022-04: Sisters’ Prayer: Serene Garden May 2024 Part 2
May 12th was a Sunday.
There was no outpatient service on Sunday, so the hospital felt quieter than
usual as a whole. Of course, the only time Yuuki would even be aware of that
was when she was out of the Medicuboid for tests or to wash up.
Yuuki couldn't stay in a shared room in the hospital ward due to the high risk
of infection, so there was a special pod-type bathing apparatus installed in the
sterilizing room adjacent to the clean room. The tub was extremely cramped, so
she felt more like she was being washed than bathing. Still, it felt very good to
be able to dunk her body and head in hot water.
Serene Garden had its own huge bathhouse that was more of a spa resort. But
the sensation of the hot water wasn't quite the same, and she felt resistance to
the idea of getting naked around other people, even if it was just a virtual body.
Ran always laughed it off and said, "You're too sensitive!"
Feeling nice and fresh after her Sunday afternoon bath, Yuuki sterilized her
body and put on the examination outfit she used for pajamas, then returned to
the clean room, where she lay down on the high-density gel bed of Medicuboid
Test Unit Two. Unlike Test Unit One, which was known only by the appellation
MFT1, this had the proper name of Medicuboid because it was a cubical
structure with medical applications. The body of the device was shaped like a
huge box. Test Unit Three, which was in production now, was even larger,
apparently. Yuuki didn't know if she would ever see it.
She was lying on her back and pondering this when a little voice sounded in
the back of her head.
I suppose that would mean I found a reason to live…
A reason to live.
Most of the elderly players in Serene Garden were shockingly active in the
game, which shouldn't have been a surprise, because they were choosing to
come and experience the VR world. Still, there were times when she heard
them say things that sounded regretful or negative.
If I can't get better, then I'd rather just die.
Nothing good's going to happen. There's no point to living.
Every time she came across one of those people, Ran did her very best to
cheer them up. But Yuuki couldn't do what her big sister did. She felt that same
kind of emptiness in her core, too.
Until half a year ago, she could have fought through the sorrow, just because
she didn't want to make her parents sad. No matter how bad things got, she
could always be cheerful in front of them. She would do anything she could to
put a smile on her mom's and dad's faces. But now they were gone.
She still had her big sister at her side for now. She never wanted to say or do
anything that would make Ran sad. But if—on some small chance—Ran took
the journey to see their parents before Yuuki did, she couldn't imagine how she
would find a reason to keep going.
But no. Ran would never leave her behind like that. As long as she was alive,
Ran would be, too, and vice versa.
This was pointless. Merida was going to show them a new game, and she
didn't want to go into the experience with dark feelings.
She installed the client for the VRMMO Asuka Empire with Dr. Kurahashi's
approval—and his stern reminder that she must not tell anyone that she was a
Medicuboid test subject—and created her avatar. After checking the time, she
placed her head against the headrest and pulled down the headgear.
Yuuki closed her eyes and heard a faint machine whirring, then spoke the
start-up command that the Medicuboid shared with the NerveGear and
AmuSphere.
"…Link Start!"
In the app launcher, instead of her usual Serene Garden, she chose the new
icon belonging to Asuka Empire. Yuuki's mind plummeted into digital darkness.
A glowing ring appeared below her feet and rose upward. When she passed
through it, there was suddenly light all around.
She blinked as her feet touched ground. Yuuki looked up and experienced a
rich color palette filling her vision.
Red, yellow, crimson, and orange: The square space was surrounded by a
breathtaking tapestry of leaves rustling in a light breeze.
The sky was so blue, it seemed crystal clear. There was rounded white gravel
on the ground, so each step caused light skittering sounds. Before her was a
huge torii gate, painted a shade of red even deeper than maple leaves, through
which the gravel path led.
"Yes…there's nothing like this in Serene Garden," said a nearby voice. She
turned to see a girl wearing a simple but cute kimono. Her face was slightly
different from how it looked in the real world and in Serene Garden, but the
hair, voice, and general demeanor instantly told her it was Ran. There were no
other players around.
Yuuki looked down to see that she was wearing the same kimono in a
different color pattern and said, "Yeah. It feels so…traditional!"
"It really does. I think I'm looking forward to this now."
"Looking forward to the oshiruko, you mean?"
"Of course!"
Suddenly, there were quick, light footsteps running toward them from the far
side of the gate. It was another girl, this one with a long ponytail, running with
an extreme forward slant.
Once through the gate, she jumped high in the air, doing multiple flips before
landing directly in front of the sisters.
""Ooh!""
Yuuki and Ran applauded as the girl, dressed in a very ninja-esque light-green
outfit, gave a very theatrical bow. After Yuuki focused on her for a few
moments, the character name Merida appeared over her head. That was a
feature that didn't exist in Serene Garden.
"Thanks for waiting! Welcome to Asuka Empire!" Merida explained, lifting her
head. Her avatar, which looked a little bolder than the one they saw yesterday,
leaned back slightly to assess their appearances. "You're both very good at
avatar creation! You look so cute, and you're still very similar to your SG
avatars."
"Y-you think so…? I just took what was on the default setting and tweaked it a
little bit…," Yuuki mumbled. It was at this point that she noticed something new
in the upper left corner of her vision.
There was a narrow blue bar resting above a narrow green bar, below which
was the name Yuuki. If she looked at it long enough, letters floated inside the
bars, with LP 350/350 inside the green one and SP 100/100 inside the blue.
Merida could tell what she was looking at from the direction of Yuuki's eyes,
and she held up a pointer finger to explain. "This is probably your first time
seeing that, since you've only played SG before. The green one is your life
points, which is your health, and the blue one is your soul points, which you use
to do jutsu and techniques and stuff. You're still neophytes, so you have the
same numbers, but when you do an initiation quest in town and select a class,
one of them will shoot way higher."
"Uh-huh…And what's your class, Merida? Well, I can guess based on your
clothes," Ran said.
Merida grinned, then clasped her hands together and ran them through a
series of complex arrangements. They looked very familiar.
"Hah!" she shouted, and suddenly, her body was surrounded in pale smoke,
then was gone. Yuuki and Ran looked around, but there was no sign of her
anywhere. The only thing they could hear was the faint sound of footsteps on
gravel. It seemed to be in the distance behind them—and then instantly,
someone hugged Yuuki from behind.
"Gotcha, Yuuki!"
There was another puff of smoke, and she saw arms grabbing her around the
midriff.
"Aaah! I'm not a stag beetle!" Yuuki protested, struggling. Merida grinned, let
go, and returned to where she was initially standing.
Ran stated, "So you're a ninja?"
"Bingo! Technically, ninja is the advanced version of the thief class. Every
neophyte has to pick from either swordsman, thief, or mage, and from there,
you rank up into advanced classes like samurai, archer, ninja, shrine maiden,
monk, and so on."
"Ooooh…What should I be, then?"
"Making that decision is part of the fun of playing MMOs!" Merida said with a
dimpled grin, then pointed toward the torii gate. "C'mon, let's go! The capital of
Asuka is up there!"
The setting of Asuka Empire was a fantastical, fictionalized version of the
ancient Yamato court that ruled over the central and western regions of Japan,
if it had lasted for over a thousand years. The capital, Kiyomihara, was a castle
city laid out like an enormous Go board and was at least three times larger than
Serenity, the central city of Serene Garden.
The number of concurrent players was second only to ALfheim Online, the
most popular of all the VRMMOs. On a Sunday afternoon, the city was packed
with players dressed in traditional garb. Yuuki and Ran had never seen this
many players in a virtual space, so after they passed through the great southern
gate, they simply stood there in silent awe.
It wasn't just the numbers. It was the activity, the chaos, the energy in this
place that was unlike anything they'd experienced before. The main street was
no less than a hundred feet wide and full of groups of people engaged in lively
chats, gangs arguing and itching for a fight, and even item sellers setting up
shops on the sides of the path.
"Wow…there are so many people," Yuuki marveled.
"Right?" said Merida.
She began walking and motioned for the sisters to follow. As they moved
forward, she lowered her volume and explained, "Right after the SAO Incident
started, everyone was afraid of VR games, and they were talking about
outlawing full-dive technology…but I think there's something to this world that
isn't found in traditional video games. Once you get hooked, you'll never be
able to go back to a monitor and controller again…"
Yuuki understood what she was talking about. She didn't know if they were
going to keep playing Asuka Empire after this, but she knew that if they couldn't
go back to Serene Garden, life would feel much blander. Having a place to visit
with Ran where they could eat good food, search for items, and study together
was a joy she got to experience on a daily basis.
