Chapter 8

7:15 AM, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH

As the express train rumbled into motion, I leaned back against the seat and

closed my eyes.

The express left from Honkawagoe Station, the closest to my house, on the

Seibu Shinjuku Line, which at this hour promised a good chance at a seat if you

waited long enough. On normal school days, I'd often be standing all the way

through Tanishi, but today I wanted to do everything I could to alleviate my

sleepiness. Since the UR incident began on Sunday, three nights had passed,

and I'd taken consecutive all-night dives. Even I was reaching the limit of my

exhaustion. I didn't know who was responsible for the UR incident, but I wanted

to ask them why they couldn't have done it during summer vacation. Then I

could have powered through twenty hours a day and reached the land revealed

by the heavenly light by the third day. (Or so I told myself.)

I could feel these thoughts pulling my mind deeper toward the abyss of sleep,

but I held firm just before the moment of no return. There were two reasons for

this: One, I was worried about dropping the bag I was carrying with both arms,

and two, I couldn't get the high-pitched sound of Mutasina the sorceress

slamming the bottom of her staff into the ground out of my mind.

In the end, she did not activate her suffocation magic again before I logged

out at four last night—er, this morning. It was possible her threat about the

range being infinite was only a bluff, and her spell just didn't reach me, fifteen

miles away from the Stiss Ruins, but that was only wishful thinking. It was a

ridiculous enough spell to work on a hundred people at once, so of course it

could probably last to the ends of the earth as well.

Last night, Alice, Kuro, Argo, and I returned safely to a warm welcome from

our companions, despite the late hour. To my surprise, it wasn't just the Patter

but another ten Bashin.

Lisbeth, Yui, and Asuna had left for the Bashin a bit after Alice and I had

headed out. They had encountered their fair share of troubles—chased by a

giant whip spider field boss, falling into a giant antlion pit—but the trip across

the southeast part of the Giyoru Savanna had taken them less than two hours.

When they'd reached the Bashin village, they'd offered some bison jerky,

much to the Bashin's delight, and brought up the topic of resettlement. When

they admitted that our new town wasn't necessarily safe, the leader of the

settlement, Yzelma, pulled out her sword and said, "Then show me that you

have the strength to protect your town and its people."

At that point, Lisbeth was level-12, Yui was level-11, and Asuna was level-10.

And Asuna and Yui had chosen the Sagacity ability tree, so they weren't suited

for close combat. But Asuna put her hand on Lisbeth's shoulder before the

other girl could stand, and she said, "No, I'll do it."

Her weapon was the fine iron rapier Lisbeth had forged, but her armor was

the same light breast armor Yui wore, plus guards for her arms and legs.

Captain Yzelma wore only leather on her chest and waist, too, but she was a full

head taller than Asuna and impressively muscled. Her weapon was an ultrathick

curved cleaver, like a combination of sword and ax. Upon seeing the delicate

rapier, which seemed likely to shatter if their weapons met, Yzelma and the

other warriors assumed Asuna was simply the warm-up act for Lisbeth, the

macer.

But Asuna avoided Yzelma's furious attacks with simple footwork, waiting for

the moment her opponent was unbalanced, and then she struck the center of

the cleaver with the two-part Rapier skill Parallel Sting. Yzelma admitted defeat,

then named the next captain right on the spot before personally requesting to

join the expedition to the Great Zelletelio Forest.

After Yzelma nominated herself to go, nine other Bashin joined in, and the

traveling party of thirteen scattered the whip spider and antlion on their way

back to the forest town by eleven o'clock. So we ended up coming back two

hours late, by which point the Bashin had split up the living space on the west

quadrant of the town and gotten busy building the furnishings they'd need.

Asuna laughed and said that our delay felt like it was over in a blink.

They were worried about the Bashin viewing Kuro and Misha as potential

hunting targets, but apparently the warriors saw more heroic valor in one who

had tamed such beasts than one who had hunted them. Naturally, a bear beasttamer was a higher rank than a panther beast-tamer, so to the Bashin, Silica

was the most exalted member of the town. I had no qualms with that, of

course.

After a simple welcoming party, the members of the main group met in the

living room of our cabin to hold another meeting. When Klein and Agil learned

that our newest member was the same Argo as the one from the strategy

guides, they were stunned, but we didn't have time to reminisce about the old

days. We needed to talk about Mutasina's threat as soon as possible.

