dark, gleaming rope stretched about six feet through the

room before dropping out of the south-facing window. Though I

couldn't see it from here, it eventually ended in a noose that immobilized the man in the plate armor.

"Hmm…" I muttered, shaking my head. "What does this

mean?"

"Well, using common sense," Asuna said, mimicking my action, "it seems likely that the victim's dueling opponent tied the

rope, stuck the spear in his chest, then looped the rope around his

neck and pushed him out of the window…"

"As a warning to others? Wait, more importantly…" I took a

deep breath. "There was no winner announcement. There are

dozens of people in the plaza down there, and no one saw it. If it

were a duel, it would have to be displayed nearby."

"But…that's impossible!" she shot back. "The only way to damage someone's HP in a safe haven is for both sides to agree to a

duel. You know that as well as I do!"

"Yeah…that's correct."

We fell into silence, staring at each other.

Asuna was right: The impossible had just happened. And all

we knew was that a player had died in a highly public place, with

no answers or clues as to whom, why, or how.

A stream of crowd noise washed constantly through the open

window. They, too, recognized the abnormal nature of this incident.

Asuna stared into my eyes and said, "We can't just let this go.

If someone's found a new way to PK others in a safe haven, we

have to figure out how and announce a way to stop it—or this will

lead to disaster."

"…It's rare for me to say this, but I am in complete and total

agreement with you," I said with a pained grin. The Flash thrust

out her right hand.

"Then I guess you'll be working with me until we solve this.

And no time for naps, just so you know."

"I think that would be more your concern than mine," I mumbled under my breath, and held out my own hand.

And so a partnership of makeshift detective and assistant—

though which was which remained a mystery—was formed with a

handshake of black and white gloves.

2

Asuna and I retrieved the rope as evidence in the case and left the

room, returning to the entrance of the church. I'd already placed

the black short spear in my inventory before going into the building.

I thanked two familiar players who'd stood guard at the door,

and they confirmed that no people had emerged since I went inside. I walked into the plaza and raised a hand to the crowd of onlookers, calling out, "Pardon me, but whoever first spotted what

happened, please come and speak to us!"

A few seconds later, a female player reluctantly emerged from

the crowd. I didn't recognize her. She had a normal NPC-made

longsword—probably a tourist from the middle floors.

Unfortunately, she looked a little frightened of me, so Asuna

took the lead and gently inquired, "Sorry, I know this has been

scary. What's your name?"

"Uh…uh, my name is Yolko."

Something in her frail voice was familiar to me. I interjected,

"Were you the one who screamed first?"

"Y-yes."

The woman named Yolko nodded, her wavy, dark blue hair

bobbing. Based on the appearance of her avatar, I judged her to

be seventeen or eighteen years old.

Her large, innocent eyes, as blue as her hair, suddenly filled

with tears.

"I…I am…I was…friends with the person who was just killed.

We just had dinner together, and then we separated in the

square…and…and then…"

She covered her mouth with both hands, unable to continue.

Asuna put an arm around her slender shoulders and guided her

into the church. They made their way to one of the long pew

benches and sat down together.

I kept a bit of distance and waited for the girl to calm down. If

she did see her friend PKed in such a cruel manner right before

her eyes, the shock would be unbelievable.

Asuna rubbed Yolko's back until she stopped crying, and the

girl apologized in a weak, tiny voice.

"No, it's fine," Asuna assured her. "I'll wait as long as it takes.

You just tell me more when you're ready, okay?"

"Okay. I…I think I'm fine now."

Yolko moved away from Asuna's hand and nodded, showing

herself to be tougher than she appeared.

"His name is…was Kains. We were once in the same guild together…We still party up and eat together sometimes…So today,

we came here to have dinner…"

She shut her eyes, then continued, her voice still trembling.

"But there were so many people…I lost sight of him in the plaza. I

was looking around for him when suddenly, a person—Kains—fell

out of the church window, hung on that rope…with the spear in

his chest…"

"Did you see anyone else?" Asuna asked. Yolko paused.

Then she slowly but surely nodded. "Yes…For just a moment, I

felt like I saw someone standing…behind Kains…"

Unconsciously, I clenched my fists. The killer had been in that

room. Which meant that right after pushing the victim out of the

window, the killer had just waltzed right into public to escape.

That would have to mean they used some kind of Hiding-enabling gear, but such items were less effective when the user was

moving. Perhaps they had an ultra-high personal Hiding skill that

would be enough to make up the difference.

The term assassin flickered ominously through my mind.

Could there be a category of weapon skills in SAO that even

Asuna and I didn't know about yet? What if it were capable of

nullifying the Anti-Criminal Code…?

Asuna's back trembled for a moment—she had arrived at the

same conclusion. But she looked up at once and asked Yolko,

"Did you recognize the person?"

"…"

Yolko pursed her lips in deep thought, then shook her head.

This time it was my turn to ask gently, "I'm sorry if this is unpleasant, but…can you think of any reason why Kains might have

been targeted…?"

As I was afraid, Yolko instantly tensed up. It was understandable—she had just witnessed the murder of her friend, and I was

asking if he'd done something to deserve it. It was a hurtful question, I knew, but it had to be done. If someone out there held a

grudge against Kains, that would be our best clue.

But this time, Yolko only shook her head. Disappointed, I said,

"I see. Sorry to ask that."

Of course, it was possible that Yolko just wasn't aware of such

a thing. But whoever killed Kains was both an actual murderer

and a PKer in the traditional MMO sense. Player-killing was an

act that some players engaged in for that reason alone. The red

players lurking in the darkness of Aincrad at this very moment

were tried-and-true examples of that archetype.