While their world might be different, thousands of people in Asuka Empire
had to feel the same way. It wasn't a simple time waster or an escape from
reality for them. And Merida was one of that group. The fact that she'd worked
her way up to an advanced ninja class was evidence that she'd found something
important here.
But yesterday at the crepe shop in Leute, Merida intimated that she wanted
to go back to Sword Art Online. She said she might find a reason to live there—
and shed tears. That probably meant Asuka Empire didn't have what Merida
was really searching for. So what was different between Asuka Empire and
Sword Art Online? They were both VRMMOs…
"Look! There's the initiate hall!" Merida cried out, rousing Yuuki from her
thoughts. Up ahead on the right side of the street was an especially large
building with three separate entrances.
"Okay, you two. Which do you want to be: swordsman, thief, or mage?"
"What's the difference?" asked Ran, who didn't know that much about video
games.
"A swordsman goes in front, fighting with weapons or martial arts and getting
hit by enemy attacks," Merida explained. "A thief zips around quickly, confusing
the enemy and doing lots of other activities. A mage stays in the back and casts
magic to attack enemies or back up their friends."
"Uh-huh. I see," muttered Yuuki, giving this some thought along with Ran.
After five seconds, she said, "Then I'll be a swordsman!"
"And I'll be a mage."
Merida chuckled when she heard their answers. "I had a feeling that's what
you'd pick. In that case, Yuuki, you go in the middle entrance, and, Ran, take the
right. Inside, you'll be able to accept a quest. I'll help you finish them, so let's
take care of these initiation quests!"
"Yeah!"
Yuuki pumped her fist into the air and glanced over at Ran before running for
the doorway.
The act of holding a weapon in her hands and swinging at realistic monsters
was a major shock.
At first, she ran and screamed whenever the dog-sized rats charged at her.
But once she learned their bites didn't hurt (it was just mildly unpleasant) and
that there was no blood when she slashed them (just a spray of red light), she
stopped being afraid and was able to fight. Ran showed no fear of the rats at all,
though, and dispatched them easily from the start.
With the help of their experienced ninja friend, they spent two hours finishing
the five-part initiation quests. Yuuki was now a swordsman, and Ran was a
mage. When Merida invited them to get something to eat in celebration, Ran
immediately requested oshiruko, of course.
"Fwaaaah…," Ran moaned the moment the steaming, lacquered cups were
brought out. "It's amazing, Merida. It's perfect. The grilled crisp on the chewy
mochi, the texture of the mashed beans, the contrasting taste of the salted
kombu, the style of the establishment—it's all perfect."
"I…I'm glad you like it."
"If I'd known they had such delicious oshiruko here, I would have come much
sooner," Ran said, lost in reverie. She brought her hands up in prayer, then
lifted her painted chopsticks.
Yuuki waited for her sister to start eating first, then lifted her oshiruko to her
lips. The gentle sweetness and flavor of crushed red beans filled her mouth,
followed by the scent of the mochi. She wasn't as obsessed with sweet red
beans as her sister, but this was very delicious.
The trio ate in almost total silence until they exhaled in blissful satisfaction at
the same time. Ran set down her chopsticks and took a sip of tea.
"…That was wonderful. Thank you for bringing us here, Merida."
"I'm glad you liked it."
"Anyway…is this Kiyomihara place supposed to be set around the real-life
Asuka region?"
"That's right. Why?" Merida asked. Ran pointed at the menu on the table.
"When this dish is made with chunky beans rather than blended, only the
Kanto region around Tokyo calls it oshiruko. In the actual Kansai area where
Asuka is, the ones with whole red beans are called zenzai. They only call the
thinner soup with fine bean paste oshiruko."
"Ohhh! Does that mean they call the finer bean paste zenzai in the Kanto
region?"
"Actually, they call it oshiruko whether it's chunky or smooth. Zenzai is used
to describe solid crushed red beans without any liquid, like the kind you dollop
over mochi or rice dumplings."
"Oh, wow! I'm from Tokyo, but I had no idea about the difference. Well, we
ordered oshiruko and got something with the beans crushed, so I guess this
restaurant must be Kanto style," Merida narrated, fascinated.
Ran grimaced and shook her head. "Actually, not necessarily. They might have
simply reversed it, like you guessed…"
Yuuki suddenly realized what was going on, gave her sister a piercing look,
and shouted, "Oh, I get it! You keep talking about different regional styles—but
you just want to order the zenzai, too!"
"Heh-heh-heh, you got me." Ran stuck out her tongue, and Merida laughed.
When they ordered the zenzai, they received neither a bowl of finely filtered
sweet bean paste nor a solid mash but another soup of crushed beans with
chestnuts in it. Despite the confusion, however, it was delicious, too, so the trio
ate with gusto. By the time they left, the sun was much farther down in the sky.
"Ahhh, here I've gone and eaten two bowls of oshiruko at this hour. Will I
have any appetite for dinner?" Merida grumbled, rubbing her stomach. "It's so
strange how this virtual food really makes you feel full."
"Yeah, seriously," Yuuki agreed. "From what I hear, when you're eating, the
full-dive machine stimulates the chewing centers of your brain, and it's so
tightly related to your fullness centers that they feel the illusion, too."
"Ooooh! …Hey, why am I the one gushing over everything? You guys are too
knowledgeable about stuff!"
"No, I'm just repeating what was explained to me," Yuuki said with a shrug.
For a brief moment, Merida looked like she was waking up from a dream. She
must have understood that Yuuki wasn't talking about a teacher at school but
the doctor at the hospital.
They left the sweets shop, which was a special hole-in-the-wall place just like
the crepe shop yesterday, and headed out into the lonely backstreet. Ran's
wooden geta sandals made sad little clacking sounds on the stone pavement.
After a little while, Merida murmured, "So…your doctor knows about how
full-diving works."
"Yeah…"
After all, it was Dr. Kurahashi himself who had recommended that Yuuki be a
test patient for the Medicuboid. The young doctor had high hopes for the use of
full-dive tech in improving terminal care. But Yuuki was sworn to secrecy, so she
couldn't tell Merida about that.
"What about your doctor?" she asked.
The other girl shrugged, the ash-green fabric of her ninja outfit rising and
falling. "My doctor…doesn't think very highly of it. I had to ask a bunch of times
before I got approval to register for SG. He doesn't seem to think that VR-based
palliative care improves QOL."
QOL was an abbreviation for quality of life. Palliative care was meant to
improve the patient's quality of life by focusing on easing physical, mental, and
social pain caused by their condition. The AmuSphere had a function that
canceled bodily sensations up to a point, meaning it could ease a sick person's
pain and therefore might be a useful substitute for painkillers, which had side
effects and dependency problems.
On the other hand, patients in the midst of a full dive were essentially just
lying prone on a bed, so there was a strong counterargument that it wasn't
improving the patient's actual life. Merida's doctor had to share that opinion,
then.
Yuuki didn't know which side was right. Serene Garden and Asuka Empire
were both enticing worlds, and the time she spent with Ran in them felt
extremely valuable, but at this point, she spent no time together with Aiko in
the real world. Every now and then, she thought that being able to interact with
her sister all day in the virtual world, rather than being stuck in her clean room,
was the happier option.
While Yuuki was lost in these heavy thoughts, Ran said, "I don't think you can
blame anyone for being negative about full-diving while the SAO Incident is still
ongoing. But…I want to believe in the possibilities of this place. We met you
because of Serene Garden, and I think we'll meet many more people after this.
Even if the connections are only online…I think the things we're feeling are
real."
"Yes…that's right," Merida agreed, putting a hand to her chest. "I'm so happy
I met you two. The memories we've made together will always be here…not in
my avatar's heart but in my heart."
Her tone of voice was light, but the word memories felt heavy and sad in the
lonely evening alleyway. She'd said that a year and a half had passed since
starting treatment for her brain tumor. She must have spent all that time
thinking about how much she had left before the end. That was why Merida
was searching in the virtual world for a meaning to her life.
"…I'm happy, too," Yuuki murmured, grabbing Merida's hand as they walked
side by side. "Since starting in Serene Garden, I never got too close to anyone
other than Sis. I was afraid of hurting them or getting hurt myself…But
yesterday, you gave us everything you have. And that's how we were able to
become friends so quickly."
