Intermission

"Onii-chan~!"

It was a bright and clear Sunday. I was sitting at the dining table

eating my lunch, and I suddenly had an «ominous feeling» rush up

between my eyebrows after seeing my beloved imouto giving me her

brightest smile. This proves how I, Kirigaya Kazuto, was not a good

person.

However, I still stopped myself from putting the cherry tomato

into my mouth and said,

"Wha…what's wrong, Sugu?"

Once I finished asking, I saw my imouto—or rather, my cousin,

Kirigaya Suguha sitting across me. She picked up something that she

had put down on the chair beside her, and at this moment, I

immediately knew that my premonition was spot on.

"Erm…did you see this news on the net this morning?"

As she said that, a large A4-sized printing paper was pushed to

me. It seemed that she printed the news bulletin of the largest VRMMO

gaming info website «MMO Tomorrow», or 'M Tomo' for short.

The headlines had the words 'The list of 30 players taking part in

the 3rd «Bullet of Bullets» Royal Rumble for the title of the strongest in

'Gun Gale Online' has been revealed' written in thick font.

Below it, there's also a brief report of the namelist of all the

participants.

The finger of Suguha, who cut her fingernails neatly, pointed to a

line 'Ranked 1st in Group F: Kirito 'First' ' I glanced at those words and

weakly tried to cover things up.

"Heh, heh— so there's someone with a name similar to mine—"

"What do you mean similar? It's completely the same."

Under the bangs, Suguha showed a smile on the clean face

befitting that of a sports-girl.

In this world of reality, she could take part in the national High

School kendo tournament and the Gyokuryuuki group kendo

tournament. Someone weak like me who could only hide at home can't

match her physically. Also, Suguha's controlling the fairy swordsman

«Lyfa» in this completely technical VRMMO «ALfheim Online». Those

proper and sturdy sword techniques far surpass my sword skills

where I merely swung my sword wildly.

No matter whether it's the real world or virtual world, I could

only apologize immediately once I get into an argument with Suguha,

but normally, I wouldn't need to worry about that. That's because

during the past year ever since I returned back to the real world, we

cleared all the alienating feeling we had when we were young, and

even had quite a good relationship. Even dad would feel jealous after

coming back from America during summer vacation.

Today—Sunday, year 2025, December 14. As mom was at the

editorial department like usual, Suguha and I had to buy our own

ingredients for lunch. We had Caesar salad with boiled eggs and

seafood paella, and so we faced each other at the table and started to

tuck in happily…until Suguha took out that piece of paper.

"…Ye-Yeah, it's the same, hm."

I barely looked away from the paper that had the name Kirito on

it and put the cherry tomato into my mouth. I chewed on it and said

with a vague voice,

"Bu-But, that's a pretty common name, right? I just cut my name

short. This Kirito in GGO may be called, Kiri… Kirigamine Tougorou.

That could be his real name, yup."

The reason why I would feel such a sharp pain after saying such a

blatant lie must be because I said a huge lie to my beloved imouto. Yes,

the Kirito that Suguha was talking about was my character in the game.

As for why I had to hide this fact, it was because I had to

«convert» my avatar Kirito from ALO to the shooter MMO «Gun Gale

Online», a game with lots of problems, so that I could take part in the

«Bullet of Bullets» tournament.

This so-called «convert» is to make use of the shared VRMMO

functions that «The Seed» platform used. It could convert a character

from a certain game into another one while «keeping the same

strength». This was a system that was completely unimaginable a few

years ago.

Of course, there were some limitations to this system, and the

biggest of them was that I could only move a character, and can't move

the money and equipment into a new game. Thus, the transfer

wouldn't be just a temporary one, but a permanent one.

If I said that I want to transfer from ALO to another game, Suguha,

who liked that fairy kingdom, would be really badly affected. On the

other hand, I am hesitating over whether I should explain to Suguha

why I transferred «Kirito» over to GGO. That's because this has

something to do with the darkest secrets of VRMMO.

The man who requested me to investigate the world of GGO was

called Kikuoka Seijirou. He was once a member of the government's

«SAO incident task force», and now, he's a member of the Ministry of

Internal Affairs and VR world Division, a government official of what's

called the «Virtual Divison».

On Sunday a week ago, Kikuoka called me out and told me of

something strange.

He noted that amongst the streets of the world of GGO, an avatar

would say to other avatars «judgement» and shoot bullets at them.

That alone would be merely a prank or a disturbance. However, in the

real world, there were two players who died immediately the moment

they were shot—that's basically about it.

I do feel that there's a 90% chance that it was all a coincidence.