That meant the potential suspects were every orange or red

player, of which there were hundreds, as well as anyone who

might be subconsciously harboring that desire within them.

There was no way to know how to narrow down that list.

Once again arriving at the same conclusion simultaneously,

Asuna let out a powerless sigh.

* * *

Yolko was afraid to return to the lower floors alone, so we sent

her to the nearest inn and came back to the teleport square.

Thirty minutes had passed since the incident, and the crowd

was thinning out by now. Still, there were a good twenty players,

mostly front-line fighters, who were waiting to hear an update

from us.

Asuna and I told them that the deceased was named Kains,

and that we had no clues yet on how the murder was achieved.

And most importantly, that there might be some kind of undiscovered method of safe-haven PKing at work.

"…So can you send a warning far and wide that for the moment, it's not entirely safe even in town?" I finished. The group

accepted the task with grim faces.

"All right. I'll ask an info broker to include this in the next

newspaper," said a player in one of the major guilds, speaking for

the group. They trickled away after that. I checked the time in the

corner of my view and was surprised to see that it was still just

after seven o'clock.

"So…what now?" I asked Asuna.

She instantly replied. "Let's examine the information we currently have, particularly the rope and spear. If we can tell where

they came from, we might be able to track down the killer."

"I see…So if there's no motive, we have to go on evidence.

We'll need the Appraisal skill for that. Hey, you…I don't suppose

you've been working on that."

"Neither have you. In fact," Asuna added, fixing me with a

sudden look, "would you mind not calling me just 'hey, you'?"

"Huh? Uh…oh, right…So, um…My Lady? Vice Commander? …

Our Lady Flash?"

The last one was a special term used by the members of her

fan club in their periodical. Sure enough, she blasted me to

shreds with her eye lasers before turning away in a huff. "Just

'Asuna' is fine. You called me that earlier."

"G-gotcha," I said, trembling. It was time to change the topic.

"So, the Appraisal skill. Got any friends who are handy with

that…?"

"Hmm." She thought briefly, then shook her head. "I have a

friend who runs an armory, but this is her busiest period, and I

doubt she'll be able to help right away…"

True enough, this was the time of day that the most adventurers would be performing equipment maintenance and purchases

—the end of their day's travels.

"Good point. Well, I could ask a general store ax wielder I

know, though I don't think his skill with it is the best."

"Are you talking about that…big fellow? Agil, right?" she asked

as I opened my window and started to type a message. "But if he

runs a shop, he'll be just as busy right now."

"Don't care," I said, mercilessly striking the SEND button.

Asuna and I emerged from the teleport gate into Algade, the

city on the fiftieth floor, and the usual hustle and bustle it featured.

It hadn't been long since this city was activated for the benefit

of the player population, but the market district was already

crammed with countless player-run shops—primarily because the

base cost for establishing a shop here was far cheaper than in the

cities on lower floors.

Naturally, that also lowered the average space and appearance

of the shops, but the cramped, uniquely Asian chaos—or that of a

particular electronics district in Tokyo—was a favorite of many

players. I happened to like it, too, and was making plans to buy a

home here so I could move in.

Amid the exotic BGM, raucous hawking of wares, and scent of

cheap stall food wafting through the air, I guided Asuna quickly

through the market. Her pristine miniskirt and bared legs were

just a bit too notable in this place.

"C'mon, let's hurry," I said, then noticed that the sound of her

heels was growing distant, so I turned around and shouted, "Hey,

what are you doing buying cart food?!"

The Flash was purchasing a dubious skewer of meat from an

equally dubious cart. She took a bite and boldly pronounced,

"Well, we only started poking at our salads when we left dinner…

Hey, this is pretty good."

As she chewed, she held out her other hand toward me, holding another skewer.

"Huh? For me?"

"That was the agreement, wasn't it?"

"Oh…right…"

I automatically ducked my head as I accepted the meat, then

realized that my free full-course meal had just been downgraded

to a free skewer of meat. And the cost from that restaurant was

automatically deducted from both of our accounts the moment

we left the building.

As I chewed on mysterious, exotically spiced meat, I swore to

myself that one day, I would get her to cook me a homemade

meal.

We had just cleaned off the two skewers when we reached our

destination. The skewer itself vanished into thin air as I wiped my

perfectly clean hand on my leather coat and called out to draw the

shopkeeper's attention.

"Heya. I'm here."

"I don't give the usual welcoming routine to noncustomers,"

Agil grunted, the sulky voice out of place on the shopkeeperslash-ax-warrior's massive, brawny figure. He motioned to another customer and said, "Sorry, closed for the day."

He bowed politely and apologized as the customer complained, and once they were alone, he opened the shop-management window to set the business to closed status.

The chaotic, cramped display cases automatically shut themselves, and the front shutter clattered down as well. Agil turned to

me at last.

"Listen, Kirito, when it comes to making a living as a merchant, number one is trust. Number two is also trust, and even

with nothing at number three and number four, only by the time

you get to number five do you reach 'making easy money…'"

This rather baffling admonishment faded out as the bald shopkeeper caught sight of the player standing next to me. His

whiskers shook as Asuna gave him a brilliant smile and bowed

politely.

"It's been a while, Agil. I'm sorry to bother you out of the blue

like this. We need immediate help with this, I'm afraid…"

Agil's grumpy features turned pleasant in an instant. He

thumped his chest bracingly, told her he would handle it, and

prepared some tea.