Merida's eyes briefly widened. Then she beamed for all she was worth and
squeezed Yuuki's hand back.
"Thanks, Yuuki! It makes me feel good to hear that! But that enthusiasm
yesterday might have been because I was thinking about the beetle so hard…"
"Turnabout is fair play. Yuuki and I have just been thinking about crepes and
oshiruko," Ran said, laughing and reaching for Merida's other hand. The three
girls laughed and laughed and laughed. Yuuki could feel a comfortable breeze
blowing through her heart that made her feel light and warm.
If she could laugh like this, then maybe it didn't matter whether this was a
real world or a digital one.
She wanted to laugh and smile as much as she could in the time she had left.
She wanted to hurl all of her being at someone else the way Merida had done
for her.
It was the first time since she'd been hospitalized—since she transferred
elementary schools, even—that Yuuki had felt something so strongly.
5
"It's almost your birthday, isn't it?" said Dr. Kurahashi out of nowhere as he
lowered the stethoscope. Yuuki looked down and to her right out of sheer
reflex.
But this was the real world, where there was no clock in her view. Nor was
there any calendar on the clean room wall. So she looked up at the doctor and
asked, "Um…what day of May is it?"
Dr. Kurahashi smiled, though it was hard to see through the thick mask of his
clean suit. "The sixteenth. You and Aiko were born on the twenty-third, right?"
"Yes, that's right," said Yuuki, fastening the buttons on her dustproof
examination gown.
The doctor paused for a moment. With a wistful tone, he said, "You're going
to be fourteen already…You've grown so much."
"What…? Actually, I wish I would grow more."
"Ha-ha-ha. Don't worry—you've still got plenty of room to grow," he said
kindly, patted her on the head, and stood up. "Well, see you next week."
"Good-bye, Doctor."
She watched him go back through the door of the sterilizing room, then lay
down on the gel bed.
She'd come to Yokohama Kohoku General Hospital just after her birthday the
year before last. It had been almost two years. Over half of that time, Yuuki had
spent here in this clean room.
Until recently, she'd grappled with an urge during her weekly meetings with
Dr. Kurahashi to rush after him and leap out the door, just so she could be sure
the outside world still existed as it had before. But in the last few days, she
suddenly felt much less confined by this off-white room.
That was certainly because of her meeting with Merida four days ago and the
interactions she'd had with all those players in their new world. It was just
simple greetings, in towns and in wilderness, no more than a few words each
time, but she felt the warmth coming from them nonetheless. Despite the SAO
Incident, there were so many people in that place enjoying the VR world, going
on new adventures every day, giving birth to countless personal stories.
She shifted herself up on the bed to lay her head on the headrest. I'm going
to get that upgrade to the higher class today, she told herself, closing her eyes
and lowering the headgear.
"Jarrruooooo!"
The oni-type ogre, a good ten feet tall, rumbled toward them and swung a
crude giant katana, howling eerily. The horns that split its rough, shaggy hair
shone with a dark light that extended to cover the thick blade.
"Yuu, here comes a skill!" Ran called.
"I've got it, Sis!" Yuuki shouted back, holding her katana up high.
The final boss of the class upgrade quest, Akuro-ou, was a fearsome foe who
could employ five different kinds of wide-area skills with its oversize nodachi
katana. Merely attempting to avoid the attack itself only helped so much; the
splash damage that followed would hit you anyway and leave you unable to
switch to counterattacking.
So the role of the swordsman, as the party tank, was not to avoid the attack
but to block it as best as possible. To do that as a weaker new character in her
primary class, Yuuki couldn't just block it with her weapon. She had to use a skill
of her own to counteract and neutralize it.
She had a window of less than a second to do this, between the start of
Akuro-ou's swing and when the force of its attack skill engaged.
Yuuki opened her eyes wide, held her breath, and glared at the enemy's
sword. There was a high-pitched sound like ringing in her ears, and the enemy's
movements felt slower. This feeling often came over her lately when she was
concentrating her hardest. The pause in the giant nodachi ended, and the blade
began to move—now.
There!
Yuuki's left foot stomped on the ground.
Asuka Empire used a system called ground circles for its skills and spells. If you
stomped on the ground with your weapon readied, your available skills or spells
would appear arrayed in a circle at your feet. Stomping a second time on the
icon you wanted would choose and activate it.
At first, she would have to look down at the ground, see what she wanted,
and then step again. But after practice, she was learning how to do it without
looking.
"Yaaaaah!" she roared, getting the hang of her battle cry, and pressed an icon
with her right foot. She launched herself upward and activated the antiair skill
Himukai, which turned her katana orange.
"Ja-jaaaa!!" Akuro-ou bellowed again. But Yuuki's antiair skill had already
struck the middle of its nodachi. The flash of orange tore the blackish-blue
effect in two and dispersed it. The nodachi jolted backward, pulling Akuro-ou's
giant body with it.
"Sis, Merida, now!" she cried as she fell. A strip of white paper—Ran's magic
seal—flew up from the rear and stuck to Akuro-ou's forehead. The seal shone
and created a series of complex magic circles, then exploded in a huge fireball.
The boss groaned and faltered, right as three silhouettes rushed toward its
feet and sliced with countless shinobi blades. That was Merida's special Body
Double skill. Huge chunks fell from the boss's LP bar, leaving just a few pixels
left.
Akuro-ou recovered from the delay caused by canceling its attack skill just as
Yuuki's cooldown ended. She held her katana at her left side and stepped on
the floor again. As soon as she sensed the ground circle had appeared again,
she stomped on the icon directly in front of her.
"Haaaaah!"
The quick-draw skill Suminagi had a tremendous reach, enough to hit the
horns on the boss's forehead—its weak point. It sliced them off, and the boss's
LP gauge was empty at last. Akuro-ou's giant body turned into eerie blue flames
and fell apart.
The battle had taken over twenty minutes to finish. A victory fanfare played in
their ears as they cheered and shouted.
After turning in their quest to the NPC in Kiyomihara, Yuuki and Ran were
promoted to the advanced classes of samurai and miko. Once they were
outside the building, they spent some time examining their new looks.
These weren't anything like the simple clothes from Serene Garden; instead,
they were fancy and flashy RPG outfits. They felt both excited and bashful about
them, and they giggled together. Suddenly, a familiar voice called out from
above their heads.
"Yuuki, Ran, congrats on the promotion!"
They looked up and saw Merida sitting on the edge of the building's extended
roof, waving at them. She hopped down, flipping in the air, and landed just in
front of where they were standing.
"You did really well. Getting to the advanced classes in just four days is
remarkable!"
"Only because you spent hours each day helping us out, Merida. Thanks,"
replied Ran with a big smile. Yuuki added a "Thanks!" of her own. Merida
giggled and shook her head.
"Well, it was my idea to invite you to Asuka, so it's my responsibility to help
you out…Besides, it was fun for me, too. I don't usually play with parties."
There had been lots to learn in the last four days of Asuka Empire, so they
were aware now that ninjas like Merida were considered the best advanced
class to use if you were a solo player. Yuuki could imagine why she'd chosen it.
Befriending people you met when partying up, and joining guilds after that,
meant increasing the likelihood of talking about life outside the game. If other
people asked them about their real lives, Yuuki, Ran, and Merida would have
some very painful choices to make. Do you tell them about your terrible disease
and that VR games are just a means of making the time left more enjoyable? Or
do you lie? Telling the truth might make things very awkward for the other
person, and lying was just as painful.
Yuuki prayed she could have the courage to be honest with others, the way
Merida was with her. But that wasn't easy. Merida had to be fighting with her
own walls even now, walls her heart had built to protect herself.
Ran patted her sister on the back to cheer her up. "Come on, Yuu. Merida
wants to celebrate our promotion."
"Huh? Oh…right! I want to go back to that place again!"
"Okay! There are plenty more things for you to try out there!" their friend
said, grinning, and took the lead down the path.
At the sweets shop, Yuuki ordered a sweet anmitsu bowl with cream, Ran got
the kuzumochi, and Merida wanted a matcha parfait. They took turns tasting
one another's items until they were done and washed down the sweetness with
hot mugs of tea.
"Ahhh, this is bliss…Traditional sweets and green tea really are the perfect
combination," said Ran, closing her eyes. Yuuki and Merida nodded without
comment. Coffee, black tea, or milk all went well with crepes, but none of them
felt like the superb complementary pairing of sweet red beans and green tea.
