Interlude IV: July 6th, 2026

The floating science facility Ocean Turtle, a mammoth structure

nearly a quarter mile long and over an eighth of a mile wide, consisted of twelve decks, also known as levels.

By comparison, the world's largest cruise ship, Oasis of the

Seas, was smaller and had eighteen decks—so there was an air of

even greater luxury on the Ocean Turtle. However, given that its

purpose was not leisure but oceanic scientific research, it made

sense that the various observational and analytical devices would

need extra room. Asuna certainly wasn't going to complain about

having more space overhead.

The first deck under the waterline was the float deck; the second, just above it, was the mechanical deck; and decks three

through eight were dedicated to various types of research: marine

biology, deep-sea resources, plate structure, and so on. The ninth

and tenth decks were for cabins; the eleventh was for recreation:

sporting lounges, gyms, and a pool; and the twelfth and top deck

contained radars, antennas, and observation points.

Officially, the Ocean Turtlebelonged to JAMSTEC, the Japan

Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, but that was

only half the truth. As the craft was propelled by a domestically

produced nuclear power reactor, it had to be constructed with the

help of the Self-Defense Force, and it continued to be manned by

SDF soldiers at all times for security now that it was operational.

Beyond that, the composite titanium-alloy pillar that ran

through the center of the ship—the Main Shaft—was completely

under SDF jurisdiction, where they conducted top-secret research

that had nothing to do with marine science. They were replicating

newborn souls and growing them within a virtual environment in

an attempt to build the world's first true bottom-up artificial intelligence: Project Alicization.

7:45 AM, Monday, July 6th, 2026.

After paying a visit to Kazuto Kirigaya (Kirito) in the medical

area of the Upper Shaft, where he was still recuperating, Asuna

Yuuki took breakfast in the eleventh-deck lounge with Dr. Rinko

Koujiro, an expert researcher on full-dive technology.

It wasn't a luxury cruise liner, but the buffet-style food was actually pretty good—not that Asuna was going to complain about

that or her cabin, given that Lieutenant Colonel Seijirou Kikuoka

could snap his fingers and have her sent to the brig, if the facility

indeed had such a thing.

Across from her, Rinko stuck her knife through a white fish

fritter and held it up to examine the meat. "Do you suppose they

caught this fish here?"

"I…I don't know…," Asuna said, looking at the same thing on

her plate. She brought a piece up to her mouth. The pale fish was

soft and crumbly, yet had a juicy texture. It was obviously very

fresh, but she didn't know whether you could simply toss a reel

out in the open ocean like this and catch something.

Asuna put down her knife and picked up her glass of iced tea

as she turned her gaze to the window on her left. The calm ocean

surface was dark and flat, revealing no fishing craft, much less

any actual fish.

Thinking about it, all she knew was that the Ocean Turtlewas

located somewhere in the Izu Islands, which were widely spaced

across a large expanse of ocean, north to south. Hachijojima was

in the center of the archipelago, and that island itself was nearly

two hundred miles from Tokyo.

If she could freely use her phone, she could have just pulled up

a map program to pinpoint their location, but for various security

reasons, she wasn't allowed to connect to the megafloat's Wi-Fi.

She could still listen to her saved music files, which was better

than having the phone confiscated entirely, but there was definitely something frustrating about having a smartphone and

being unable to use it to instantly look up information. She hadn't

even been this frustrated during SAO, when she had neither Internet-searching capabilities nor any news from the real world

whatsoever.

Asuna swallowed the lump of annoyance along with her iced

tea and tried to change her mood. Being this angry about lacking

Internet access was simply a reflection of her overall deficit of

necessary information.

Was what Seijirou Kikuoka and Takeru Higa told her about

their project yesterday the whole truth? Were there more secrets

about their test universe, the Underworld, that they hadn't explained yet? And was Nurse Natsuki Aki being honest when she

claimed that Kazuto would wake up from Soul Translator Unit

Four tomorrow…?

The first two were one thing, but she had to cast aside her

doubts about the third. Now was the time for her to have faith.

On July 7th, Kazuto's damaged neural network would finish its

repair, and he would awaken. Asuna had to leave on a helicopter

for Tokyo that evening, but she would at least have time to speak

with him. She'd have time to hold the body that had sacrificed itself to protect her.

The thought of this moment brought some strength to her

mind. She resumed eating and asked Rinko, "Do you know where

exactly this ship is located? All I heard was that it's in the Izu Is-

lands."

"…You know, that might be the extent of my knowledge, too…"

Rinko had already finished her fish. She put her hand into her

coat pocket to take out her phone, then remembered she wouldn't

be able to connect to the Internet anyway and scowled.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that Higa said we were a hundred miles

or so west of Mikurajima…or was it Miyakejima?" she wondered,

then turned her eyes to the window, which was large for a ship.