There's just no way for a man to overcome his innate parameters, it seems.

Upstairs, once we had explained the incident, Agil's jutting

brow knotted and his eyes turned sharp.

"His HP ran out in the safe haven? And you're certain it wasn't

a duel?" he rumbled in his deep baritone. I leaned forward in the

rocking chair and nodded.

"I can't imagine that no one would see the victory announcement, so it seems to be the natural conclusion now. Plus…even if

it were a duel, there's no way he would accept a duel when he was

out getting dinner, especially a full-finish duel."

"And if he was walking with that girl Yolko beforehand, it

couldn't possibly have been a sleep-PK," Asuna added, swirling

her mug over the small round table.

"Plus, the details are too complex for a spontaneous duel. I

think we can assume that this was a preplanned PK. So that

brings us…to this," I said, opening my menu and manifesting the

rope from my inventory, so that I could hand it to Agil.

Naturally, the knot that had been tied around the table leg was

undone when I'd retrieved the rope, but the other end was still

done into the large noose. Agil dangled the loop in front of his

face, snorted with disgust, and tapped it.

He chose the "Appraisal" menu from the pop-up window. If

Asuna or I had tried that, we'd just get a failure notice, since we

lacked the proper skill level, but Agil the merchant would be able

to learn more about it.

The large man looked over the window, which was visible only

to him, and described the contents in his deep voice.

"I'm afraid this wasn't player-made, just your garden variety

NPC-sold rope. Not a high-ranking item. It's got about half of the

durability left."

I replayed the horrible sight in my mind and nodded. "That

figures. It was holding a guy in heavy armor; that had to be a considerable load to bear."

But all the killer needed was for the rope to hold out the few

dozen seconds necessary for the man to lose his remaining HP

and explode into nothing.

"Well, I wasn't expecting much from the rope to begin with.

The real kicker is this one," I said, tapping my still-open inventory to materialize another item.

The dark, gleaming spear and its heavy presence cast an eerie

mood over the cramped room. As a weapon, it belonged to a rank

far, far below those Asuna and I equipped, but that wasn't the

point. This spear was a murder weapon, a tool that had cruelly

taken a player's life.

I handed the spear to Agil, careful not to let it bump against

anything. The entire weapon was made of a single black metal, a

rarity for that category. It was about five feet long, with a footlong grip, a long handle, and a sharp six-inch point at the end.

Its main feature was the rows of short, sharp barbs that ran

along the entire length of the handle. They served to make it

harder to remove the spear once it had stabbed its target. It

therefore required very high strength to pull out.

In this case, strength referred to both the player's numerical

strength stat, and also the force of the brain's mental signal being

absorbed by the NerveGear. In that moment, Kains had been too

gripped by the fear of death to produce a clear, crisp signal to

move his body. He could hardly be blamed for not being able to

move the spear.

That only strengthened my hunch that this was not a spontaneous PK but something premeditated, planned. There was nothing crueler than death by continuous piercing damage. He wasn't

felled by an opponent's skill or superior weaponry—but by his

own terror.

Agil brought me out of my thoughts as he finished examining

it.

"It's PC-made."

Both Asuna and I suddenly bolted upright. "Really?!" I

shouted.

If it were PC-made—crafted by a player with the Smithing skill

—the name of that player would be listed there. And that spear

was likely a one-off special-order weapon. If we could ask the

crafter directly, there was a very good chance we'd learn who ordered and paid for it.

"Who made it?" Asuna prodded him. Agil looked down at the

system window.

"Grimlock…Never heard of 'im. At any rate, it's not top craftsmanship…Still, it's not like regular players have never thought of

boosting Smithing to craft their own weapons…"

If Agil the merchant didn't know this crafter, then Asuna and I

certainly wouldn't. Silence fell on the cramped room again.

But it didn't take long for Asuna to note, "We should still be

able to track him down. I can't imagine that a solo player would

have gotten to the point of being able to craft a weapon of this

type. If we ask around in the mid-level floors, we're sure to find

someone who's been in a party with a 'Grimlock' before."

"True. There aren't many idiots like this guy," Agil agreed. He

and Asuna looked at me—the idiot.

"Wh-what? I join a party every now and then."

"Only for boss fights," she quipped. I had no rebuttal to that.

Asuna snorted and examined the spear in Agil's hands again.

"Based on this…I'm not sure if I really want to have a nice chat

with Grimlock, even if we do find him…"

I had to agree. It must have been some unknown red player

who commissioned and used this spear, not Grimlock the blacksmith. Killing someone in SAO with your own handcrafted

weapon, where your name was permanently saved on it, would be

like writing your own name on a knife you stabbed someone with

in real life. On the other hand, any crafter with a certain amount

of smarts and experience should recognize what a weapon like

this was designed to do.

Piercing damage over time had a very limited effectiveness

against monsters. That was because monsters were just a series of

algorithms that felt no fear. If stuck with a piercing weapon, they

would simply pull it out once they got the chance. And since no

monster would thoughtfully hand back the weapon, it usually got

tossed far away, irretrievable until the battle was over.

Which meant that this spear could only have been crafted for

the purpose of PvP. All of the crafters I knew, at least, would have

refused the job when they learned what it was for.

But this Grimlock had not.

It was very unlikely that this was the name of the killer himself

—given how easy it was to pin down the name—but it was possible that this crafter was at least a person of loose morals or perhaps secretly affiliated with a red guild.