"Speaking of perfect combinations, I can absolutely believe you two are
sisters. Your teamwork in battle is impeccable. I can't believe you're newcomers
to VRMMOs," Merida said out of the blue.
Yuuki and her sister shared a look, then shrugged.
"I-I'm just swinging my katana around. Sis is the one who times everything to
match me…," Yuuki said—right at the same moment Ran claimed, "I'm just
casting spells from the back, so I have a good view of Yuu…"
The combination caused Merida to spit up and nearly choke.
"You see? You're perfectly in sync! But that's not the only remarkable thing
about you. You're able to use your skills without looking at your feet, right? It
took me a month to be comfortable with doing that!"
"Well…that's because Asuka Empire is our first VRMMO experience. You
played other games before this, Merida, so it was probably harder to learn how
to do things differently, right? Or do all VRMMOs have the same fighting
system?" Ran asked.
Merida chuckled and started to nod, but then changed her mind and shook
her head. "Well, maybe there's a little bit of that…The battle system was
completely different."
She glanced around the sweets shop to make sure there were no other
players around, then continued in hushed tones.
"Like the name suggests, Sword Art Online only has weapon battles, no magic.
You execute sword skills just by holding your weapon the right way. And unlike
in Asuka, they're not all single-use attacks."
"Not all single-use…?" Yuuki repeated, not grasping what that meant.
Using the long parfait spoon, Merida swung it up, down, then to the side.
"Yes. Meaning combination attacks. In Asuka, you can keep swinging
afterward with regular attacks, but the power of the skills in SAO was
completely different. When you take the right pose and activate the sword skill,
your body just moves all on its own. So your sword will go sli-sli-slice! and hit
three or four times in a row superfast. In Asuka, you ready your katana, stomp
on the ground to make the circle, stomp again to select the icon, and then it
makes a single-attack skill. When I started, it felt sooo sloooow. I think half the
reason I chose to be a ninja was so that I could move faster," Merida explained
with a smirk. Yuuki and Ran chose to laugh with her, rather than ask the other
half of her reasoning.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha. Yes, you really do zip around," said Ran. "One second you're
over here, and the next you're coming from the other direction."
Merida joked, "It's the fundamental style of any ninja!" But her smile did not
last long. She blinked slowly, reflecting on the boss battle earlier, and said,
"Actually…what I think is amazing is your ability to ascertain. Like today…Yuuki,
you totally saw Akuro-ou's last area attack before it happened, didn't you? Even
among the best players, you don't see many people who can stop the boss's big
attack over ten times in a row. I guess it wasn't a coincidence that you managed
to catch that royal triton stag beetle in Serene Garden."
Yuuki's mouth fell open; she wasn't expecting to hear that.
In situations like these, it was always her sister who received the praise. Test
scores, art skill, even running speed—Ran was always better. It should have
been the same way in the virtual world. If Merida saw Yuuki as being superior to
Ran, there could only be one reasonable explanation: The specs were higher on
the Medicuboid compared with Ran's NerveGear.
"N…no, Merida, it's not like that," she protested, shaking her head. "It's just
because I'm not using an AmuSphere. I'm on a—"
She gasped and caught herself there. Dr. Kurahashi said she could play Asuka
Empire only so long as she didn't tell anyone about the Medicuboid.
Merida waited for the rest, looking stunned, but Yuuki just fell silent without
finishing her statement. It was Ran who came to her rescue.
"Listen, Merida," she said softly, "we have something to tell you, and we hope
you'll forgive us for not saying it before. Yuu was about to say that we're not
using regular AmuSpheres. They're augmented NerveGear the hospital staff
gave us."
Yuuki understood that she had no choice but to say it. But even that was half
a lie. Whatever you might say about Test Unit One, there was no denying that
Test Unit Two was a far cry from the adapted NerveGear.
She regretted that her slip of the tongue forced her sister to tell a lie. She
clenched her fists in her lap until Ran's fingers gently brushed her hands. It's all
right, she was saying.
Merida didn't seem to notice what the sisters were doing under the table. She
was wide-eyed, and her voice escaped barely louder than a whisper. "Nerve…
Gear…"
She blinked a few times, then continued, "When you say augmented, do you
mean…made safe?"
"Yes…that's what they tell us. The battery capacity is smaller, and there are
limits on its functions so that it can't transmit dangerous EM waves. The
hospital recommended that we make proactive use of VR for palliative care,
and they arranged for the headgear for us."
"Oh…I see…," said Merida, nodding a few times as the shock wore off. "You
know…when I first tried on an AmuSphere, I noticed that the response was a bit
slower than the NerveGear, and the sensory information wasn't as clean. But
you can't fight that well just from having higher specs. You two are special."
She beamed at them. At this point, they couldn't keep arguing against it.
Instead, the sisters fell into an awkward silence, prompting Merida to smile
even wider.
"At any rate, congrats on the class change! If you have more time, we should
go to the imperial palace to take pictures. You look great in your new gear!"
"Yeah, good idea. Let's go," said Ran the miko enthusiastically. At last, Yuuki
felt like smiling again.
Before they said good-bye for the day, the three girls went to the glamorous
palace where the emperor lived in order to take screenshots—not that there
was any "screen" in a VR game per se.
The three girls continued to enjoy Asuka Empire after this day. Sometimes
they'd go back to Serene Garden to see how the stag beetle was coming along
or to eat crepes at that special little café. Once or twice, Merida had bouts of
that dizziness again, but she was always cheerful and smiling regardless.
Time passed in a blink when it was so fulfilling. Soon it was May 21st, just two
days before Yuuki and Ran's fourteenth birthday.
That was when Merida popped a very unexpected suggestion on them.
6
"This place is so dreary. You could at least put in some walls and a ceiling,"
Ran commented upon visiting Yuuki's private VR "room."
The data for this space was contained in the main memory of Medicuboid
Test Unit Two, and only Yuuki and Ran could access it right now. There were no
features in the room aside from the flat, artificial floor. That was if you
considered an endless dark space with nothing but a few windows floating in
the air to count as a "room" at all.
Half the windows displayed various status updates from the Medicuboid,
while the rest offered an assortment of news sources and TV channels. The
largest window, right in front, held a real-time stream of the clean room from
the camera on Test Unit Two. It was her window from the virtual world out into
the real one.
Yuuki was lying on the hard floor in her pajamas, looking up at Ran, who was
wearing the same thing. "It's fine like this! If I spruce this place up like our home
in Serene Garden, I'm going to have a hard time remembering if I'm in the real
world or the virtual world."
She patted the empty space next to her and pleaded, "C'mon, Sis, sing to me.
Like old times."
"Oh, fine. You're so needy, Yuu," her sister said with a smile and knelt down
on the ground. Yuuki placed her head on Ran's lap and closed her eyes. She
relaxed, letting the tension leave her limbs. She felt gentle hands caressing her
head and heard a whisper-soft singing voice in her ear.
It was a Mother Goose lullaby called "Hush Little Baby, Don't Say a Word,"
which their mother had often sung to them. It was a strange song about buying
a baby all kinds of gifts to make them stop crying, such as a looking glass, or a
billy goat, or a horse and cart. But that was what they liked about it.
Their avatar voices, like their faces, were synthesized from samples of their
real-world voices, but it didn't feel off at all. Ran's singing was as soft and
enveloping as a gentle wave at the shore, filling the infinite space that
surrounded them.
So hush, little baby, don't you cry.
Daddy loves you, and so do I.
Daddy loves you, and so do I.
After Ran finished the last repeated line of the song, she continued caressing
Yuuki's head for a while. Yuuki was just starting to drift off to sleep—it was after
ten at night—when a finger flicked her forehead and took her by surprise.
"Don't go to sleep here, Yuu. We haven't talked about what we need to yet."
"Unyu…Oh, right…"
She did her best to lift her heavy eyelids and sat up. Once she was facing her
sister, she folded her arms and muttered, "So…what should we do, Sis?"
Even Ran, who was normally so decisive, didn't have an answer ready.
Earlier in the evening, Merida had a very sudden suggestion. She said that two
days later, on the twenty-third, she wanted to pay Yuuki and Ran a visit to
celebrate their birthday. Not in a virtual world, of course, but at Yokohama
Kohoku General Hospital.
Merida's hospital was in Shinagawa Ward in Tokyo, which was less than an
hour away by car. Of course, she'd have family escorting her, so it probably
wasn't the biggest problem on her side.
