Chapter 1: Prelude Time

June 29th, 2026

Rain. The thirst-quencher, the crop-drowner. The life-giver and the life-taker. Every drop of water that existed today has existed since the beginning, a silent testament to the world's ability to adapt and utilize its own resources sustainably. A monument to science and something indispensable in our society.

And it was going down the back of my neck, gods damn everything. Cold rain sucks when it's raining heavily.

Snarling curses under my breath, I slipped inside and sighed with relief as I was greeted by warmth at last. Shaking my head to get rid of the worst of the water, I managed to get a small yelp from the person sitting at the table to my right. Heh.

"Ack! You jerk!" Shino Asada snarled, glaring at me from where she was sitting. Or, at least, I was assuming she was glaring; without my glasses, which were currently nice and dry in the pocket of my coat, I only saw a dark-haired blob. After retrieving my glasses and putting them back on, I checked again.

Yep. She was glaring.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ice Queen," I grumbled. "Did I get you wet? Are you going to start melting? Where are your ruby slippers?" Shino just made a rude sound and bared her teeth at me.

"You two just keep going at it, don't you?"

I grinned at the smooth baritone coming from behind the bar's counter. "Hey, Agil. And yeah, of course we do. But deep down, she loves me," I said easily, resting my hand on her head and patting her gently.

Shino, of course, glared at me, but didn't deny it. I knew that like the others, she was part of my family. She was my sister, same as the other girls.

I tried not to think of how I learned that, though. I like the ends more than the means this time, thanks.

"Did you walk here?" she asked me as I sat down next to her, hanging my coat off the chair back. "Are you stupid or something?"

"Or something," I shrugged amiably. "I was already out, and I didn't expect it to rain, and I just walked over, so... yeah. Got a little wet. Gotta say, though, Shino, I expected you to be a little gloomier than this. Don't you hate rain?"

Shino sighed. "At least carry an umbrella, Nick, this is the rainy season and you know it. And I hate you, for reference. I merely dislike the rain."

"You like watching the rain, though, I'm guessing?" I laughed, letting the first half of our conversation threads drop. "Sitting in the bar slash coffee shop, watching the rippling puddles and sipping a steaming... milk coffee," I said after peeking at her drink. "Why, if it were anywhere but here I'd say you were looking cozy. As is, you just look like someone that got stood up by her date."

"Ouch," Shino and Agil chorused without offense, both looking pained but for different reasons. I grinned; not often I got to spin a line that nice, so I was going to enjoy it while I could.

"So how's school going?" I asked her, getting comfortable while waving over at Agil when he asked if I wanted the usual. "Keeping your grades up?"

"Yes, big brother, I'm doing well," she sighed with a little half-smile. "And those three bitches have backed off since I showed them up last January, so that's all good too." Holding a grudge? It's rare for me to hear her swear about someone like that.

"Excellent," I sighed. "I'd ask more regularly, but..."

"Yeah, I know, you've been busy with your job," Shino waved it off. "Doesn't matter. The game's more fun when you're not there making everything smell like wet cat anyway."

I raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a Cait Sith, too? Whatever." I glanced out the window at the grey sky. "Is it going to rain again tomorrow?" I asked idly. It was... nice, being in the Dicey Cafe again after so long. The rustic feel from the wooden furniture and smell of something cooking in the kitchen made my job feel so far away. The most high-tech pieces of equipment in the bar were the cameras Din and Yui used for their virtual simulations of the bar. All in all, it let me relax for the first time in a while. I was with my family, not with strangers.

"It's the rainy season, after all," Shino sighed.

"I'm certain this is the Undine mages' fault."

Shino and I exchanged a quick startled glance, then looked at Agil simultaneously as he delivered a glass of water to me. His huge frame and typically-intimidating expression belied the red face and awkward smile he had on right then, and I chuckled under my breath.

"When you tell a joke," Shino sighed after a second, "it loses the effect if you make a face like that, Agil..."

The way she said it, like just seeing the expression would make small children - and Keiko, though that's more a case of subset rather than union - cry, made Agil grunt under his breath and start feeling around to see if he could rearrange his expression; Shino choked on a laugh and quickly gulped down some of her coffee to hide it.

Just as Agil managed to make a relatively imposing face, the doorbell rang again as the door swung open. I looked over my shoulder and grinned as the customer took one step inside and then stopped as he was greeted by Agil's face. "Hey, Agil, if you greet the customers with that face every time, you'll scare away all of them."