However, I really couldn't give up on that remaining 10%

possibility of a «certain type»…so I accepted Kikuoka's dangerous

request and entered the world of GGO, hoping to interact with that

shooter who created this commotion.

As there was no time to train my character, I could only convert

my Kirito from ALO over and took part in the BoB preliminaries on

Saturday yesterday to catch his attention. The initial gunfight caused

me quite a headache, but luckily, the first player I met and befriended

explained the content of the game to me, allowing me to pass through

the preliminaries and a first interaction with the guy who could be the

shooter.

Up till now, I still don't know whether that guy who called himself

«Death Gun» really had the ability to kill gamers in the real world

through the game itself.

However, that made me find out something.

The «Death Gun» and I had an unexpected relationship.

Like me, the «Death Gun» was a «survivor» of that death game—

Sword Art Online. Also, I may have fought against him before and even

intended to end his life—…

"Onii-chan, you're making that terrifying face again."

On hearing that, my body suddenly jerked. The eyes that were

looking up at the sky blankly immediately saw Suguha frowning as she

gave me a worried look.

She put down the printed piece of paper she pushed to me onto

the table, hold her hands together lightly and looked straight at me.

"…Well, erm, actually, I knew that onii-chan… «Kirito-kun»

converted over from ALO to GGO."

These sudden words caused me to nearly pop my eyes out. On

seeing that, this imouto of mine who's a year younger than me gave me

a mature smile that showed that she saw through everything.

"How could I not notice that Kirito-kun already disappeared from

my friends list?"

"…No, however, I intend to move back after this weekend…and

you don't have to check your friends list all the time…"

"I could feel it without looking."

Suguha said firmly. Those wide eyes were shining with the aura of

mystery, and at this moment, I actually had a thought that this person

is a girl. This idea was really awkward of me, and besides, the guilt of

converting over without telling my imouto caused me to look away.

However, Suguha said firmly to me.

"…The moment I noticed that Kirito-kun disappeared yesterday, I

immediately disconnected and got ready to rush into onii-chan's room.

However, onii-chan definitely wouldn't have any reason to hide from

me and leave ALO. I thought that something was amiss, so I contacted

Asuna-san."

"I see…e"

My neck shrank after I answered briefly.

I only told Asuna—Yuuki Asuna and our «daughter», the AI Yui,

that I converted from ALO to GGO. Even if I disappear only for two

seconds, let alone days, Yui, who had partial system login authority

would find out immediately.

And Yui doesn't like me hiding things from Asuna. Of course, she

would definitely understand if I told her that I had some troubles, but I

couldn't do that after remembering that my instruction will cause a

huge strain on Yui's main program.

Thus, I could only tell Asuna and Yui that 'I have to head to GGO

because Kikuoka Seijirou requested me to', and even explained that the

aim was to 'investigate the links in The Seed'. However, I couldn't

explain the main reason to them. Actually, it was about «Death Gun»'s

shooting in the game and the 2 deaths in the real world—

This sounds really ridiculous, but as it was too unique, I felt that it

just wasn't right. Also, this was also the biggest reason why I couldn't

tell Suguha or my other friends that I converted my data.

I looked down and murmured, and then, I heard something move.

Then, it was the soft footsteps and the feeling of my shoulders

being touched.

"…Onii-chan."

Suguha leaned her body on my back and whispered to my ears.

"Asuna-san said that 'he will be back like usual after creating

chaos in GGO', but I guess that she should be rather anxious. I'm like

her too, because…because, onii-chan, you came back so late last night,

and your face was really scary."

"Is…that so."

I could only answer that. Suguha's short hair stroked my neck,

and a voice with a tinge of breath was close to my left ear, and ringed,

"It…shouldn't be dangerous, right…? I don't really want you to go

somewhere far away…"

"…I won't leave."

This time, I said it clearly to her, and then placed my right hand

on the small hand that's on my left shoulders.

"I promise. Tonight, after the GGO event's over, I'll come back to

ALO…and this house."

"…Okay."

Suguha seemed to nod her head, and then leaned her upper body

over to me as she just remained there.

My imouto was already distraught during the 2 years I was

trapped inside SAO, and I really shouldn't have made her so anxious.

Actually, I could send a message to Kikuoka Seijirou that 'I don't

want to do it', and just forget about everything— But after what

happened in the preliminaries yesterday, there were two reasons that

made it tough for me to do it.

One of the reason was that I agreed to fight against the girl

«Sinon», who wielded some terrifyingly huge sniper rifle, mistook me

for some female gamer, and earnestly taught me all sorts of tricks.