But Yuuki and Ran couldn't tell her she was welcome, not right on the spot, at
least. For one thing, Yuuki's test usage of the Medicuboid was confidential, so
she couldn't meet with Merida. She couldn't even tell her why.
Even if they couldn't meet in person, the idea of Merida coming to the
hospital was wonderful. Yuuki knew that she would be very happy just hearing
about the experience from Ran after it happened.
But what if Merida didn't take well to the answer that she couldn't see
Yuuki…? What if she was so hurt by it that Yuuki lost this precious friend she'd
finally made…?
"…Let's trust Merida," Ran said at last, breaking the silence.
"But…Sis…"
"I'm sure Merida will understand you have reasons why you can't see her,
even though you want to. I can't imagine she'd be mad about it. Besides…if she
brings her AmuSphere and dives from my room with me, we'll be able to come
here together, won't we?"
"Y-you're going to bring her here?!" Yuuki shouted, though she didn't mean
to.
Ran gave her a mischievous grin. "I'm sure Merida would be very happy to
throw a birthday party for us in your room."
"Ummm…W-well, maybe I can try to decorate it to make it a bit more girlie,"
she murmured, looking around the dark void that screamed virtual.
Ran patted her on the shoulder and said, "Better be quick, then. It's in just
two days. And let me be clear: I'm not helping you."
"Awww…"
"Just do what you want, Yuu. Whatever that is, it's bound to delight Merida.
Well, I'll be leaving now. I'll tell her we'll be happy to see her, okay?"
"…Yeah!" Yuuki agreed vigorously, getting to her feet. Better to just go full
steam ahead, rather than worrying about hurting others or being hurt. That was
the lesson Merida had taught her, wasn't it?
Ran waved good night and left the space, which Yuuki surveyed with fresh
eyes. If they were going to have a birthday party, they'd at least need a table
and chairs. But first, walls and a ceiling.
Even if it was going to get reset in a day, this was a makeover meant to host
their good friend. She was going to put all her energy into customizing the
space, she decided. Yuuki headed toward one of the status windows hanging in
the air.
At two o'clock on Thursday, May 23rd, Merida arrived at Yokohama Kohoku
General Hospital in her mother's car.
She was sitting in a wheelchair because the brain tumor had rendered her
unable to use her legs. But after leaving her mother to wait in the hospital's
café, she made it all the way up to the eighth floor of the sick ward to Ran's
room on her own. She brought a large tote bag containing two wrapped
birthday presents and her AmuSphere. From there, the plan was for them to
dive to Yuuki's private VR room from Ran's bed.
But neither Yuuki nor Ran realized what lurked in Merida's heart of hearts.
Ran used the restroom before her dive and came to her room to find a
handwritten note on the bed. Next to it lay Merida, already in a full dive. Her
head, bald from chemo, donned not the AmuSphere she'd brought but Ran's
NerveGear.
The note simply said, Ran, Yuuki, I'm so sorry. And in the slot of the
NerveGear was a game card with the title Sword Art Online.
"What…?!"
It took Yuuki several seconds to grasp what this meant after Ran showed up in
her decorated VR room and explained what had happened.
Merida hadn't used her AmuSphere; she'd used Ran's NerveGear. And that
was because the AmuSphere couldn't play SAO, presumably. Merida's stunt
wasn't on a whim. She had brought the SAO card with her to do this from the
start. She'd made an intentional choice to leap into the game where virtual
death meant real death.
Ran's NerveGear was modified with safety features, like a smaller battery and
output limitations. But the NerveGear still used a power cable. The power that
SAO used to destroy the wearer's brain when the avatar's HP reached zero
came from the wall outlet. They couldn't let Merida be the test case to find out
if those safety features worked or not.
"S-Sis! We have to take the NerveGear off Merida!" Yuuki shouted, suddenly
feeling the virtual temperature drop. Ran, who was diving here with Merida's
AmuSphere, just shook her head.
"We can't…I'm not going to pull it off her head—just in case the worst
happens."
"Why not?! Your NerveGear has a smaller battery, right? If you turn off the
power and then take it off her, it shouldn't be able to emit those deadly
waves…"
"Merida has a brain tumor. If she's exposed to any kind of abnormal EM
waves at all, there's no telling how that might affect her. We can't pull it off her
on our own."
"Then we need to tell the doctor at once…," Yuuki protested, feeling even
more childish than usual in the presence of her ever-calm sister.
But Ran didn't agree to this, either. Instead, she placed her hands on Yuuki's
shoulders in a calming gesture. "I think we should do that, too," she whispered,
"but before that, give me five minutes…well, three."
"What…? What are you going to do in three minutes?" Yuuki asked.
Ran just stared her right in the eyes and replied, "I think there's still time.
Come with me, Yuu."
They brought up the door that acted as the app launcher from the VR room
hub and walked through it into a blinding curtain of sunlight that made Yuuki
squint.
It was Leute, the village in the eastern region of Serene Garden. A band of NPC
musicians played cheerful background music while players sat on the benches in
the center of town, chatting happily. Ran rushed through the scene, her dress
making her appear as a blue blur. Yuuki hurried after her.
She had no idea where her sister was going or why they were in Serene
Garden at all. Merida was already in Aincrad, the setting of Sword Art Online,
wasn't she? And there wasn't going to be any teleport gate that would take
them from Serene Garden to SAO.
But Ran's path was absolutely determined. She took them through the village
gate and out into the undulation of Teal Hills. They ran along the brick road for
a while but eventually curved left off the path and across the green, grassy
fields.
Yuuki only realized where her sister was taking them once they had crossed a
number of hills and come within sight of a small pond glittering in the sun.
The water was only sixty feet across or so, and the bank was lined with short
pegs that stuck up out of the surface. A solitary tree stood near the edge.
This was the place where Yuuki had caught the royal triton stag beetle.
The place where they'd first met Merida.
To Yuuki's shock, there was also a small figure crouched at the roots of the
tree. The breeze rustled a green ponytail that shone in the sun.
Lost in emotion, Yuuki sped past her sister, running along the edge of the
pond and shouting the figure's name, right as it got to its feet.
"Meridaaaaa!!"
There was shock on her friend's face when she turned around and then a
strange smile that seemed likely to turn into tears. She spoke their names, and
her voice sounded more fragile than any they'd ever heard.
"…Yuuki…Ran…"
Yuuki slowed and came to a stop a short distance away from Merida. Within
moments, Ran was there, too.
Merida had put the NerveGear on to go into SAO, so why had she dived into
Serene Garden instead? The answer was at her feet.
Resting on the ground was a bug cage with its door open, and sitting on top, a
lapis-lazuli-blue stag beetle. The insect was larger than when they'd first seen it,
and its antennae were waving about, as though asking its owner for answers.
Merida followed Yuuki's gaze and looked down at the beetle, smiling like a
child trying to hold back tears.
"...Roy just won't fly away. I wanted to give it back to you, Yuuki, but once
an insect has an owner, you can't give it to someone else. So I thought…maybe
if I let it go free here, you would catch it again someday…"
Her voice cracked. When Yuuki saw the large tears pooling in Merida's eyes,
she felt something hot and painful surge up within her chest. Ran sounded like
she was going to cry, too.
"Roy's not going to fly away, Merida," she said. "You took such good care of
him every day. He's going to win the big tournament, too—I just know it.
Please, Merida…come back home with Roy and us. Me and Yuu are the only
ones who know for now."
At last, Yuuki understood why her sister didn't go straight to Dr. Kurahashi to
tell him. Assuming he made the decision to take off the NerveGear and it
actually worked, he still had a responsibility to tell Merida's parents. And she
would be forbidden from using an AmuSphere for VR care from that point
onward. They would never see her in Serene Garden or Asuka Empire again. Ran
made a bet that they'd find Merida here and be able to convince her to be
reasonable.
Yuuki took a deep breath and followed up with everything she could say to
her friend. "Please, Merida…don't go to SAO. I want to go on so many more
adventures with you. I want to go to different places and see different things.
Please…don't go…!"
But Merida looked at the ground rather than meet her eye. Bit by bit, she
said, "I'm sorry, Yuuki…I'm sorry, Ran. I've ruined your special birthday with all
of this…I'm so sorry. I can't ask you to forgive me. But I…I just had to…"
Her shoulders tensed beneath her shirt and trembled. Her voice was as frail
and tense as thin glass, trickling over the afternoon fields.