"N-no, this was a punchline to a joke..."

"...No, that's not right either," the customer said bluntly.

As he put his umbrella in the whiskey barrel placed near the door for that express purpose, Shino tapped the table to catch my attention. "See? He brought an umbrella with him."

"Let it go," I grumbled. "If it makes you feel better, sis, I'll bring one with me tomorrow if I go out." Shino watched me, then let out a quiet 'hmph' and sat back. I'm pretty sure that the expression on her face might have grown up to be a pleased smile at me calling her 'sis', had she not killed it at birth.

"Hey, Nick, Sinon."

Shino frowned a little as she looked up. "You're late, Kirito," she said disapprovingly. It's amazing, really, the way she can do that. Like just by showing up after her, even though we were all technically early for the meeting, he was late.

Must be a girl thing.

"Sorry," Kazuto said, ducking his head a little as he took a seat opposite Shino. "I haven't taken a train for a while now."

"You didn't come on your bike today?" she asked as he undid the top button of his open-collared shirt. Anyone else, I'd accuse them of flirting, but Kazuto is dense like that.

Kazuto shook his head. "No, I didn't wanna ride it through the rain and risk damaging something. Hey Agil, Caffe Shakerato for me." The fuck is that? Sounds like some strange bastard child of coffee and a milkshake.

"Hey, don't take this the wrong way," Shino said, "but are you eating enough? You look really thin." I glanced over Kazuto's way; he was a bit thin, I guess, but given what he'd been doing all weekend that was to be expected. Still, it was my job for today and tomorrow to make sure he didn't have any poor side-effects, so...

"Even if I did eat more," Kazuto said, "I'd just be getting back to normal. And then it'd drop again next weekend, so it's not really worth it."

I tapped the tabletop and gave him a glare. "You have to eat, Kazuto," I said. "I'm not a licensed medical person, but they said nutrient deficiency is a thing that's happening. Your body cannibalized what it had at hand, since you weren't getting any food or water, and the best thing to do now is eat more than you think you need until you're back to normal." Honestly, he should know this by now. Maybe Asuna is feeding him?

"Huh? No food or water? Were you trying for enlightenment?" Shino asked, giving us a strange look as she tilted her head in confusion. She looked like she was going to ask for clarification, but was distracted by the light clacking of Agil mixing up Kazuto's order. And since I had the attention span of a gnat and all sounds were suspect until I found their source, I glanced his way too. He was good with it, handling the shaker with an almost surprising elegance until I remembered that as much shit as we gave him, he was good at his job. As we watched, Agil poured the contents into a wide-brimmed glass and carried it to our table.

"This is the Caffe... something or other?" Shino asked, staring at it. It was light brown, with a smooth foam a slightly darker shade of brown. "What you just ordered?" Instead of answering, Kazuto slid the glass over towards her. Shino picked it up and took a hesitant sip. After a few seconds, she lowered it. "...It's good," she muttered.

Agil grinned, clearly satisfied with the murmured compliment, and smacked his upper arm. Those things were fucking huge. And it wasn't the 'inflated beach ball' kind of muscle people got by hitting the gym regularly, this was actual useful muscle. "Without these babies, it wouldn't be that smooth."

"Ever since we've come back, you can't stop bragging about your skill level, huh?" Kazuto muttered with a grin. "Other than that, what's cooking?"

"Boston-style baked beans," Agil answered. "These rock-solid biceps -"

"A taste of your wife's hometown?" Kazuto interrupted him, making Agil frown slightly in disappointment. "I'll take some."

"He'll take two somes, actually," I cut in. "He needs to restock on food stores." Agil just shrugged and walked away. As Shino slid the glass back over to Kazuto, I snatched it out from under him. "Yoink!" Studying the glass, I rotated it and lifted it, deliberately putting my lips to the part where Shino's lips had touched. After giving her a quick wink - which was met with a disdainful snort - I tried out Kazuto's fancy coffee for myself. I wasn't a huge fan of foam in the first place, and the drink was a little too sweet for my taste. "I have no idea how you two drink stuff like that," I shuddered melodramatically as I handed the glass back to Kazuto.

"You knew it was coffee," Kazuto said mildly before he took a gulp from the drink. "What made you try some anyway?"

I shrugged. "It was funny?"

Kazuto let out a sound of indifference before exhaling quietly and sitting a little straighter in his chair. "How is he now?" he asked Shino, looking straight ahead.