And the other reason was my grudge with «Death Gun».

I have to face that man in the grey coat again, confirm his «past

name»—and the two friends of his that I killed with my sword. This

was supposed to be a responsibility I should have done when I

returned back to the real world…

I tapped on the hand Suguha placed on my shoulder, and again

said,

"Don't worry, I'll definitely come back. Let's hurry up and eat. The

food's about to turn cold."

"…Okay."

Suguha's voice sounded more powerful now as she nodded her

head, hugged me on the shoulders and let go after a while.

After she ran back to her seat in small steps, my imouto had a

bright smile on her face. She took a large scoop of paella, stuffed it into

her mouth, and then twirled her spoon lightly.

"Speaking of which, onii-chan."

"…hm?"

"I heard from Asuna-san that you can earn lots of money in this

«job», right?"

"Ugh!"

My mind started to remember the 300,000 yen reward I agreed

with Kikuoka and the PC parts catalogue that I was prepared to use

this money for…I guessed that I have to remove the storage capacity

and slapped my chest confidently.

"O, oh, I'll buy anything for you, so just wait for me to come back."

"That's great! I always wanted to buy a nanocarbon shinai!"

…Looks like I have to correct the main memory capacity as well.

I went out earlier than 3pm to avoid the traffic crowd, and

hopped onto the old bike before leaving the house.

The vehicle moved through Kawagoe Street as it continued to

head east, went past Ikebukuro, and moved through Kasuga Street.

After that, I turned south at Hongo, went through Bunkyou City before

arriving at the general hospital, which was my current destination.

I came here yesterday, but my memory seemed to be far away.

Actually, the reason was simple. I couldn't sleep no matter how

long I laid on my bed, and could only keep my eyes opened in the

darkness as I tried to remember the long-forgotten past that's deep

inside me, the entire process of the destruction of the killer guild

«Laughing Coffin» during the SAO era.

In the end, I finally gave up trying to sleep on my own and at 4am

in the morning, wore the AmuSphere, entered the VR space, used the

local area network to call out my «daughter» Yui from the PC in my

house and made her continue to talk to me until «sleep mode» was

activated. However, I couldn't get a nice long dream because I couldn't

sleep soundly.

Luckily, I don't really remember much of the contents, but a voice

continued to ring in my ears ever since I woke up.

—Are you Kirito?

That was probably the mutter the gamer called «Death Gun» said

to me in the preliminaries yesterday.

And this was also a question to me, the person who used his

words to slay two—no three «Laughing Coffin» members, included that

bodyguard of Asuna.

Is it you? You're the «Kirito» who killed us?

I just couldn't answer 'that's right' straight away when facing this

question, whether it's the BoB preliminaries or the dream.

During the finals at 8pm today, I guess I will face that guy who

looked like an undead. If I am asked that question again, I have to

admit this no matter what.

But I just didn't have confidence that I could do this.

"…I knew it would become like this…"

I should have used an entirely new name to enter GGO instead of

converting the name «Kirito» over from ALO.

Depreciating myself as I laughed about such a shameful thought, I

parked the bike and walked into the ward building.

As I sent a message over before I left, nurse Aki was waiting for

me in that hospital room yesterday. Just like yesterday, she had a

loosely tied braid on her hair, but today, she had a pair of frameless

spectacles on her nose. She was sitting at the chair beside the bed,

crossing her long and slender legs as she raised one of them up, and

reading the paper book that seemed to be a little outdated. However,

she quickly closed the book and smiled once she saw me.

"Ya, you came here rather early, boy."

"Sorry for bothering you again today, Aki-san."

After nodding to her, I looked at the clock and found that it was

not even 4pm yet. There's more than 4 hours before the BoB finals

begin, but I can't possibly learn much if I sweated too much over nearly

missing out on the registration, I guess it's best to appear earlier and

get some shooting practice.

I placed my coat on the hanger and said to Nurse Aki.

"Well, since the tournament's starts at 8, you can take my ECG

then."

Upon doing so, the nurse in the nurse lab coat shrugged her

shoulders lightly.

"It's okay. I just finished night duty. I'm on off duty today, so I can

accompany you for a few hours."

"Eh…erm, isn't that too awkward…"

"Really? I'll borrow your bed if I want to sleep."

She said these words and winked a bit. As a huge VRMMO addict

who has very little experience in BGR, I could only look away vaguely.

Nurse Aki chuckled on seeing me like this. As this person saw me in an

embarrassing position during my rehab, I could not lift my head up to

look at her.