When I told them about the tremendous dark power of the Noose of the

Accursed, and the possible invasion of a hundred players as early as tomorrow

night, even Klein couldn't crack any jokes. But we all agreed that abandoning

the town and fleeing ahead of them was not an option. If they attacked, we

would fight back.

As a positive bit of news, I was able to explain that we'd camouflaged the

entrance to the cave behind the waterfall, delaying their ability to outfit every

member with iron gear—and told them that Holgar's, Dikkos's, and Tsuburo's

groups were being threatened by Mutasina, which couldn't be good for morale.

Still, the difference in numbers was overwhelming. With ten Bashin and twenty

Patter, plus Argo, we now had forty-one, plus four pets. If you counted Misha

and Pina as having a combined strength of five people, and two each for Kuro

and Aga, that put us at fifty, only half of the enemy's numbers. To make up for

that deficit, we needed one more big wrinkle to our advantage.

The meeting lasted until two in the morning, and we threw around many

ideas, but none of them were practical or realistic, and it became overnight

homework. On the other hand, the previous bit of homework about replacing

the name Kirito Town turned up a rather clever suggestion from Leafa.

Her choice was Ruis na Ríg. It was the name of a king's castle in ancient Celtic

myth that was surrounded by a circular wall, like our forest town. Our town

didn't have a king, but no one opposed the choice. In fact, it was unanimously

accepted on the spot, becoming our official name. Whether Ruis na Ríg became

a true town or turned into a ruin after just three days would depend on the

battle tomorrow night.

Argo kept shooting me glances during the meeting, which I took as insistence

that I tell everyone that I had suffered Mutasina's magic, too, but I was unable

to bring it up in the end. If I did, everyone would have worried about me, gotten

angry, and made undoing the spell our top priority. But I harbored a nasty

certainty that the only way to cure it was to kill Mutasina and break her staff in

two. Our time was precious, and I didn't want to waste anyone else's. We

needed to focus on raising everyone's levels and skill proficiencies for the sake

of defending our town.

Argo approached me after the meeting and whispered, "You stubborn goat."

But she did respect my decision, adding only, "I'll do everything I can," before

returning to the group.

She was right about my stubbornness, but it wasn't like I'd decided the curse

was impossible to dispel without any evidence. After I explained the Noose in

detail at the meeting, Yui found the information troubling. She said that the

scale was too vast and the effect too strong.

Assuming Mutasina had inherited the dark magic skill from ALO, her

proficiency should have dipped to 100 after the grace period wore off. At that

point, whatever magic she could use would be equivalent to my three-part

Sharp Nail for the One-Handed Sword skill. But Noose of the Accursed was a

tremendous work of magic greater than even the ultimate sword skill, the tenpart Nova Ascension—or perhaps the ultimate attack of the Dual Blades skill,

which didn't exist in ALO, the twenty-seven-part Eclipse…

No one could say a word after Yui's proclamation, but it was undeniable that

Mutasina had used magic with a proficiency of 1,000. So undoing that curse

would require magic of the same level or an item that was suitably powerful. It

just wasn't worth focusing on dispelling the curse until we understood how

Mutasina had used that magic.

I was nodding off with these thoughts coursing through my mind when the

express slid into Hana-Koganei Station. At the next station, Tanishi, I would

need to get off and take the local-service train instead. I didn't get a power nap

in, but I'd at least have twenty minutes or so to sleep once I got to school.

I adjusted the paper bag resting atop my schoolbag in my lap and mentally

prepared myself to get up from the comfort of my seat. The train completed a

gentle curve, bringing the morning sun's prickle to the back of my neck through

the window. The clouds that brought rain through the night had fled to the

east. The weather looked like it would be clear today.

Somehow, I made it through my morning classes without nodding off. Like

yesterday, I hurried off to the outside secret garden bordering the library. In

one hand was the bag of snacks I'd bought from the cafeteria, and in the other

was the bag with the department store logo on it.

After I passed through the narrow space hidden by the planters, the fresh

scent of plants tickled my nose. The grass was pretty much dry, but the leaves

on the trees were bright green, and I could practically hear the water flowing

through their veins, having been greedily sucked up by the roots.

I paused just one step into the green space, staring at the sight of the girl

standing beneath the white siris and sandalwood trees in the center of the little

hill, her back toward me.

In the pale-green light dappling through the branches, her long hair shone

brilliantly. Despite wearing our familiar school uniform, she felt like a creature

of the fey, as ethereal as if she might vanish if I came any closer.