Shino didn't answer right away, even though all of us knew what the question meant immediately. Instead, she took the glass from Kazuto and took a bigger gulp this time. Payment for information, I'd say, only she wasn't my girlfriend. "He... He's calmed down a lot," she said finally.

'He', in this case, was Kyouji Shinkawa, Shino's only friend before we forced ourselves into her life. The Death Gun incident... I didn't like thinking about it, even now. The only reason that little bastard was in juvie right now instead of the morgue was because he'd failed to kill Kazuto.

I didn't like thinking about what would have happened if Kazuto died. It'd already screwed enough stuff up for just being a possibility.

Either way, the little shit had apparently started talking to the counselor trying to give him a psych exam and had been transferred a few weeks ago. It would have been a surprise - after all, he'd refused to say a word for six months, even after his brother gladly spilled all the beans - but I'd expected something like this, actually. Six months, or to be more accurate, one hundred eighty days, was the length of time an avatar would remain in the systems of Gun Gale Online, the game the fucker had gotten obsessed with. Once Spiegel was deleted, there was nowhere else for the delusional creep to run away to, and he was forced to face reality.

"I planned to visit him once he gets a little bit better," Shino said. "I think this time he'll let me see him."

"I see."

I kept silent on the matter. It wasn't my place to say who Shino could and couldn't meet with, even if I didn't particularly like the person she was meeting.

After several seconds of silence, Shino pouted. "Hey, this is the point where you're supposed to ask if I'm okay, guys. Some friends."

"Um... Uh, what about you? What are you up to?" Kazuto stammered, panicking slightly.

I just raised my glass of water towards her, acknowledging her score. Shino grinned in satisfaction, and said, "I've already watched all the old action movies you lent me, Kazuto. My favorite was probably the guy avoiding handgun bullets by rolling toward cover." Don't knock the action roll! It's a solid technique! "If you ever think about coming back to GGO, I'll show it in our next practice match."

Kazuto laughed uneasily. "I-Is that right? That's great... please be gentle," he trailed off weakly.

That was something else I'd been wondering. Shino had been trying to kick her phobia of guns through GGO at first, but after it turned out that it really wasn't all that effective, she turned to other methods of desensitivization. Was that a word? It was now. Regardless, she seemed a lot more at ease talking about guns, though I could see the way her hands twitched every time she mentioned them. She was still a little nervous, and I'm pretty sure she'd always be, but the panic attacks seemed to be gone. Or… diminished, at the very least. Good for her. I really am proud of her – not everyone managed to escape their fears, but she was strong to confront it. I gave her a fond smile, and she returned it. Message sent and received; she knew I was happy for her.

I didn't bring it up because I forgot briefly, but the subject reminded me; now that she'd gotten over the worst of it and managed to stop the trio from bullying, she was apparently eating her lunch with several friends. And, for bonus schadenfreude points, they always talked about a certain boy waiting in front of the school to take her somewhere on her bike. As for how I knew that... Sources. There were benefits to being a brother to basically all of her closest friends.

"Then, everything from the Death Gun incident is over, right?" Kazuto asked.

"Yeah... That sounds right, I think..." Shino didn't exactly sound convinced and frowned in thought, but before she could dredge up whatever niggling doubt was eating at her, Agil came out of the kitchen with three steaming plates, putting them down on the table in front of us.

Shino stared at the plate of baked beans with chunks of bacon in it; I couldn't exactly blame her, since it smelled even better up close. Her hand reached out and grabbed the spoon like she'd been hypnotized, before she jumped and snatched her hand away, saying, "I-I didn't order this."

Agil grinned knowingly. "That's cool. It's a treat... from Kirito." By the time Kazuto managed to start protesting, Agil had already gone back behind the counter.

While Shino tried and failed to suppress her giggles, and I didn't even try, she grabbed the spoon and waved it at Kazuto. "Thanks for the treat," she smiled.

"Well, it's fine..." Kazuto sighed. "I just got my first paycheck, and my wallet's still warm..."

Shino raised an eyebrow. "Paycheck from what?"

"Part-time job," I answered for him, deliberately shifting the plate towards him. "Don't give me that," I scolded him as he gave me a look. "I told you, this is kinda literally my job for today and tomorrow. You get malnourished, I get in trouble."

"What kind of part-time job?" Shino asked us.