"…At any rate, we're not likely to get an answer for free. If

we're forced to pay for the information…" I murmured. Agil

shook his head, and Asuna fixed me with a piercing glare.

"We'll split the cost."

"…Fine. No turning back now," I said, giving in. I turned to the

shrewd merchant and asked, "I doubt it'll be much of a clue, but I

might as well ask what the name of the weapon is."

The bald man considered the invisible window for a third

time.

"It says it's called…Guilty Thorn."

"…Hmm."

I looked at the barbs bristling out of the short spear's handle

again. Of course, the name was simply randomly generated by the

game. So there couldn't be any personal will behind those particular words.

But…

"Guilty…Thorn…"

Asuna's whisper imbued the words with a chilly edge.

3

Asuna and I, with Agil in tow, stepped through the teleport gate

in Algade to visit the very bottom floor: The Town of Beginnings.

We needed to check the Monument of Life found in Blackiron

Palace. The first step to contacting Grimlock the blacksmith was

ensuring that he was alive to speak to us.

For being springtime, the Town of Beginnings was cloaked in

dreariness. This was not just due to the weather parameters—few

players strolled the wide streets at night, and it seemed as though

the NPC musicians providing BGM were all in a minor-key mood.

I'd heard the rumors: Lately, the Aincrad Liberation Front,

largest of the guilds and governing force of the lower floors, had

supposedly enacted a night curfew. It sounded like a joke, but

based on this, it might be true. The only people we saw were ALF

guards, all wearing matching gunmetal armor.

Even worse, the way they raced over when they saw us was

nerve-wracking—I felt like a middle-schooler being chastened by

police officers. One absolute-zero glare from Asuna was usually

enough to send them scurrying.

"No wonder Algade is booming, despite the price of living,"

Agil murmured, then noted lowly, "I hear the Army intends to

start taxing players."

"Huh? Taxes?! How do they intend to collect them?"

"I don't know…Maybe they automatically skim off the top

from monster drops."

"Or maybe they'll confiscate a portion of your sales."

Agil and I bickered pointlessly for a while, but once we

stepped into the interior of Blackiron Palace, we fell silent.

As the name suggested, the building was a massive structure

constructed solely of metal beams and plates, filled with an even

colder atmosphere than outside. Even Asuna rubbed her bare

arms as she walked ahead of us.

There were no other people inside, probably due to the time.

In the middle of the day, the cries were endless, as players came

to confirm the deaths of friends and lovers, faced with the cruel

horizontal lines striking through the names of the deceased. Tomorrow, the friend and witness of Kains's death, Yolko, would

likely pay her own visit. I, too, had done the same thing, not too

far in the past. I still wasn't completely over that bitter memory.

We quickly strode through the empty hall, which was lit by

lanterns with bluish flames. Once we reached the Monument of

Life, which stretched for dozens of feet side to side, we looked for

the G section of the alphabetized list.

Agil kept walking to the right, while Asuna and I examined the

rows of player names, finally finding the right one at the same

time.

Grimlock—no line.

"…So he's still alive."

"Yep."

We breathed sighs of relief. Meanwhile, Agil came back from

the K block and said, "Kains is indeed dead. Died in the Month of

Cherry Blossoms, April 22nd, 6:27 PM."

"…The date and time match up perfectly. That's just after we

left the restaurant tonight," Asuna noted. She looked away, her

long lashes downcast. Agil and I held a short vigil. We also knew

it was the right man, because Yolko had told us how to spell

"Kains."

Once everything was done and we promptly exited Blackiron

Palace, the three of us let out held-in breaths. The in-town BGM

was now in late-night waltz mode. The NPC shops were all shuttered, and the only light on the streets was from the occasional

streetlamp. There were no Army patrols at this hour either, it

seemed.

We proceeded silently to the teleport square, at which point

Asuna turned around and said, "Let's begin the search for Grimlock tomorrow."

"Good idea," I agreed.

Agil's powerful brows tilted downward. "You two realize that

my main occupation isn't 'warrior,' it's 'merchant'…"

"Understood. You are hereby laid off from assistant duty

here," I reassured him, patting him on the back. He grunted a relieved thanks.

Thoughtful Agil was not truly prioritizing his business, nor

shirking the responsibility to investigate—he just didn't want to

come face-to-face with the person who crafted that wicked-looking spear. Not out of fear, but out of the possibility that the rage

he normally reserved for monsters might explode out of his control.

Agil wished us luck and disappeared through the portal. Asuna

needed to return to her guild HQ for a minute, so we decided to

call it a day.

"Let's meet at nine o'clock before the fifty-seventh-floor portal

tomorrow. No sleeping in!"

She was like a teacher or an older sister—not that I would

know, not having one in real life.

"Fine, fine. And you'd better get a proper night's sleep. If you

need it, I could sleep next to—"

"No, thank you!" the vice commander of the KoB snapped,

then spun on her heels and leaped into the portal, leaving only a

blur of white and red.

All alone now, I stood in front of the wavering blue gateway,

reflecting on the day's events. It started off as a day with very nice

weather, but once I got roped into standing guard over Asuna the

Flash's nap, we ended up having dinner, only to leave early when

a sudden murder took place within town, thus thrusting me into

the role of detective—or assistant.

Naturally, every day I spent within the floating castle Aincrad

was "abnormal," but now that a year and a half had passed since

the start of the deadly game on November 6th, 2022, most of the

players—at least in the mid-levels or higher—were able to consciously forget their lives from the real world and engage in a

"normal" schedule of swords, battle, gold coins, and dungeons.