Just then, sensing my still presence, the girl spun around.

She grinned briefly upon seeing me, then pouted. I rushed up to her, but she

turned her head away in a huff.

"Why do you always watch me from behind like that, Kirito?"

"Oh, come on, I don't always do that…"

"You've been like that since the beginning."

"B-beginning…?"

"In the first labyrinth tower of Aincrad, you were secretly watching me fight

those kobolds, weren't you?"

Stunned at the mention of something that'd happened nearly four years in

the past, I could only grimace and argue, "W-well, I couldn't interrupt your

fight…and I talked to you as soon as you were done."

"Yes, and what you said was, 'That was overkill.' In all honesty, my very first

impression was that you were somewhere between a weirdo and a crazy

person."

"Hey, that's messed up…I was honestly concerned for your well-being, and

that was your reaction…?"

She suddenly cracked a smile and chuckled, and I laughed, too. But the truth

was that the reason I didn't say anything to her until that fight was over was

because I'd been lost in the sight. I'd been captive to the beauty of Asuna's

sword technique, piercing the darkness like a shooting star.

After laughing, Asuna threw her arms wide and wrapped me in a big hug.

"The truth is, I was kinda happy you said something. At least that way, I knew

there were still players in that world who might actually care about someone

else."

"..."

I didn't know how to respond to that. The only thing I could think to do was

hug her back, but I couldn't do that, either, because my hands were full.

Instead, I pressed my head against hers, hoping to relate my feelings directly. I

didn't know if I succeeded, but after a few seconds, she lightly pulled back with

her usual gentle smile.

"Well, let's eat lunch. Sorry to make you run the errand."

"Of course. I mean, today is your…"

She placed a finger over my mouth to stop me.

"I'd like to hear that one after we eat."

"…Got it."

I moved the bags to one hand, allowing me to pull the polyethylene sheet out

of my pocket and place it on the grass. The long, thin store bag went on the

corner out of the way, so we could focus on the baguette sandwiches and

vegetable juice from the cafeteria. We'd had baguettes for lunch yesterday,

too, but they changed the menu around each day, so I never got bored of it.

"Here's your niçoise, Asuna."

"Thanks. What did you get, Kirito?"

"Gorgonzola and sun-dried tomato."

"Oooh, that sounds good. Shall we share half-and-half?"

"Okay, if you want…"

On the other hand, I couldn't cleanly tear the firmly toasted baguette

sandwich in two with my hands, and I didn't feel right about giving her a piece

that was already bitten. Thankfully, Asuna pulled something silver out of her

skirt pocket. It was a key chain with two keys on it—no, a tiny multi-tool. She

extended a knife about two inches long, then presented it to me handle-first.

"Here. Good luck!"

"...…Th-thanks…"

I took it and gave her a funny look.

"…Do you always carry this around?"

"Yes, I do."

"Why would you…? You're going to have some tricky questions to answer if a

police officer ever has to question you."

"Teenage girls don't get questioned by the police."

I wasn't so sure about that, but Asuna made a more serious face and

declared, "I've made up my mind. Next time, I'm going to keep you out of

harm's way."

"Huh...?"

After a brief bit of confusion, I understood what she meant. Roughly three

months ago, I fell into cardiac arrest after being injected with a muscle relaxer

by Atsushi Kanamoto, aka Johnny Black from the PK guild Laughing Coffin, right

before Asuna's eyes. All I needed to do to feel the fear and concern that

experience put her through was to imagine the reverse position. I would swear

to myself that I'd do anything in my power to prevent it from happening again.

But…

"…It's all right. Xaxa and Johnny Black were arrested. There's no one left to

come after me," I said, trying to explain that I didn't want her carrying a knife

around, even if it was for my sake. But Asuna's expression did not change.

"That might be true, but I refuse to feel that kind of regret again," she stated,

brooking no argument. I had to accept it.

"...All right."

After a long look at the knife, I used the folded-up wrapper as a cutting board

and pressed the blade to the middle of the sandwich. It might have looked like a

two-inch toy knife, but it cut alarmingly well, and with enough pressure, it easily

split the hard French bread. I cut the first sandwich in two without much

trouble and started on the second.

"…All done."

I rewrapped the halves of niçoise and sun-dried tomato sandwiches and

offered them to Asuna, who thanked me. A tissue came in handy to wipe the

knife blade clean before I folded it back in and returned it.