"The one I mentioned earlier, that led to me not eating or drinking for three days straight," Kazuto said, sighing and picking up his spoon. "But we can talk about that later. For now, let's eat while the beans are hot."

Kazuto grabbed a bottle of mustard and squeezed a lot onto the edge of the plate before handing it off to Shino, who did the same thing. As one, they both took a huge spoonful of the beans. As I watched them eat happily, I was a little tempted to grab the third plate, but it was for Kazuto. I'd eat whatever he didn't finish and then pick up the bill for it. "This is... delicious," Shino muttered. Kazuto just grunted an agreement as he kept stuffing his face. "He said Boston-style, right? What kind of seasoning does it use?"

"A type of syrup," I said. "I wanna say maple, but that's not right... Hey Agil! What's the syrup called?"

"Molasses," the large man said without glancing our way.

"That's the one," I snapped my fingers.

Shino grinned at me. "Shouldn't you know that kind of stuff? Y'know, since you're American yourself?"

"Born there, raised here," I shrugged. "Of American food, I only know the three main food groups. Hamburger, fried chicken, and pizza."

"Which is one more than Kazuto," Shino murmured. "He only knows hamburger and fried chicken."

"I know more than that," Kazuto said with a tired smile. "I've talked to a few people from over there, too."

"Yeah, I know, I know," Shino said easily. "I was talking to a girl from Seattle over the GGO international server for three hours straight about sniping. It's just that guy I can't figure out..."

"'That guy'?" Kazuto repeated, looking at her. I glanced at his plate and laughed quietly; he'd already cleared half of it and was still going strong.

"It's what we're gonna talk about later," Shino said. "You knew about last week's fourth Bullet of Bullets final fight, right?"

"Yeah, I watched the broadcast with everyone," Kazuto nodded. "Oh, that's right, I haven't congratulated you yet. You might not be satisfied, but congrats on second place."

Shino put on a poker face as she muttered, "T...thanks." Then, clearly to hide her embarrassment, she continued, "I still did better than Nick. What'd you place, again?" she asked me oh-so-innocently.

Like she didn't know I placed nineteenth, with four kills to my name. "I'm pleading the Fifth."

"That's only in America."

"I'm American, it counts," I grumped.

Shino smiled cheerfully at me, then turned back to Kazuto. "If you've already seen the broadcast, then this'll be quicker. The guy that won, Subtilizer? This is the second time he won."

I frowned. "I knew his name sounded familiar. He was the guy you told us about in the third BoB, right? The US player that won with just a knife and handgun?"

"But how is that possible?" Kazuto asked. "After the first tournament, the servers were split into US and JP, right? So US players couldn't connect to our servers and vice versa?"

Shino shrugged. "It's supposed to be like that... And it worked for the next two tournaments. But this time, he either managed to avoid the block, or was well connected, or... well, however he did it he was accepted. But... Just by watching one fight you'd know why he's a legend."

Kazuto grinned as he said, "Yeah. From the broadcast screen alone, we could all see how fired up you were."

Shino pouted. "I-it wasn't just me. The other twenty-seven finalists were fired up too, since there were a few of us that lost to him in the first tournament." I didn't know who Subtilizer was until she brought it up, so I'm guessing she didn't count me in. Besides, my only reason for fighting was for a rematch against Musketeer X - and I got my sweet, sweet revenge even if it was a mutual takedown. Stupid dead man's switches. "Even if America is the home of the FPS, we're the origin of the Seed engine, so we thought we'd have the advantage, but once the lid was opened..."

Kazuto shook his head. "History repeated itself, right?"

Shino nodded, pouting in displeasure. Instead of saying anything right away, she ate the last bit of her bacon. "...Even though the tournament ended with a one-on-one, everyone is saying it was his total victory. Because from the start, that guy didn't have any weapons."

Kazuto blinked. "He went up against everyone else with bare hands?"

"Yeah. Well," Shino added, "instead of using a gun or knife he had the Army Combat skill. He defeated his first target by getting in close, taking their weapon, and using it on the next target. Rinse, repeat, win. He just used his bare hands to defeat other players while they were reloading more than once. It was like... he was fighting on some different level..."

I frowned slightly. A different level meant, to me, someone fighting like they were in Aincrad. In other words, like it was life or death. But that was insane, wasn't it? Someone from the United States couldn't have been in Aincrad. Well, whatever, it wasn't like I went up against him. I took out a few people that crossed my path while searching for Musketeer X, but they were all chumps.