"I saw in a news article a while ago…that the police are setting up a plan to
remove the NerveGear from all the victims of the SAO Incident. But I don't feel
like that plan can possibly work. It's going to cause so many deaths…"
It was just over ten days ago that Yuuki's sister had shown her that article, on
the hillside nearby. Ran had been concerned about it in the exact same way as
Merida.
"…I told you about how there were several people in the guild I joined during
the SAO beta test. I was supposed to be there when it launched. And then I was
spared from that because they found my tumor…but the truth is, that was
really, really hard for me. If I…if I could go to Aincrad right now, I could use the
rest of my life to help them, I thought. At least then…my life might have added
up to something meaningful…"
"…Merida…"
Yuuki took a step forward. But Merida shook her head and backed away. The
motion cast her tears aside, shining golden with the reflected light of the sun.
"Please, Yuuki, Ran…Let me go to Aincrad. There are SAO victims in this
hospital, so I can get through the IP filter. I'm sure my parents will be sad, but
they'll understand. I just…I just want to find it. To find the reason I was born this
way…"
Her painful confession melted into the breeze blowing across the meadow
and dispersed into the virtual atmosphere.
Merida said the same thing the day they'd first met her. And like that day,
Yuuki was unable to find the right thing to say. Finding a reason to live, a
positive meaning in life—that was something Yuuki wished she could do as well.
Ran silently came forth to stand next to Yuuki. She crouched and gently
plucked Roy from the top of the cage. The stag beetle was calm and obedient in
her palm. She lightly traced its brilliant carapace with her fingertip and said
gently, "There are many, many reasons for you to live, here in Serene Garden, in
Asuka Empire, and in reality. Look how well you've raised Roy. You brought me
and Yuu to a brand-new world. There will be so many other wonderful things
for you to do."
"..."
Merida's eyes, brimming with large tears, fixed on the stag beetle resting in
Ran's hand. Eventually, a tiny smile appeared on her lips, and the girl who was
just a bit older than the twins said, "If I've managed to give you anything, then
I'm happy to hear that. But…what I really want is something I won't find here or
in Asuka or in the real world. I want…to fight. I don't want to wait in my hospital
bed for the end to arrive. I want to use my own two hands to fight against
something bigger than disease—like fate or the world itself—and burn up what
life I have striving against it. Please, Ran…just let me go."
"…Merida…," Yuuki heard her sister whisper. And then she understood.
Ran—Aiko—had a much stronger ability to empathize than Yuuki did. She
could bring herself closer to another person's pain and sadness, understand it,
and accept it.
And that was why Ran could feel and empathize with how Merida felt right
now. She felt it so keenly that she wanted that desire to be made real.
But.
But…
If she let Merida go, Ran would regret it immensely later. She would be
pained by what she said and the choice she made and bear that decision on her
back like a sin that could never be cleansed.
It was crucial for Yuuki to speak up now. She couldn't let her sister handle
everything this time; she had to use her own words and her own will to hold
Merida back.
She clasped her hands, squeezing so hard, she felt the very core of her being
trembling, and shouted, "Merida!!"
The girl's eyes bolted open in surprise. Yuuki stared into those emerald-green
pools and continued, "I'll find it for you! I'll find something that will make you
want to burn up your life for it, Merida! Please…just please don't go!!"
Merida blinked again and put on the faintest hint of a smile.
"…And how are you going to find that, Yuuki?" she asked quietly.
Yuuki didn't know why she gave the answer she did. But they were words that
would determine her own fate.
"Go into Asuka Empire and fight me, Merida. I'm sure you'll understand after
that."
7
Merida put Roy back into the insect cage and returned it to her item list, then
logged out of Serene Garden. But there was no guarantee she would do as Yuuki
hoped and log in to Asuka Empire rather than Sword Art Online.
But Yuuki could do nothing except head to the large cedar tree on the
outskirts of Kiyomihara to wait and trust.
The area around the tree was a flowing meadow, rather like the area in Teal
Hills, where they'd just been. But a short distance away was a large growth of
pampas grass rustling in the chilly wind, a species that didn't exist in Serene
Garden.
A few minutes later, she heard the familiar sound of quiet, quick footsteps
approaching and turned to face them.
It was a ninja wearing very familiar light-green garb, but unlike when they
usually met, this time she was already wearing her face-covering mask. She
slowed down and came to a stop about five yards away from Yuuki and Ran,
saying nothing.
"...Merida…"
Yuuki wanted to thank her for coming, but she couldn't. There was a sharp,
fierce aura exuding from Merida's being, an invisible force that pressed down
on the sisters.
To this point, Yuuki had no experience in a player duel. She knew you could
do it, of course, and she'd watched some sporty competitions between guild
partners on the street, but she felt a strong aversion to the act of fighting her
hardest against another player's avatar, the representation of their physical
body.
This duel, however, was something Yuuki wanted.
Merida wanted to go to SAO so she could sacrifice her life for something
worthwhile. Whatever it was, it was something that existed in the virtual world
but wasn't an artifice. A kind of truth that existed virtually, where even the
extremely sick could be just as mobile as any other player.
In the deadly environment of SAO, thousands of players were fighting in the
space between life and death. Merida had been a beta tester, and she was
willing to become a prisoner of the game if it gave her the chance to fight for
her old friends…for all the survivors still in there. Yuuki understood a tiny bit of
this feeling.
But at the same time, she strongly felt it was the wrong choice. If she wanted
to talk about destiny, wasn't it Merida's destiny not to be inside SAO, because
doctors had spotted her tumor?
And even on this side of the virtual divide, there were things she could and
should do. Yuuki didn't know what those things were, but they existed. She was
fighting, not speaking, to get her feelings across.
She let out the air in her lungs over time, then sucked in a deep breath of cold
virtual air and waved her right hand to bring up the player menu.
There was one button in the menu she had never touched until just now: the
DUEL button. It displayed a list of players in the area who could be challenged, so
she selected Merida's name and pressed OK.
Merida's eyes strayed away from Yuuki and moved lower. Her arm rose,
operating a window that only she could see. Yuuki's window displayed a
message saying that her duel challenge had been accepted, and then the whole
thing vanished.
A thirty-second countdown began in the space between them. Yuuki gripped
her katana in a sweaty palm and drew it from her left side. It was named
Suminagashi, or Ink Washer, from the uchigatana category. It had a black
Damascus pattern on the flat, and while it wasn't particularly rare, it was easy
to use.
A moment after that, Merida readied her weapon. It was Akezuki, or Scarlet
Moon, from the shinobigatana category. It was a rare weapon with a straight,
deep-red blade, smaller than Yuuki's sword, but more powerful overall.
When the shinobi blade's sharp tip pointed in her direction, Yuuki felt
something within her chest shrivel up.
There was no way she could avoid all of Merida's speedy ninja attacks. In just
moments, that weapon was going to pierce and slash Yuuki's body. And Yuuki
had to attack her good friend with her own katana, too. There was no real pain
in the virtual world, and they were only wagering temporary numerical HP—but
all the same, this was a real fight.
Could she do it? Could she put up a proper fight against Merida on her first
try?
This duel was her idea, but now her heart was shying away from it. Her
breathing became shallow, and her vision narrowed.
"…!"
She shivered and was about to falter backward—when she received a push in
the right direction from Ran, who was watching from several yards away.
It's all right. She'll understand how you feel. It'll work if you give her your all.
"…Sis…," she murmured, and the shivers stopped.
Their chances of winning were honestly higher if Ran fought, rather than
Yuuki. As a shrine maiden, she wielded a variety of magic seals with keen
accuracy and mastered close combat with a Shinto staff called an oonusa that
she used to bludgeon opponents. Her combat ability was easily higher than
Yuuki's. Of course, Merida's character level was higher than both of theirs, but
Asuka Empire was scaled in a way that a higher level didn't amount to a major
statistical advantage.
But if Yuuki relied upon her big sister like she so often did, Merida wasn't
going to feel Yuuki's true emotions, even if Yuuki won the fight.
That was right—she had to relate her feelings, her will, everything that was
inside of her.
When the countdown reached five seconds, it flashed much brighter. Yuuki
watched the numbers descend: four, three, two, one.
At zero, the numeral expanded outward as a circle of light and vanished.
"Iyaaaaaaah!!" Yuuki roared with all her strength as she pushed off the
ground. A samurai's agility was inferior to a ninja's, but there was one case in
which she had better propulsion: when charging with a slice attack. She crossed
the five-yard gap with a single jump, right at Merida, and swung her katana
down from overhead.