I sat on the bed to hide this awkwardness, and immediately

scanned through the screen equipment beside me and the two

overlapping silver ringed-helmet—«AmuSphere» that were prepared

for me.

Kikuoka specially prepared a brand new machine for me, and

there's not a single stain on both the stainless steel or the man-made

leather. Its trendy design and feel far surpassed the initial Nerve Gear,

and it was more apt to call it a decoration than an electronic device.

This machine shouldn't be able to cause fatal microwaves like

what its ad tagline «definitely safe» indicates. No, it's more like it was

strictly designed to be able to create weak electric signals.

So normally, there was no need to head to a hospital and connect

myself to an ECG and let a nurse stand beside me to guard my safety.

No matter what anyone does, the probability of them being able to hurt

me through this AmuSphere is zero. No chance whatsoever.

...And yet.

The famous gamers in GGO, «Zekushiido» and «Usujio Tarako»,

did die in real life.

And the «Death Gun» avatar who fired virtual bullets at them was

someone who PKed of his own free will in SAO...a red player.

What if there were still some dangerous component still hidden

in the FullDive technology?

For example, maybe players who killed people in the abnormal

world of SAO started to give off a certain type of digital «killing intent»

or «grudge» suited to the VR environment. That gets converted into

data by the AmuSphere, is transmitted over the network, becomes

some kind of signal in the target's nervous system, and flows

inside...actually causing their heart to stop.

If this hypothesis is correct, then maybe it's possible for the

attacks of «Death Gun» inside the game to kill players in the real world.

At the same time, it's even possible that the virtual sword wielded

by «Kirito» could end up really killing «Death Gun» or someone else.

After all, I've also killed players in Aincrad. Probably more than

most of the red players did.

Up till now, I would deliberately forget those who fell at my blade.

However, the seal of those memories was opened yesterday.

No, it's more like I couldn't forget about them at all. During this

past year, I just lived through while trying to pretend that nothing

happened, and continued to escape the price of the sin I committed...

"What's with you, boy? You don't look so good."

The tip of the white slippers suddenly knocked at my knees.

I was so shocked that my shoulders went stiff. Looking up, I found

that Nurse Aki was looking at me through the frameless spectacles.

"...Ah...it's nothing..."

I shook my head slightly, but still bit my lips hard in the end. A

few hours ago, I made Suguha worry for the same reason. It's too

shameful of me to let Nurse Aki worry about me even after accepting

such a request.

However, Nurse Aki gave me the encouraging smile she showed

when I was doing rehab. She stood up from the chair, moved beside me

and said,

"It's a rare chance for a beauty nurse to give counselling. Just say

what's on your mind."

"...I'll likely get divine retribution if I refuse."

Fuu...after exhaling hard, I looked at the floor, hesitated for a

while, and said,

"...Well, Nurse Aki. You were in the surgical department before

coming over to Rehab, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Please forgive this rude and direct question of mine..."

I glanced up left and asked in a more delicate voice,

"...How long can those patients who died remain in your mind...?"

This is a question I would probably get scolded for or even blank

white eyes. If I were a nurse, I'll be wondering what would a brat who

doesn't know anything about the surgical scene ask something like he

knew what's going on.

However, Nurse Aki still gave me a smile and answered,

"Well..."

She looked at the ceiling of the patient's room for a while, and

slowly opened her mouth before saying,

"If I try to recall, I can remember their names and faces. Even if

it's a patient whom I spend only an hour with in the same operation

room...hm, I can still remember. I only saw them sleeping due to the

anaesthetic. That's really unbelievable, isn't it?"

In other words, there were some deaths in the operations Nurse

Aki did before...I knew that this isn't something that I can just touch on

randomly, but I couldn't help but ask,

"Don't you want to forget them?"

Nurse Aki blinked twice, perhaps seeing my expression I don't

know of after I said that. However, the lips that had light lipstick on

them continued to maintain their smile.

"Hmm, well...I don't know if I can answer your question here..."

Nurse Aki said that, and then continued with a very hoarse voice,

"Humans will definitely forget once they feel that there's

something they should forget. They wouldn't even have any thoughts

of wanting to forget. The more you want to forget, the more the

memory's ingrained in you, which will make it clearer, right? In that

case, I guess...deep inside your heart, you subconsciousness, you didn't

really want to forget about that, right?"

This unexpected answer caused me to take a slight gasp.

The more I want to forget, the more I couldn't forget...?

These words went straight into my heart, leaving a strong bitter

taste in my mouth. After I turned it to a self-depreciating smile, I said

these words,

"...Then, I'm really a bad person..."