"But," Kazuto said, shaking his head and folding his arms, "that means Subtilizer's build is like Nick's, right? He shouldn't be able to fight against mid-ranged or long-ranged attacks. And since most of the GGO players are that build, he should be at a disadvantage."

"Didn't stop me," I chimed in.

"You're a special case," he assured me.

"Damn straight."

"And by 'a special case,' I mean 'completely insane'," Kazuto continued.

I huffed. "Asshole."

"Well," Shino said, "you guys saw the scene where I lost to him, right?"

I shook my head. "I didn't. I got my kill and logged out." I had work the next day, after all.

"The rest of us did, in ALO," Kazuto confirmed. "When he was approaching your hiding place, just walking straight towards you, everyone was shouting 'Not that way!' or 'Sinon, behind you!'."

"Yeah, that," Shino sighed. That must suck. Getting wrecked that hard by someone who, all things equal, should have had a bullet hole in his head from what the sniper would term 'a distance that's really fucking far away'. "He took out eleven other people personally, and almost every one of them was defeated the same way. It was like he knew where they were going to be before they were there. He ambushed them at extremely close range and killed them before they could go for their guns. America might be different, but in the Japan servers Nick's the only person that uses a knife to fight, so..."

I grinned. "I'm pretty sure that after Kazuto's showing in the third tournament, the number of people using the lightsa - I'm sorry, the light sword - skyrocketed."

Shino just snorted. "They're just trying to imitate a certain someone's showing off. A few people were practicing earlier this year to cut bullets, but nobody managed to pull it off." I smirked, hiding it with a hand. I knew that Shino had purchased a small light sword herself and had it sitting in her storage like a good luck charm. I'm not sure if she tried to defend against bullets like Kazuto could, but honestly? Going for my style of dodging bullets would be easier to pick up than doing what Kazuto does.

I swear he dabbles in witchcraft.

"Anyway, what's really terrifying about Subtilizer is the way he could read the battle situation, almost like Nick can. Only I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a Unique Skill that breaks the game in two like you do." I just grinned.

"Is that even possible?" Kazuto mused, working his way through the second plate of beans absently. "It might be possible to predict what a beginner would do, but the BoB contestants are veterans, right? Predicting their actions that perfectly shouldn't be possible..."

Shino just shrugged lightly. "He beat more than ten people the same way, so it wasn't a fluke." ...I get the feeling she just called my victories flukes. "Well, even if they are veterans, they might still have patterns. For this terrain, do this, or follow this kind of movement... There might be a hole in the theory somewhere."

I leaned forward. Finally, something I can talk about! "Did you know, that the master swordsman only fears the beginner, and not the second-best swordsman? Because he can't predict what the beginner is going to do. Theoretically, someone skilled enough at the game could know how other skilled players were going to act. But at the same time, that might mean a new player might have a chance at surprising him."

Then I frowned. Shino's eyes were distant, like she was thinking about something else. I recognized the look easily enough; it was the look I always got when I was replaying a scene from a conversation or fight in my head. In other words, I doubt she heard a single word I said. "Sinon?" Kazuto asked. "Sinon? Sinon. Hey, Sinon," he said hurriedly as the girl lifted her hand and reached out to thin air.

Shino shook her head and looked at us. "Sorry, where were we again?"

"The patterns of veteran players, and the theory," Kazuto prompted.

"O-oh." Whatever she was thinking about, it shook her. "Well... yeah, because of that, players that don't use the patterns and don't follow the theory should be able to beat Subtilizer..."

I snorted under my breath. That was basically what I just mentioned. I reached out and tapped her shoulder. "Is this why you asked us to come out?" I murmured, quietly enough that she could hear but Kazuto couldn't. He got the hint and busied himself going through the second plate. "Because of him?"

"...Yeah," Shino murmured, reaching out subtly. I gently rested my hand next to hers, lightly nudging her fingers with mine. "I set up a sniper's nest on the top floor, and that's where he ambushed me. But I really wanted to be on the floor below. The only reason I wasn't was because of... something private." She didn't want to share, that was fine. "And then he said something weird just before I lost. 'Your soul will be so sweet.'" She shuddered.

I blinked slowly. "Well. That's... that's a thing. I want to go up against him now, if only to punch him a few times." No one does that to my sister and avoids retribution.