But the moment she caught sight of those green eyes behind her face mask,
eyes the same shade as in Serene Garden, Yuuki's arms seized up against her
will. The ink-colored blade wavered and slid off-center to the right. Against a
monster, that kind of variation wasn't a problem, but Merida was too much of a
veteran to let that opportunity pass.
With a whip of torn air, Merida evaded to the left with teleport-level speed.
Yuuki's slash cut empty air, leaving only a faint visual effect behind.
Then a fierce shock ran through her left shoulder. Yuuki was knocked right off
her feet, and she tumbled to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw
nearly a tenth of her LP disappear. She rolled into the momentum, using the
opportunity to get farther out of range before standing up.
Once in fighting position again, Yuuki saw Merida extending her left palm,
rather than the shinobi sword in her right.
Ninjas had martial arts skills, but when she realized that a bare-handed attack
through her shoulder armor had done so much damage on its own, Yuuki's
breath caught in her throat.
She was tough—not that it was a surprise.
Or maybe she just thought she understood that. In all their time together,
Merida had been more of an adviser or instructor to Yuuki and Ran. By spending
as little time as possible attacking monsters, she made sure the sisters got as
much experience as they could.
She'd seen only a tiny glimpse of Merida's true ability. That knowledge alone
was enough to freeze Yuuki in her tracks.
"It was the same way for me at first," said a soft voice coming from behind
the face mask. A hint of a smile could be heard in the voice. "The first time I
dueled another player in SAO, my arms locked up, and I couldn't hit them at all.
It's not like attacking a character on your monitor. You can tell yourself that it's
not a real person, that it's just a digital avatar, but your body can't keep up with
that knowledge…It took me two weeks to have a decent duel at last."
"…How were you able to fight?" Yuuki asked her ninja opponent.
Merida glanced at the cloudy sky above, as though consulting her memories.
"When I was fighting another person using a one-handed sword like I was, they
said that dueling isn't just trying to kill the other person. It's a dialogue between
two swords. That's true for traditional online games, VRMMOs, and maybe
even sporting competition in the real world. So when you said we should fight, I
was just the tiniest bit surprised."
Yes—there was something Yuuki wanted to say to Merida. She couldn't put it
into words, but it was there, hot and writhing deep in her core. She'd
challenged Merida to the duel in the hope that clashing sword against sword
might help that message get across.
If her arms shrank back like they did at first, no messages would be getting
across. She had to push past her fears and hesitation and move forward.
Forward, forward, always forward…right to where Merida would feel it.
"…There are some things you can't get past without confronting them," Yuuki
whispered to herself. But Merida heard and nodded. She flipped the shinobi
blade around to hold it backhanded and brandished it diagonally. Yuuki raised
the katana high again.
This time, it was Merida who moved first.
She leaned far forward, transforming into a gust of light-green wind as she
charged right for Yuuki. She wasn't going to make it easy this time. Yuuki had to
defend against the ultrafast ninja slash or evade it and turn that into a
counterattack. She was staring, focusing on the dull reflection of sunlight on the
deep-red blade, when she thought she heard a voice.
Don't look at the weapon—look at all of Merida, Yuu!
Instantly, Yuuki's eyes were open wide, expanding her vision.
Merida's right hand held the shinobigatana in front. Her left hand was
obscured behind the blade, but she could see something shining within her
clenched fist.
The sword is a feint. The first attack will come from her left…a shuriken!
The second Merida's other hand blurred, Yuuki brought down her katana
directly toward the instant of reflected light she saw.
There was a high-pitched clang! and a shower of white sparks. The crossshaped shuriken, deflected by Yuuki's swing, flew rotating back toward Merida.
This was the effect of the samurai-class skill Parry.
"…!"
The ninja exhaled briefly, then smacked the shuriken with her shinobi sword.
The reflection from the shuriken vanished off and up to the right, where Yuuki
need not pay any more attention to it. She lunged toward Merida, who was
now off-balance.
Her range was good. No more hesitation.
She wasn't attacking out of hatred, or the desire to win or kill. She was
swinging to show Merida what could exist beyond the skills she'd taught.
"Rrraaaah!" she bellowed, flipping her wrists and slashing up from below.
Despite Yuuki's awkward stance, the black blade slid through Merida's torso as
she tried to jump backward and out of the way.
Zassh!! There was firm feedback in Yuuki's hands. The follow-through of the
swing left her arms high, sending crimson illumination high into the air. Above
Merida's head, her LP bar dropped about 15 percent.
Going by the theory of combat against monsters, this was the time to open a
ground circle, activate a skill, and deliver major damage to an enemy under a
movement delay. But Merida wasn't likely to leave herself that open, just from
a single hit. Her follow-up should be a normal attack—but with everything Yuuki
had riding on it.
She raised her katana overhead for the third time.
Merida used the momentum of that upward attack to perform a backflip in
the air.
Yuuki launched herself forward, aiming for the moment when her opponent
hit the ground.
"Haaaaah!!" she roared from the very bottom of her gut, preparing to deliver
her best swing.
Wham! The air burst.
While airborne and looking down at Yuuki, Merida jumped off the air with
both feet. That was the ninja-class skill Double Jump.
"Cheyaaa!" she shouted for the first time in this fight and plunged. The
shinobi blade in her right hand was a flash of crimson, heading straight for
Yuuki's throat.
The slashing speed advantage belonged to Merida for being a ninja, but Yuuki
had started earlier. So at the moment, their timing was equal. But if Yuuki gave
in to fear now and gave anything less than full dedication to the attack, she
would get hit by the counter.
What did Yuuki want to tell Merida?
That she would get much, much stronger.
The world was endlessly expanding beyond the walls of the closed-off, deadly
SAO. There were so many people to meet, discoveries to make, and stories to
experience, in worlds virtual and real.
I'll take you wherever we can go.
I'll find you a new destiny, Merida.
Just don't leave…
"…Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
Bright light expanded outward. Shining particles burst away from her avatar
like stars. The resistance of the compressed atmosphere against her blade
reached a maximum, then gave way as she broke through.
Yuuki's katana swung downward, a pure beam of light, in absolute silence.
An instant later, Merida's shinobi blade brushed the left side of her neck as it
went past.
At the end of her swing, Yuuki couldn't move. Once sound returned to the
world, a crimson damage effect spurted noisily from her neck wound. Over 20
percent of her LP disappeared.
Stumbling, she turned to see Merida, frozen at the end of her follow-through.
Suddenly and silently, she split from the shoulder of her ninja garb through her
back, and a huge visual effect sprayed from the cut. From its total of 85 percent,
Merida's LP gauge rapidly decreased, stopping only when it had gone just under
50 percent.
Da-doom! With a taiko drum booming, a window appeared, announcing the
end of the duel. Yuuki gasped with surprise. She blinked several times, wideeyed, but nothing changed what she was looking at: a message that read,
Winner: Yuuki.
"B-but why…? We're not…," she stammered.
Merida stood up straight and turned around, sliding her shinobigatana into
the sheath at her waist. She smiled.
"In Asuka, you can duel to the death in showdown mode or simply go down to
half your LP in bout mode. I chose bout mode when you challenged me, so this
one's all you, Yuuki. You won. Congratulations…You were really tough. You
stunned me."
"Um…I…"
She was going to deflect it, to say that she still had so far to go, but that was
when it truly hit her.
She'd won the duel. But she didn't know if she'd gotten her message across.
Her friend was standing there smiling at her, but she still looked so fragile, like
she might melt away in the sunlight. Yuuki was so preoccupied with her
thoughts that she didn't even remember to sheathe her sword.
"If I'm really that strong," she said, letting the words come to her in the
moment, "then it's thanks to you, Merida. I got stronger because you taught me
so many things. I said I'd help you find something that you could burn your life
away doing. I don't know what that is yet…but I promise you. I'm going to be
even stronger…and I'll never stop…I'll just keep getting stronger…"
She tried to mold the thoughts she had in battle, to form them into words,
but her voice gave out. In and out she breathed, trying to collect herself, but it
wasn't happening.
Instead, Merida lowered her mask and beamed. It was the exact same smile
she made when they first met in Serene Garden.
"I heard you, Yuuki."
"Huh…?"
"I could feel how you felt through your sword. And not just your feelings
about me…I felt all kinds of things from you. Um…I'm not that smart, so I might
not be saying this right. But your strength…No, something bigger than that.
Ummm…"
Now it was Merida who was mumbling, searching for the right word.