Asuna followed her lead and looked out at the blue-black surface

of the water again.

The morning sun was coming up through the windows behind

them, meaning that they were looking to the west now. If it was

true that the Ocean Turtlewas on the western side of the Izu Islands, they wouldn't see eitherMikurajima or Miyakejima, and

certainly not the Japanese mainland of Honshu…

As her gaze swept from right to left, Asuna couldn't help but

gasp. There was something out there she hadn't seen the last

time, shining in the morning sun. Something artificial and narrow in the distant sea—a ship. It was hard to grasp its scale without knowing how close it was, but it seemed very large.

"Rinko, look there," she said, putting down the knife and

pointing.

The other woman squinted and muttered, "That's a ship. It's…

probably not the fishing boat that caught our breakfast…"

"It's not? How can you tell?"

"It's too big for that and too plainly colored. Plus…it's got a

whole load of antennas on it."

Rinko got up and walked over to the window, so Asuna joined

her. Asuna's eyesight was perfectly fine, but the water vapor coming off the surface made the distant ship vague and wavering.

And she was right that the mast in the center of the boat seemed

to be sporting a number of round satellite dishes. It resembled

the massive antenna mast that rose from the top deck not far

above this lounge. The design of the ship seemed pointed, angular. Not like a fishing boat but like a transport ship or…

"A warship…?" Asuna murmured.

Behind her, an officious voice stated, "That is a Japanese ship.

The country does not possess any battleships."

The two women turned around and saw a man in a pure-white

short-sleeved uniform, carrying his breakfast tray—Lieutenant

Nakanishi.

"Good morning, Mr. Nakanishi."

"Good morning."

The tall man set down his tray on a nearby table and crisply

gave them a bowed salute. "Good morning, Dr. Koujiro, Miss

Yuuki."

"Would you like to sit with us?" Rinko offered. He appeared to

think it over, then accepted. Asuna and Rinko waited for him to

bring his tray over before they sat down again. The officer's

breakfast was a hearty military one, the plate piled high with

eggs, bacon, and salad.

"How does it compare to the breakfast in the SDF?" Rinko

asked, a rather sensitive question.

Nakanishi grimaced and lifted his fork. "To be honest, it's

slightly better here. The tomatoes and cucumbers are grown on

the ship, for example."

"Whoa, there's a garden here?" Asuna exclaimed.

The officer beamed with pride. "That's right, on the rear eighth

deck. It's an experiment in large-scale marine farming."

"So that's why the tomatoes tasted a bit salty," Rinko joked.

"Really?" he said, popping the slice into his mouth. Asuna

couldn't help but giggle. She picked up her fork and knife to continue eating, then recalled the first thing Nakanishi had mentioned.

He had said that Japan had no battleships, but that couldn't be

true. He was an SDF naval officer, so he worked on a battleship…

right? Or was the logic that the SDF wasn't a proper military,

which meant that their ships weren't "battle" ships? So the ship

out there must have been…

Asuna looked out the window again, staring at the large, angled silhouette. "Then if it's not a warship, it's…a self-defense

ship?"

"Close. SDF naval vessels are called escort ships," Nakanishi

replied with a grin. He turned his head to look at it, too. "That

ship is our latest general-purpose craft, the DD-127 Nagato. Unfortunately, I can't reveal the reason why it's traveling this stretch

of…hmm?"

His concise explanation trailed off, drawing her interest back

to the ship. The gray battle—er, escort—ship was beginning to

change direction. In less than ten seconds, it turned so its stern

was facing the Ocean Turtle, and it began to chug away.

Nakanishi abruptly stood up and turned away from the

women so he could remove a thin device from his pocket. He

pressed a few buttons and brought it to his ear to murmur, "This

is Nakanishi. I'm sorry to bother you on your break, Lieutenant

Colonel Kikuoka. I believe the Nagatowas scheduled to accompany us until twelve hundred hours two days hence, but it just

turned to move westward…Yes, sir, I'll be right there."

He turned back to them, phone still in his hand. His face was

suddenly stern and pensive. "Doctor, Miss Yuuki, I'm afraid I

have to leave you now."

"That's all right. We'll clean up the meal for you."

"I appreciate that. Good-bye," he said with a nod, then practically sped out of the lounge.

"…I wonder what that was about."

"No idea…," Asuna said, turning to the window again.

Something about the sight of the escort ship gradually fading

through the morning mist made her uneasy. Quietly, Asuna

clenched her left hand