Shino gave me a small but genuine smile before raising her voice. "So, talking about a person who defies theory," she said in a cheerful tone, "don't you just think of one name in particular? It might be a little early, but I'm thinking of reserving a spot in the fifth BoB for that person." She extended her right figure into a gun shape, and took aim at Kazuto. "You're invited," she said, before making a silly little pew noise.

"Eh?" Kazuto said, somehow shocked by the turn of events. "Me?"

"I'm not telling you to do anything unreasonable like asking you to convert from ALO to GGO again," she said, and I stifled a snicker. She'd actually prepared a speech for this. "I'm just saying, you owe me. By the way, how's that legendary weapon?"

Kazuto grunted. The only reason he even owned the golden sword Excalibur was because Shino had made an impossible shot just before the treasure was lost forever to the Well of Urd. Since she'd been the one to retrieve, she had the right to hold it over his head. I'm proud of you, Shino. So proud. Kazuto, looking a little uncomfortable, cleared his throat and said, "I do kinda want to go up against him, but I think the main reason I even had a chance in the last tournament was because all those other guys had never gone up against a swordsman before. Subtilizer seems like he's good at close combat, though, right? Would I even have a chance of winning?"

"Oh, don't be a wimp," Shino scoffed. "He might be strong, but he's still just a VRMMO player. It's not like it's pro versus amateur or something."

"Yeah, that's it." Kazuto leaned back against the wooden chair, hands behind his head. "Is this Subtilizer really just an amateur? Just a VRMMO player?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You saying he isn't? Are you saying he's got actual live-combat experience, like a soldier or a member of a special task force?"

"You can't just say something like that," Shino grinned.

Kazuto, on the other hand, wasn't joking. "I read it from news sites, so I still don't know the full details... but it seems like several countries have adopted FullDive tech into their training. After polishing their skill in the virtual environment, don't you think it's possible for the professional to test it in the BoB?"

I very carefully didn't say anything. This was treading close to something I couldn't talk about, and I didn't want to be put in a position where I needed to refuse to answer questions.

"That's... that can't be..." Shino trailed off, lost in thought. I could guess at what she was thinking, but I didn't bother. If she needed me, she'd ask. "No. No matter who he is, in GGO we're even! I won't lose to the same opponent twice," she declared. "I'll definitely win next time! And I'll use every method to do it, too."

"...I'm one of those methods, right?"

Shino nodded. "Nick's another one." I'm touched. "He's the decoy." She's touched in the head. "But I know how anxious you two would be, going up against a close combat expert, so there's a few more people joining us. They're gonna be acting as brakes to keep you two from running wild. Your controllers, in a sense."

I'd complain about being treated like a wild beast, but... that's probably necessary, given my track record. Kazuto, on the other hand, yelped, "C-controller?" Suddenly, a thought seemed to strike him and he fished out his phone from his pocket. After unlocking it, he glanced at an app he had running and smiled slightly. "I see."

...My suspicions are rising. I grabbed my own phone and checked my copy of the app I had a feeling he opened. Of course. That...actually makes a lot of sense. It was a map of the neighborhood with the Dicey Cafe in the dead center; there were two blinking lights side by side and closing in on us fast, one blue and one brown. Heh. I should have known. I really, really should have. "What're the light dots?" Shino asked, looking at Kazuto's phone.

"The people you're waiting for," I said easily, pocketing my phone. "In about three... two... one..."

As I finished my countdown, watching Kazuto's screen the whole time, the doorbell clattered again as the door opened again. Shino looked up in surprise, and I turned lazily to see exactly who I expected to see. The first one in folded her umbrella, her long chestnut hair swinging around as she turned toward Shino and beamed brightly. The second one slipped past Asuna and made a beeline towards me.

"Hey, Kana," I greeted, rising out of my seat instants before my girlfriend tackled me with a huge hug. For a few moments, I just held her and enjoyed the feeling of being whole again. I never, ever wanted to let go of her. "Sorry I couldn't come home over the weekend, but... work stuff went overtime." Seriously, I had to sleep at the Roppongi office and everything, just like the rest of the workers. At least they were prepared for that eventuality, so I had a real bed and not some weird couch or something. I didn't sleep all that well, given the strange environment, but it was better than it would have been if I hadn't been able to lock the door. I'm pretty sure that's why I was put on Kazuto duty, to let me come home while still working as an apology for keeping me over the weekend.

Kana pulled back and booped my nose with her finger. "Mm. You're here now, that's what matters. And you're mine tomorrow."