"…Your possibilities," said a soft voice that drew the two girls' attention.
The speaker was Ran, who had been watching their duel from beneath the
large cedar tree. The shrine maiden smiled, warm and gentle, like she always
did, and glided over to the duelists.
"You meant possibilities, didn't you, Merida?"
"Yes, that!" she said, snapping her fingers and nodding furiously. "There's so
much that's packed inside of you, Yuuki. Your strength in the duel was just a
tiny part of it…You're going to be so much stronger and bigger than you are
now. To the point that people are going to know your name in all kinds of
worlds one day."
"…No…I'm not that special…," Yuuki mumbled, staring at Merida in numb
shock.
There was no longer any hint of desperation in her expression, although the
translucent fragility was still there. Yuuki wanted to ask her if she'd
reconsidered her plan to go into SAO or if she was still resolute.
But then Ran came up on her right and rested a hand on Yuuki's shoulder.
"Merida, Yuuki, I want to tell you something I've been thinking about," she said.
"…What, Ran?"
"I want the three of us to make a guild. And bit by bit, we can add new
people…new friends, and make our little circle bigger."
She reached down and squeezed Yuuki's hand. Then she held out her other
arm toward Merida, who was standing a little farther away. Without thinking,
Yuuki extended her other hand toward Merida, too.
Merida looked at their hands but hesitated, confused. "But, Ran…we're…"
Yes. That was on Yuuki's mind, too.
The three had met in a VR hospice. They shared the reality of terminal illness.
They could start a guild in Asuka Empire and recruit new members, but they
couldn't keep the fact of their condition a secret forever. One day, they would
have to explain the truth. Or perhaps the truth would arrive before they could
tell that story.
The closer they got to other guild members, the harder that moment would
be. The guild itself might fracture and fall apart. Ran would know that, of
course.
"One day…one day, we'll overcome this disease and keep the circle
expanding…as far as it can go, I hope…," Ran whispered, then collected herself.
"I think that at first, we should recruit people in the same position as us. I think
there are others in Serene Garden who want to see the outside world like us, to
go farther. We should invite them to our guild and go to the very limits of the
virtual worlds out there. The same way you pulled the two of us to join you,
Merida."
Her hand was still extended, firm and unwavering. Merida's eyes were flared
with surprise, fixed on Ran.
A breeze rustled the needles of the massive cedar tree. There was no lasting
sign of their duel on the field any longer. The blue sky, a different shade from
Serene Garden's, held trailing wisps of clouds that slid quietly along. A hawk
circled, calm and regal, high above.
The world map of Asuka Empire was based loosely on what was today known
as the Kinki region. On the east end was Mount Fuji, and on the west end were
the Kanmon Straits separating Honshu and Kyushu—although all the places ingame had fictional names. In the next major update, however, they were
supposed to be adding the Kanto region around Tokyo, and the island of
Kyushu. The world was getting larger here, and it would probably do the same
in other places, like ALfheim Online.
I'm sure we'll find what we're looking for, Merida. New places for us. New
friends for us. And a fate worth fighting for.
The words passed through her mind as she reached for all she was worth.
At last, Merida's emerald-green eyes rippled like water. The pure, shining light
turned into droplets that ran silently down her cheeks.
Unlike everything else, these tears were the exact same shade as those in
Serene Garden. Merida's voice emerged, hoarse with emotion.
"…Well…I guess that settles it…After a speech like that…there's no way I can
leave you two behind…"
Her right foot, covered in a thick ninja tabi sock, ground itself against the
grass a few times. Then she made up her mind and pushed forward.
One, two, three steps…Slowly but resolutely, she approached the twins.
Merida lifted her hands and grabbed Ran's and Yuuki's. Her grip was firm and
strong.
"It's a very small circle," she said, smiling tearfully.
Yuuki squeezed back with all the strength she had. "But it's so much bigger
than the circle of just me and Sis."
She smiled, and tears of her own poured from her eyes. She couldn't wipe
them away if she wanted to, so they just dripped and dripped without end.
Through her blotted, colorful vision, she could still see the smile on Merida's
face.
"Ha-ha…Yuuki, you look incredible. If you cry that hard, you're going to come
out with tears on your cheeks in real life."
"That's fine. I'm just so happy."
She tried to blink the virtual tears away, until Ran finally had mercy on her
and let go so she could use the sleeve of her miko robe to rub Yuuki's face.
"You're so strong and yet still such a crybaby, Yuu," she said, although her
cheeks were shining, too. Yuuki squeezed Ran's hand again and looked up at
the sky.
The hawk had flown off somewhere else, but the sky itself was still beautiful.
It felt like it connected to the sky of Serene Garden—and the sky in the real
world, too.
Let's go—wherever we will, hand in hand. For the sake of the worlds and the
people to come.
Yuuki could feel the door in her heart, closed ever since the unwanted school
transfer in fifth grade, finally opening a crack.
She didn't know how much time she had left. But if her life was shorter than
average, that just meant she needed to run faster and bolder. In the real world,
she might be confined to her bed, but in the virtual world, her possibilities were
endless.
"…It's time to go back now," said Merida. She squeezed Yuuki's and Ran's
hands one last time to dispel their anxieties, then let go. "I told Mom I'd meet
her back at the café by three o'clock. Yuuki, Ran…I'm sorry for ruining your
birthday like this. I feel terrible."
Merida tried to bow in apology, but Ran grabbed her shoulders. "You don't
need to say sorry, Merida. It's been a wonderful birthday. I mean, you came all
this way to visit us, didn't you?"
Yuuki added, "I was…I was really happy, too! Please…please, Merida, come
meet me on the other side!"
Ran turned and gave her a look of surprise, but Yuuki continued talking.
"Listen, for my own reasons, I'm in a clean room right now, but you can see
me through the glass from the monitoring room next door. I can't hold your
hand, but I still want to be able to see you."
She was still sworn to secrecy about the Medicuboid, so she wasn't sure Dr.
Kurahashi would allow her to have a meeting, even through glass. But she had a
feeling he wasn't going to refuse them. It was her fourteenth birthday, after all.
"…Okay! Once I'm back out, I'll go right over to see you, Yuuki," Merida
stated, nodding forcefully.
There was no longer any hint of fragility in her expression.
8
"Are you ready, Yuuki?"
Yuuki replied to Dr. Kurahashi through the speaker with a crisp "Ready!" The
adjustable glass that separated Yuuki's clean room from the adjacent
monitoring room promptly went translucent.
In the monitoring room, which was as cramped as a hallway, Dr. Kurahashi
was wearing a white lab coat rather than his usual outfit. He was joined by Ran
in her pajamas and a girl in a wheelchair who looked slightly older.
"…Happy birthday, Yuuki!"
Merida's real voice was a bit hoarser than how she sounded in the virtual
world. Under the light-green beanie she wore, her face was sunken, and her
skin was pale. But her big eyes were shining and strong.
"Thank you…thank you, Merida," Yuuki said. She was forbidden from touching
the glass, but she could get as close as possible short of that. Merida wheeled
her chair a foot or two closer, until her face was nearly touching the thick glass,
and then she smiled.
"You and Ran both look almost exactly the way you do over there. I'm sorry…I
brought flowers for you two, but they can't put them in your room."
Sure enough, there was a small bouquet of flowers on Merida's lap.
"It's fine. I'm just happy that I can see them from here! They're so pretty…
Thank you so much, Merida," Yuuki said hastily.
From below the bouquet, Merida extended her hand toward the window. Her
frail fist was holding something small in it. Yuuki stared closely, trying to see it.
"Yuuki, Ran…listen. Instead of giving you presents, I'm going to make you a
promise. I'll never say I want to go to that place again. This is the proof."
Merida lifted her other hand and plucked the small, rectangular object she
was holding—a memory card.
Printed on the card was a tiny label with a logo the size of a rice kernel, but
Yuuki could recognize it clear as day.
Sword Art Online.
Merida closed her eyes and moved her lips. The mic didn't pick up the sound,
but Yuuki clearly heard her voice saying "Good-bye."
She tensed her fingers to the point that they trembled—and then the little
plastic memory card snapped in two.
In the end, the police department's planned operation to forcefully disengage
all the SAO Incident victims' NerveGear did not happen. The deadly game was
beaten before they could move their scheme out of the planning stage,
returning six thousand survivors to the real world.
That was about half a year after Yuuki and Ran's fourteenth birthday. The day
the Sleeping Knights were formed.