Evading the 'why' stare Nurse Aki was giving me, I looked

between my feet on the floor, clenched my fists and placed them at my

knees, and used this pressure to release the words from my chest.

"...I killed 3 players...in SAO..."

The dry voice knocked into the white walls of the patient's room

and returned as a wonderful echo. No, I guess my brain was the only

one that was affected.

I came to this hospital during November and December last year

to recuperate, and Nurse Aki was the one in charge of taking care of me.

That's how she knew that I was imprisoned inside the virtual world for

two years. However, I had never told her about what happened in that

world.

Anyone working in the medical care department would definitely

feel unhappy about hearing that I took lives. However, I just couldn't

stop talking. I could only lower my head further and say with the

hoarse voice.

"They were all reds...all «murderers», but I could have chosen not

to kill them and make them unable to fight then. But I still slayed them,

because of my own rage, anger...and lust for revenge. I have even

forgotten about them for this past year. No, I still couldn't remember

their names and faces even if I say this now. In other words...I'm the

kind of guy who would even forget the people I personally killed."

The moment I shut my mouth up, the patient room became

completely silent.

After a while, the sound of clothes rubbing and the shaking of the

bed hit me. I guess Nurse Aki who's sitting on my left is about to leave

the room.

However, I was wrong. A hand went over my back and was placed

on my right shoulder before pulling me over forcefully. At this moment,

the left side of my body was stuck tightly onto the nurse lab coat. The

tense me that heard a soft voice with light breathing at a position very

close to me.

"I'm sorry, Kirigaya-kun. I said confidently that I could ease your

emotional problems, but I still can't remove the burden on you. Of

course, I can't bear it with you."

The hand that was on my right shoulder started stroking my hand.

"I have never played any VR games, let alone «Sword Art

Online»...so I can't feel the weight of the words «kill». However...one

thing I definitely know is that you ended up having to do that because

you wanted to help someone, right?"

"Eh..."

Her words took me by surprise.

To help others. This element did exist, bu-but, I can't just...

"In healthcare, there are also situations where we have to choose

who we want to save, like abandoning an infant to save the mother, to

abandon a vegetable to save someone who's waiting for an organ and

so on. In a large scale scenario or disaster, there are standards to

assess the 'level of injury' and prioritize those who need help. Of

course...it's not that we can kill without a good reason. A lost life can't

be taken back no matter what price is paid. But...someone like you

should also have the right to think that someone was saved because of

you. You have the right to redeem yourself by thinking of those people

you saved."

"Allowing me...to redeem myself..."

After I said that with a hoarse voice, I shook my head while Nurse

Aki's hand was still on me.

"Bu-But...I forgot about those people I killed, threw away those

responsibilities and duties, so I shouldn't even be redeemed..."

"It wouldn't hurt that much if you really had forgotten about it."

After saying that with a firm voice, Nurse Aki placed her left hand

on my hand and turned me to her. The long narrow eyes behind the

frameless spectacles had a tough glow in it. I found that there were

tears rolling out of my eyes the moment she used the thumb with the

shortened fingernail to wipe my eyes.

"You still remembered it clearly. Of course, you will remember

everything when it's time for you to remember. That's why, you have

to remember those you helped and saved at that time too."

After she said that, Nurse Aki placed her forehead near my

forehead.

The icy touch caused the swirling heavy brain of mine to calm

down. My shoulders started to relax too, and I slowly closed my eyes.

A few minutes later, I was naked on top and had electrodes for the ECG

stuck on me as I raised my hands to lift the AmuSphere.

Ever since last night, I've always had an icy and heavy fear and

responsibility troubling me, and now this burden has finally left me.

But once I meet that guy in «Gun Gale Online» again—«Death Gun», the

burden will press down on me again.

The VR screen that was as heavy as cast iron was placed on my

head. I turned the power on, and immediately, there was soon an

electronic chime that indicated the completion of standby. I moved my

vision and said to Nurse Aki who was sitting beside the screen

equipment,

"I'll leave the control to you then. And, also...about just

now...thanks."

"No, it's nothing to be thankful for."

After saying that in a pastor-like tone, the nurse draped a thin

blanket on me. I forcefully closed my eyes amidst the aroma of clean

soap.

"Well, I doubt anything will be happening until 8...I'll probably be

back by 10. I'm going now, then. ——LINK START—!"

After shouting, the colored lights appeared in front of me, and

then swallowed me in.

As my senses were gradually severed, Nurse Aki's voice could be

heard.

"I understand. Be on your way, «Hero Kirito»-kun."

What...?

Before I could even think, my consciousness left reality and

entered that barren wasteland of dust and smoke.