But today's incident had once again drawn me to a kind of abnormality. Perhaps it was the harbinger of some kind of perpetual

change to our status quo…

I took a few steps forward into the blue portal. I called out

"Lindarth," the city on the forty-eighth floor where my current

lodgings were found, and felt a momentary loss of weight as the

portal flashed around me.

When my boots touched ground again on stone of a different

color, the surrounding scenery was nothing like the place I'd just

been. I'd only set up base in Lindarth about a week earlier, but I

liked the canals that ran through the town in every direction, dotted with peaceful waterwheels. Of course, after ten o'clock, the

curtain of night had descended here, too, with no blacksmith

hammers to be heard.

I was just considering whether I should heed the vice commander's advice, and get to sleep early, or find an NPC pub for a

drink first, when, just steps out of the portal, I was rushed by a

group of six or seven players.

At first, I nearly drew my sword. The assumption that one was

safe in town, even surrounded by dozens of people, had just been

shaken to its core in the last few hours.

But I managed to control my instinct, holding it to just the

twitch of a finger. I recognized the faces in this group—they were

members of the Divine Dragon Alliance, the largest of the frontline guilds. I found the member who seemed to be the leader of

the semicircle and said, "Good evening, Schmitt," with a smile.

The tall lancer paused for a moment, then spoke quickly, his

voice troubled. "We were waiting here, hoping to ask you something, Kirito."

"Oh yeah? I'm guessing it's not my birthday or blood type…" I

joked automatically. Beneath Schmitt's sports-captain buzz cut,

his thick eyebrows trembled.

As fellow front-line fighters, we weren't exactly enemies, but

the Divine Dragon Alliance and I did not generally see eye to eye.

I was probably on better terms with Asuna's Knights of the Blood.

I couldn't help but feel that while the KoB's goal was "beating

the game as fast as possible," the DDA's particular aim was to

"bask in the glory of being the strongest guild." They didn't form

parties with nonmembers, and they never shared their knowledge

of game info. They were also unpleasantly fixated on scoring the

Last Attack on every boss—the final blow that gave its winner

extra item rewards.

In a way, they were enjoying SAO more than anyone else, so

I'd never raised a fuss about them, but I had turned down two invitations to join their guild. So we weren't particularly close, to

say the least.

Even now, as I leaned against the stone wall of the teleport

square, surrounded by the seven in a half circle, there was an odd

sense of distance between us. It wasn't quite the "boxing in" harassment method of preventing a player from moving; it was

more like a "boxed in by manners" state, where the need to make

rude physical contact to break out of the circle kept those concerned with etiquette where they were.

I held in a sigh and offered to Schmitt, "I'll answer any questions you have. What's up?"

"It's about the PK that happened on the fifty-seventh floor

tonight."

Obviously, that had been coming. I nodded and folded my

arms, still leaning against the wall, then prompted him to continue with a glance.

"Is it true…that it wasn't a duel?" he asked in a hushed tone. I

thought it over and shrugged.

"At the very least, no one witnessed a victory display screen. I

suppose we can't deny the possibility that somehow everyone present missed it."

"…"

Schmitt's square jaw clenched hard. The armored plate at the

base of his neck creaked. The DDA members all wore silver plate

armor with blue highlights. His lance jutted upward to six feet

tall, the guild flag hanging from its sharp point.

After a long silence, he spoke again, even softer this time. "I

heard the victim's name was Kains…Is this correct?"

"That's what the friend who witnessed the incident said. We

went to check at Blackiron Palace, and the date and time matched

up."

I noticed his throat twitch and, for the first time, realized that

something was going on. "Did you know him?"

"…It's none of your business."

"Hey, you asked your questions, you can't just ignore mine—" I

started to protest, but Schmitt's bellow cut me off.

"You're not the police! I understand you've been working with

the KoB's vice commander, but you don't have the right to monopolize that information!"

His voice must have carried all the way to the edge of the

plaza. The other members there looked at one another in concern. Apparently Schmitt had rustled them up without giving a

full explanation.

Which meant that any likely connection to this incident came

not from the DDA as a whole, but from Schmitt himself. I tucked

that fact away for future reference. Suddenly, a gauntleted hand

was pointing directly at my face.

"I know that you collected the weapon that was used in the PK.

You've had your turn to examine it; now hand it over."

"…Oh, come on."

This was an obvious breach of manners. In SAO, weapons that

weren't equipped on one's figure reverted to having no ownership

rights after three hundred seconds of being left on the ground, or

handed to someone else, or left stabbed in a monster, or so on. At

that point, it was both system protocol and commonly accepted

fact that whomever picked it up next owned it. The black short

spear had no listed owner by the time it took Kains's life. So according to the game system, it now belonged to me.

Demanding another player's weapon was beyond rude, but on

the other hand, that spear was a piece of evidence in a crime,

more than it was just a weapon. A small part of me did agree that,

as I was neither a policeman nor a soldier, it wasn't right for me

to hog that evidence for myself.

So this time I sighed openly and waved a hand to engage my

inventory window. Once the black spear had materialized in my

hand, I made a show of jamming it down into the cobblestones

between us.

Schmitt faltered back half a step at the tremendous clatter and

shower of sparks the metal spear produced.

Looking at it again, I was struck by what a wicked-looking

weapon it was—not that it should be a surprise, given that it was

designed to kill players. I tore my eyes off the drop counter that

only I could see and told the lancer, "I'll save you the trouble of

appraising it. The name of this spear is Guilty Thorn. It was

crafted by a blacksmith named Grimlock."