Both the baguette sandwiches were delicious, and I was glad we shared them,

but there was still a note of unease in my chest, like a pebble that refused to be

dislodged. If there were some unknown members of Laughing Coffin still lurking

out there, and they attacked and got Asuna to fight back with her knife, she

might be arrested for excessive self-defense. Of course, I didn't want either of

us to get hurt. But surely the optimal solution was not to have Asuna carrying

around a weapon all the time.

Perhaps I should be the one to carry the knife with me. But no…there had to

be a better way.

I was chewing in silence, pondering this depressing topic, when Asuna

murmured, "I'm sorry to worry you like this."

"Er…no, I'm the one causing the worry here. I nearly died right before your

eyes…I should have been taking better care of myself."

"No, it's true. I know I've been overthinking things, too. I feel like I'm going

crazy, carrying this around with me. But…you've always had this thing about

dragging people closer to you, ever since SAO. Good people…and not-so-good

people…"

I wanted to deny that, but I knew I couldn't. The people in Laughing Coffin

had first tried killing me at the very, very start of Aincrad, on just the third floor.

Thinking back on it, even after the conversion to Unital Ring, three times

people had said my name as they attacked: Mocri on the first night, Schulz on

the second, and Mutasina last night. In middle school, I was the guy even my

own classmates forgot about. What combination of buttons on my shirt had I

put on wrong to cause this intense of a difference?

On the other hand, I couldn't go around renaming myself at this point. And if

Asuna was worried, it was my job to help put her mind at ease.

"…I'll be a little more careful about my safety. Maybe I can ask Kikuoka if

there's a way to ensure better personal security."

Asuna lifted an eyebrow, still holding the last piece of sandwich. "Just so you

know, I place him directly in the middle between good people and not-sogood."

"Ahhh. Well…you might be right," I said, grimacing. Asuna giggled.

We finished our sandwiches together, then drank the vegetable juice. After

tidying up our trash, we sat together side by side on the sheet, looking at the

sky.

There was still a feeling of summer in the blue expanse, but something about

this little green space had a way of keeping the heat at bay. Despite being

surrounded by buildings on all sides, a pleasant breeze ruffled Asuna's hair. For

at least the tenth time, I wondered who was tending to this space; there were

no other students or faculty around, as always.

Overhead, the leaves of the sandalwood and white siris rustled softly. The

sandalwood tree was slightly larger, but according to Asuna, it was a halfparasitic species, and it was absorbing some of the water and nutrients from

the roots of the white siris next to it. That had to be a royal pain for the siris,

but trees couldn't talk. They could only rustle their leaves in the wind.

I'd received so much from Asuna. Was I giving something back to her? Setting

the thought aside for the moment, I turned and stared right into her eyes.

"…Happy birthday, Asuna."

I put as much feeling into it as I could. Asuna looked back at me, seemingly

savoring the feeling. After a while, she said softly, "Thank you, Kirito."

Both of us leaned in close and shared a brief kiss. We were still at school, but

surely it could be allowed in the secret garden.

"…The truth is," she whispered, resting her head on my shoulder, "I didn't like

this moment last year. I didn't want to be two years apart from you for this one

week."

"Uh…you thought about that?"

"It's a big deal! But…in the Underworld, you passed me in terms of mental

age, didn't you?"

She was right, now that I thought about it. I'd spent two years in the timeaccelerated Underworld, but it was less than a week in the real world. Mentally,

I was almost twenty, which would make me older than Asuna, although I didn't

feel that way in the slightest.

"Oh…then I guess today you've caught up to me by a year, instead."

"Let's just call it that. Still, I'll be wishing you a happy eighteenth birthday next

week, Kirito."

"Please do."

We laughed.

That was the moment. I reached back for the store bag I'd kept behind me

and lifted it over to her, holding it up from the bottom with both hands.

"Um…here's your present."

I had to hold back my urge to make minimizing comments like It's nothing

fancy or I didn't know what else to get you. Asuna favored me with a radiant

smile as she accepted the bag.

"Thank you, Kirito. May I open it?"

"Y-yes. Go ahead."

She carefully peeled off the sticker keeping the gift bag shut and looked

inside. Her head inclined with curiosity, and she set down the bag so she could

reach inside.

She pulled out a long package tied with a red ribbon. After removing the tape

holding the top shut, the nonwoven fabric opened like flower petals, revealing

the contents inside. It was a plant about eight inches tall, contained in a white

pot. From the bottom of the narrow stem, a number of distinctive jagged-edged

leaves were sprouting.