"I'm looking forward to it," I smiled, hugging her tight again.

After a few seconds, she squirmed a bit, and I let her go. She shrugged off her coat and hung it up before turning to me with a wink. "I know," she said, putting one hand on her hip as she posed cutely. "I look good." And she did; her hair seemed to be the opposite of mine, in that it was curly when short but straightened out as it grew. Her bangs almost hid her brown eyes, and the two longer locks that fell on either side of her face framed it quite nicely. It was still wild, especially near the edges of her haircut, but most of it was straight.

She was wearing a light brown top that showed off her shoulders, with dark ribbons running around the chest area. One string crossed her chest, the tiny bow falling right in the center, and another went over her shoulders and behind her neck, a larger bow falling on her left shoulder. Her shorts were a darker brown than her shirt and almost ridiculously short. Like, I'm pretty sure they just barely covered her underwear, that's how short they were. Her shorts had a small ruffle around the waist that almost gave them the appearance of being a skirt, but I knew better. Kana always preferred shorts over skirts and pants over dresses. The two pieces of clothing conspired to show off just a little bit of her flat stomach.

"And just think," she continued, obviously pleased by my equally obvious appreciation of her appearance. "If you didn't have to work for Kikuoka, you'd get this every day instead of just on weekends."

"Would that I could, catling..."

Off to the side, Asuna and Shino were doing some bizarre female greeting ritual by touching fingertips and then sharing the same chair side by side. I don't even know.

Kazuto was watching those two with a bemused expression. "You two... When did you get this close?"

"Huh?" Shino asked, looking at him like he'd just spoken in alien tongues. "For a while now. Last month I even spent a night over at Asuna's!" Both she and Asuna glanced my way, and I fought to keep a straight face. Banish the memories! Banish them!

"Hiya, Agil," Kana waved as the bartender came over with two glasses of cold water. Asuna let out a small gasp of surprise and bowed with an apology, though I wasn't exactly sure what she was apologizing for. "Ooh, a menu! What do I want… Nick, you're buying for me, right?" She scrunched herself up and craned her head back to look up at me with puppy dog eyes. A remarkable feat, given that she was sitting on my lap and my head was in line with her shoulder.

"Fine, fine..."

"You're the best." Happily, Kana studied the menu. "Hm... I'll have a regular coffee, cream and two sugar."

I shook my head as Asuna placed her own order - a spicy ginger ale - and Agil returned to start making the drinks. "I honestly have no idea how you people can stand any of these drinks. Water is more than enough for me."

"It's an acquired taste," Kana said with a smile. "Kinda like you."

"Your words, they wound me so."

"You know you love me."

"Keep drinking coffee and see how long that lasts," I snarked drily.

Kana wrinkled her nose at me and poked me in the side before hopping off my lap and taking her own seat. "Don't make me hurt you."

"So," Shino said to Kazuto and Asuna, drawing me and Kana out of our loving banter, "you and Kirito definitely seem like you're getting along. I mean, you're already tracking each other..."

"It's not like that," Asuna protested.

"She's right," Kazuto said with a dismissive wave. "All mine does is display the exact coordinates of Asuna's terminal, but hers isn't that simple. Asuna?"

Asuna nodded and grabbed her own phone, placing it on the table next to his. The monitor had a cute little animated wallpaper, and I grinned slightly. There was a pink heart wrapped up in a red ribbon, beating once every second, and I raised an eyebrow. The defaults weren't that... pink. She must have found the customization options. I glanced at Kana, slightly curious if she'd done the same, and saw her already showing me her app. "I figured," she murmured when I barked out a quiet laugh. She'd kept the red heart, but changed the ribbon to be brown instead.

Beneath the heart were a couple lines of figures that I couldn't read if my life depended on it, but they weren't the interesting bits. No, the fun bits were immediately on either side of the lines - on the left side of Asuna's screen was a large 63, and a 36.2 in a smaller font was on the right. "What is..." Shino started to ask when the left number rose to 64. Kazuto seemed strangely embarrassed, and she blinked in realization. "It's Kirito's heart rate and temperature, right?"

"That's correct!" Asuna clapped. "As expected, Sinonon, you have good intuition." She glanced my way. "See if you can guess this one!"

The next screen had a red heart and grey ribbon. "Oh, I can guess this one," Shino said immediately. "It's Nick's." My heartbeat was just under 60, and my temperature was about 37. Huh. Looks like I'm pretty hot. Badum-tssh.