This time his reaction was unmistakable: Schmitt's narrow

eyes bulged, his mouth fell open, and he let out a rasping moan.

The athlete was undoubtedly connected somehow to the blacksmith Grimlock, and possibly to the victim Kains as well. It was

clear that he shared some kind of past with them.

If that past was enough to be a motive to murder Kains, then

perhaps my fears that the safe-haven killing was the indiscriminate act of a red player were wrong. I wanted to know what had

happened in the past, but I knew Schmitt would never freely say.

As I contemplated what to do next, he reached down with his

thick gauntlet and awkwardly pulled the spear out of the ground.

He practically swung it against his inventory to stash it away,

hurling the thing so as not to touch it any longer than necessary.

Afterward, he abruptly turned toward me.

Rather predictably, the lanky lancer's parting comment was:

"And don't go snooping around about this. Let's go!"

The members of the Divine Dragon Alliance marched through

the teleport gate and disappeared.

Very interesting.

4

"The DDA?" Asuna repeated suspiciously, when I told her what

had happened.

Those three letters were normally a source of fear and consternation, the kind of threat a parent would conjure to shut up a crying child, but as the vice commander of the KoB, Asuna was completely unaffected by them.

On the twenty-third day of the Month of Cherry Blossoms, the

weather parameters were in a foul mood, and the morning was

shrouded in thick fog and rain. Given that the only thing overhead in Aincrad was just the bottom of the next floor up, it didn't

seem very fair that it could rain on us—but then again, the same

thing applied to the ample sunlight we got over the course of a

day.

After meeting at nine o'clock on the dot at the fifty-seventh

floor's teleport square—where the previous day's incident had occurred—Asuna and I headed for a nearby open café for breakfast

so that we could reexamine the information. Naturally, the

biggest topic of discussion was Schmitt of the DDA, who had ambushed me last night and all but seized the weapon and details

from me.

"Oh, yes, I remember him. The big lancer?"

"That's the one. He looks like the captain of a high school

jousting team."

"That's not a real thing," she snapped, ruining my brilliant

joke, then picked up her café au lait and considered the information. "I suppose we can rule him out of being the killer?"

"It's dangerous to make assumptions, but I don't think it's

him. If he wanted to retrieve the weapon to cover his tracks, he

wouldn't have left it in the square to begin with. If anything, I

think that spear was a message from the killer."

"I see…Good point. The way the murder happened, plus the

name of the weapon…It seems less like an extravagant PK than a

public execution," Asuna muttered, looking gloomy. I had to

agree.

This was not indiscriminate PKing, but an execution specifically targeting Kains. And something had happened in the past

involving Kains, Grimlock, and Schmitt. I delivered my conclusion in hushed tones.

"Meaning the motive was either vengeance or justice. Kains

committed some 'crime' in the past, and this was his righteous

punishment, the killer would have us believe."

"In which case, Schmitt isn't the culprit behind the murder,

but among the targeted. He did that something with Kains, and

when Kains turned up dead, he panicked…"

"If we figure out what that something is, I think we'll know

who the person swearing vengeance is. But it's also possible that

this was all an act by the killer. We've got to be careful not to act

on assumptions."

"True. Especially when we talk to Yolko," Asuna agreed. I

checked the time. At ten o'clock, we were going to meet Yolko at a

nearby inn to go over more details about the incident.

Even after our simple breakfast of black bread and vegetable

soup, we had plenty of time yet, so I sat back and gazed at the fig-

ure of the KoB's vice commander across from me.

Today she wasn't wearing her usual uniform of red on white,

probably because it was a personal matter she was on. She wore a

shirt with narrow pink and gray stripes and a black leather vest, a

black frilly miniskirt, and shining gray tights.

Her shoes were pink enamel, and her beret was pink as well,

which made her whole outfit look very carefully coordinated—but

whether this was intentional or just ordinary feminine attention

to fashion was something I was sadly unable to determine, what

with my own lack of fashion sense. I couldn't even tell if it were

an expensive outfit or not. Though it didn't track that she would

dress up for a murder investigation…

Suddenly, Asuna looked up and met my gaze, only to quickly

turn away. "What are you looking at?"

"Uh…er, well…"

I couldn't just ask her how much her outfit cost, and I could

tell that complimenting her on it would just lead to an explosion

of anger, so instead I improvised. "Umm…is that thick, drippy

stuff good?"

Asuna looked down at the mystery potage she was stirring,

looked back at me with a very odd expression on her face, and

heaved a deep sigh.

"…It's not very good," she mumbled, pushing her dish to the

side. She cleared her throat and assumed a more officious tone.

"I was thinking, late last night. About the penetration DOT on

that black spear…"

I nodded, suddenly realizing that it might be the first time I'd

ever seen her without her usual rapier equipped. "Yeah?"

"Could he have been hit with the piercing weapon out in the

field? Do you know what would happen if you moved into a safe

haven while the effect was active?"

"Uh…"

I had to think. I'd never experienced that situation; I'd never

even thought about it.

"I don't know. But…DOT from poison or burns disappears the

moment you step into the safe-haven zone, right? Wouldn't piercing damage work the same way?"

"But what happens to the weapon piercing you, in that case?

Does it automatically come out?"

"That's a creepy thought…All right, we've got some time to kill;

let's do an experiment," I suggested. Her eyes bulged.

"E-experiment?!"