Asuna brushed one of the leaves gently and looked up. "This is a sugar maple

seedling!"

"Y-yes. You could tell just by looking at it…?"

"Of course I could. This tree's had so many memories for us…I love it. Thank

you, Kirito," she whispered, hugging me tight. I wrapped my arms around her

slender back and felt distant memories return in vivid detail.

The tree Asuna was talking about from our memories was not a whole one

but a tree in lumbered form. Back in our original forest cabin on the twentysecond floor of Aincrad, there had been a rocking chair carved out of maple on

our wooden deck.

That rocking chair was made for us by a woodworker named Mahocle, and it

served as a kind of symbol for our brief two weeks of marriage. Asuna always

had me sit in it first, then would hop onto my lap like a cat. A virtual piece of

furniture for a virtual marriage—but the time and emotions we had shared

were all too real.

When Argo told me yesterday that there was no point to separating virtual

Asuna and real Asuna in my mind, I came up with the idea of giving her a

present that symbolized our past and our future in one.

"I thought we'd raise this seedling together and make it a great big tree one

day…although it'll be in your care for a while still," I said.

Her face was buried in my shirt, but I could hear the tears in her voice. "Yes…

yes. It'll be a big beautiful tree…When I get home, I'll transfer it to a larger pot,

and..."

She came to an unnatural stop. I gave her a curious look, and Asuna suddenly

looked up at me, the corners of her eyes gleaming, then swiveled around.

"Wh-what's the matter?"

"...I was just thinking…Do you think we could plant this here? That way, we

could both take care of it."

"Ah…"

Now I understood. I figured that Asuna would take care of it with the plants at

home for a while, but the seedling itself would surely appreciate proper ground

more, with all the room for roots and branches. We'd need to look into whether

we could move it again in the future, but for now, planting it in the secret

garden felt like the best option of all.

"Good idea…but we don't even know who takes care of this space…," I

murmured.

"I wanted to find out for myself," she admitted, "but I also didn't want to tell

anyone and ruin our little secret…"

"That's the problem. For now, the only people who know about it are us, Liz,

Silica, and now Argo, after yesterday…Oh!" An idea popped into my mind. "In

that case, let's have Argo find out. I bet she'd be able to figure it out real easy,

don't you think?"

"What?" Asuna's eyes opened wide. A faint hint of a worried smile teased her

lips. "Yes, I'm sure Argo could find the answer…but if she demands payment,

that's all on you."

"Hmph…W-well, caretaker aside, what do we do with the plant? Should I take

it home with me?"

"No way. I'll take it," Asuna said at once. She felt the dirt in the planter to

confirm it was moist, then rewrapped it and placed it back in the paper bag. It

was six inches wide and a foot and a half tall that way, but it was less than four

pounds all told, so it wasn't an outrageous burden for a girl to carry around all

day.

"But…you know what today is…"

Asuna's expression turned to one of surprise. The two of us were supposed to

be absent from our afternoon classes. Not to ditch class, of course, but because,

like yesterday, we had applied for a workplace visit. Yesterday's was a fake, but

today's destination was the company that I actually wanted to work for. An

independent administrative agency that called itself a "marine resource search

and study organization"…in other words, Rath.

"Hmm…" Asuna gave it a few seconds of thought, then agreed. "Well, Rath's

air-conditioning is good, and I'm sure it'll be fine if left alone for several hours.

This maple seedling is really lively."

"You can tell that sort of thing?"

"By looking at the color and shine of the leaves. It's a good plant that's been

well cared for."

"Huh…"

After I parted ways with Argo in Ginza yesterday, I'd searched for places in the

city that sold sugar maple seedlings. There was a hit at a gardening shop in a

department store in Ikebukuro, and I stopped by to find it a very respectable

business. I'd have to take Asuna there someday.

"In that case, I'll at least negotiate a taxi ride back. In fact, we ought to get

going. One fifteen at the front entrance, let's say?"

"Got it," she said. "In fact, I've already got my stuff with me."

"Huh? Really?"

I looked around and saw a familiar schoolbag on the bench in the corner of

the garden. Unfortunately, I hadn't thought that far ahead; my stuff was still in

the classroom.

"…Well, see you at the gate."

"Okay. Thank you for the present, Kirito."

She beamed, clutching the store bag with both hands. I gave her a quick wave

and hustled out of the garden.