"Picture's worth a thousand words," I offered ominously, getting to my feet and checking my town map for the nearest gate.

Right outside of Marten, the main city of the fifty-seventh

floor, was a field dotted by the occasional gnarled old oak. I'd

passed down this road plenty of times just a few weeks ago when

this was the front line of our progress, but my memory of it was

already dim. Of course, it did look different now with the greenery blooming in the spring, but in general, front-line players

didn't have much use for the wild terrain of floors they'd already

beaten.

The moment we walked out of the gate into the drizzling mist,

a warning reading OUTSIDE FIELD appeared in my view. It didn't

mean that monsters would immediately begin attacking, but it al-

ways caused a part of my mind to automatically tense and grow

watchful.

Now that Asuna had her familiar rapier equipped again, she

brushed aside the drops collecting on her bangs and asked suspiciously, "So how are you going to do this experiment?"

"Like this."

I felt around on my belt for the throwing picks I always kept

there, three at a time, and pulled out one. Every weapon in Aincrad corresponded to one of four damage types: slashing, thrusting, blunt, and piercing. The one-handed sword I used all the

time was a slashing weapon, while Asuna's rapier was thrusting.

Maces and hammers were blunt weapons, while Schmitt's lance

and the spear that killed Kains were piercing.

What was a little harder to tell was how the many throwing

weapons fit into this system. Even in the same category,

boomerangs and chakrams were slashing, throwing daggers were

thrusting, and my throwing picks fell under piercing. It might

only look like a foot-long needle, but the throwing pick was a perfectly good piercing weapon capable of inflicting a small damageover-time effect.

I didn't mind sacrificing some HP for the experiment, but it

would be foolish to lose armor durability over it, so I took off my

left glove and aimed the pick at the back of my hand.

"W-wait, stop!" Asuna shrieked, causing me to flinch. To my

surprise, she was opening her inventory to pull out a very expensive healing crystal.

"Oh, don't be dramatic. This pick will only take a percent or

two off of my total HP."

"You idiot! You don't know what might happen out in the

field! Form a party with me so I can see your HP bar!" she thundered, like a sister scolding her little brother, then hit a few buttons to send me a party request. I meekly accepted, and below my

HP gauge, a smaller one representing Asuna's appeared.

I realized it was the first time I'd ever been in a party with her.

We'd met many times, owing to our positions among the game's

best players, but she was a senior officer of the game's most powerful guild, and I was just an outcast solo player. We had hardly

ever even spoken before this.

And yet here we were, forming a party of just two. And it

wasn't that long ago that we'd had a one-on-one duel because of

an argument about boss tactics. Now she was looking on nervously, a pink crystal clutched in her hand. I couldn't help but

stare at her.

"…What?"

"'S nothing, I just…didn't think you'd be so worried for my

sake…"

To my surprise, as soon as I said it, her white cheeks went the

color of the crystal in her hand. She promptly summoned a bolt of

angry lightning.

"Th-that's not true! W-well, it is, but…Just do it already!!"

With a little shiver, I readied the pick again. "A-all right, here

goes," I announced, took a deep breath—and made the motion for

the starter throwing weapon skill, Single Shot.

The pick began to glow with a faint effect between my two fingers, and it shot straight forward, piercing the back of my left

hand. After the initial shock, I felt an unpleasant numbness and a

dull pain.

My HP bar lost more than I expected: about 3 percent off its

total. I remembered belatedly that I'd equipped a new, rarer set of

picks I'd looted recently.

As the pain continued, I watched the spot where the needle

was sticking out of the skin. After five seconds, there was another

flash of red light, and I lost about half a percent of HP. This was

the same piercing DOT effect that stole Kains's life.

"Get in the safe zone already!" Asuna snapped nervously. I

nodded, glanced at my HP bar and the pick, then headed for the

nearby town gate. When my boots crossed from soggy grass to

hard stone, the notice reading SAFE HAVEN appeared.

My HP bar stopped decreasing.

The red effect was still flashing every five seconds, but my hit

points weren't decreasing at all. The safe haven ensured that all

damage was nullified.

"…It stopped," Asuna stated, and I nodded.

"Weapon's still stuck good, but the damage has stopped."

"Do you feel it?"

"Yeah, the sensation is there. I guess that's probably to ensure

that no idiot can wander around the town without realizing that

there's still a weapon stuck in them…"

"Meaning you?" she asked drily. I shrugged and yanked out

the pick, grimacing at the fresh discomfort. There were no external wounds on the back of my hand, but the cold metal sensation

was still there. I blew on it a few times.

"So the damage is gone…" I muttered. "But then, why did

Kains die? Was it a special effect of that weapon…or some skill we

don't know about ye—Wh-whoa!!"

The shout at the end was because Asuna had grabbed my left

hand with both of hers and clenched it tight to her chest.

"What the…What…are you…"

After a few seconds, the vice commander let go and shot me a

sideways glance. "That got rid of the sensation, didn't it?"

"…Uh…yes…it did. Thanks."

The only reason my heart was racing was the suddenness of it

all.

Yes, it definitely wasn't anything else.

Yolko emerged from her inn at exactly ten o'clock on the dot.

She must not have slept much, because she was blinking a lot as

she bowed to the two of us.

I bowed back and said, "Sorry to keep dredging this up for you,

right when you're dealing with the passing of a friend…"

"It's all right," the slightly older girl mumbled, shaking her

blue-black hair. "I just want you to catch whomever did this…"

But the moment she caught sight of Asuna, her eyes widened.

"Ooh, wow! Those are all handmade items from Ashley's store,

aren't they? I don't think I've ever seen anyone with an entire outfit!"

I didn't recognize that name, so I asked, "Who is that?"

"You don't know?!" Yolko said, stunned, looking at me like I

was wasting my life. "Ashley is the first seamstress to completely

max out the Sewing skill to one thousand! She won't even take a

request unless you can bring the rarest and most deluxe crafting

materials to make it!"

"Ohhh," I said, impressed. All I ever did was fight and fight

like a simpleminded fool, and it wasn't that long ago that I'd

maxed out my One-Handed Sword skill. I gave Asuna another

light-speed examination from head to toe. Her cheek twitched.

"It…It's not what you think!"

But I had no idea what she thought I thought.

With the impressed Yolko and dubious me in tow, Asuna

guided us through the door of the restaurant we failed to eat at

last night.

Due to the time of day, there were no other players present.

We headed for the farthest table back, checking the distance to

the door. This far away, our conversation wouldn't be audible

outside unless we screamed it. I used to think the best place for

secrets was an inn room behind a locked door, but I'd recently

learned that it only made you more vulnerable to someone with

the Eavesdropping skill.

Yolko had already eaten breakfast, so we ordered three teas

and got right down to business.

"First, a report…Last night we check the Monument of Life in

Blackiron Palace. Sure enough, Kains died at that very moment."

Yolko sucked in a brief breath, shut her eyes, and nodded. "I…

I see. Thank you for going to the trouble to check…"

"No, it's fine. There was another name we wanted to check

while we were there," Asuna said, shaking her head. She asked

the first important question: "Yolko, do you recognize these

names? The first is Grimlock, most likely a blacksmith. The other

is a spearman named…Schmitt."

Yolko's downcast head twitched. Slowly, hesitantly, she made

a gesture of recognition.

"…Yes, I know them. They were both members of a guild with

Kains and me, long ago," she murmured. Asuna and I shared a

glance.

So it was true. In that case, we had to confirm our other suspicion—that something in the past of that guild was the cause of

this incident.

I asked the second question: "Yolko, I'm sure this is hard to

answer…but in order to solve this incident, I have to ask for the

truth. We believe that this murder was either vengeance or judgment. Perhaps because of a past event, Kains may have earned

himself someone's hatred and desire for revenge…As I asked yesterday, I want you to think hard. Is there anything that comes to

mind, anything that might shed light on this…?"

Her answer was not immediate this time. Yolko stared downward for a long time, silent, then reached for her tea with trembling fingers. She wet her tongue with a sip and nodded at last.

"…Yes…I do. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you about it yesterday…I

just want to forget it all. I was hoping that it wasn't related, so I

just couldn't bring myself to mention it right away…but now, I

will. That…'event' was what caused the breakup of our guild."

The name of our guild was Golden Apple. We weren't trying

to help beat the game; it was just a small guild of eight, hoping

to do some safe hunting so we could earn enough for beds and

meals.

But half a year ago, at the start of fall…

We were adventuring in an unremarkable sub-dungeon on

one of the middle floors when we encountered a monster we'd

never seen before. It was a little lizard, all in black, but extremely fast and hard to spot…We knew it was a rare monster

at a glance. We were beside ourselves with excitement, chasing

it all over…and someone's dagger throw got lucky and just so

happened to strike true and kill the beast.

The item it dropped was just a simple ring. But we were

amazed when we identified it. It raised agility by a whole

twenty points. I doubt you can find loot that powerful even on

the front line today.

I'm sure you can imagine what happened next.

We were split between using it for the sake of the guild and

selling it and splitting the proceeds. The argument got so heated,

it nearly resulted in a fight, and we took a vote to determine our

plan: five to three in favor of selling. An item that valuable was

too much for merchants on the middle floors, so our guild leader

went to a big city on the front line to leave it with an auctioneer.

It would take time to research a trustworthy auction house,

so our leader was supposed to spend a night there. I remember

eagerly awaiting the end of the auction and return of our leader.

Even split among eight, we were bound to get a ton of money, so

I was thinking about weapons and fancy personal-brand clothes

I wanted to buy, poring through catalogs…But I had no idea it

was going to turn out like that…

…there was no return.

Over an hour after our scheduled meeting time the following

night, there hadn't been a single update message. We tried to

track the leader's location and got nothing, and there were no

responses to any of our messages.

We couldn't believe that our boss would just take the item and

run. This gave us a very bad premonition, so a few of us went to

the Monument of Life to check.

And then…

Yolko bit her lip and simply shook her head back and forth.

Asuna and I didn't know what to say. To our relief, Yolko gave

us a reprieve by wiping her eyes and saying in a trembling but

firm voice, "The time of death was one hour after taking the ring

to the upper floor. The cause of death…piercing damage."

"…There's no way you'd take a valuable item like that out of

the town. So it must have been…a sleep PK," I muttered. Asuna's

head bobbed.

"Half a year ago was just before that method started getting

around. Back then, there were more than a few people who slept

in public spaces, to save the money on an inn room with a locking

door."

"And the lodgings at the front line are expensive. But…I have a

hard time thinking that's a coincidence. Whoever went after your

leader had to know about the ring…meaning…"

Yolko nodded, her eyes shut. "One of the other seven members

of Golden Apple…We considered that as well, of course. But…

there's no way to go back and look up who was doing what and

when…So with everyone suspecting everyone else, it didn't take

long for the guild to fall apart."