"Nick's pretty hot, right, ladies?" Kana asked with a knowing wink. "Badum-tssh."

Well. I'd be irritated she sniped my joke, but this was Kana we were talking about. I couldn't be mad.

"Eh," Shino gave me a once-over and wiggled her hand. "I've seen better." A knowing look flashed in her eyes and I gave her a dull glare. "So, how does this work, anyway?"

"It's actually a tiny sensor," Kazuto said, "implanted right about here." He poked at his chest, just to the left of center. "It monitors the heart rate and temperature and sends it to my phone. From there, the data is sent to Asuna's side through the network."

"Yui and Din have access to the information too," I chimed in. "I'm using the mini-server to bounce the data a little bit faster than through the satellite signal. Plus, that way we have a neat little record of everything. If there's no server connection, it switches to satellite, and if neither is present then it just saves the data until it can send it in one huge lump."

Shino blinked. "It's a sensor?" Then her eyes widened and she gaped at the two of them. "W-why are you doing... Is it because you're worried think he's cheating on you?" Then her eyes got even wider. "With Nick?!" Was… Was that a light blush? Wait. Was she imagining that?!

Kana broke into gales of laughter, while Kazuto and Asuna both yelped, "No!" simultaneously. I didn't look for myself, being too busy burying my head in my palm, but if Kazuto's face was anything to go off of, my temperature just spiked. Shino, my sister, shipped me and Kazuto. I'm never going to be able to un-see that.

…Kazuto would totally be top, and I felt my faith in humanity fracture just that little bit more for admitting it.

"N-no," Kazuto continued, a little shaky. "It's when I started the part-time job. They recommended me to get it implanted, since sticking in electrodes every day was going to be terrible."

"I did the same thing," I said. "And then I made the mistake of mentioning it to Kana and Asuna, and they, um... very strongly urged us to get the vital data and make an app to send it to their phones." 'Very strongly' being a nice way of saying they bullied us until we agreed.

"Well, that's because I don't want some unknown company to have all of Nick or Kirito's data," Asuna said hurriedly. "I didn't even want them to get the implant to begin with!"

"You say that," Kazuto muttered, "but I know you look at the monitor whenever you can and smile."

Asuna blushed slightly. "I... feel calm, looking at it. It feels like Kirito's right beside me, and it's almost like I can hear his heart beating... Just the two of us, alone..."

"Uh... Asuna, that sounds... really dangerous," Kazuto said uneasily.

Shino was laughing at the two of them, glancing at the phone in her hand from time to time. "I... see... That's kinda nice..." she murmured. Then she flushed scarlet and looked up quickly, obviously hoping none of us had heard her. It was like I could hear her thoughts: 'Maybe none of them actually heard that.' Well, that hope had to have been dashed in a heartbeat; Kana and I had matching grins on our faces, while Kazuto and Asuna were blinking at her in surprise. 'Shit, they totally did,' went the Shino in my mind.

"I-I mean, GGO has a heartbeat monitor too, but that's only used for fighting when you have bad visibility... Not anything girly like this... It was just a thought..." She trailed off near the end, hurriedly handing the phone back to Asuna. I don't think any of us bought the excuse. "But then why do you have Nick's data on there, too?"

"Because she wanted it, I was already transmitting for Kana, and it was all of two seconds," I shrugged. "If you want the app, I could probably start sending you the data too, if you wanted. Mine, Kazuto's, or even – stop me if this sounds crazy – both."

Shino blushed slightly and looked away. "A-anyway, about the reason I asked you and Kana here, Asuna. Could you do me a favor and join the fifth BoB? I didn't want to just ask, since it involves character converting..."

"You're doing it again, right, Nick?" Kana asked me quietly while Asuna assured Shino that it was no problem. When I nodded and said that I'd probably give it a shot if I could, she nodded. "Then I'll give it a shot too. Hm... we'll have to figure out how to make a sub-account so we don't lose the house and our items..." That's right, she took care of my items when I converted for the fourth tournament. But, since this is going to be both of us, it won't work... Hm. Well, I had been looking into creating a second account for trying out heavy weapons...

Shino rapping on the table lightly brought our attention back to the conversation. "So!" she said. "Now that the main topic is over with, how about..." She studied me and Kazuto. "How about we talk about Kirito and Nick's part-time job?"

"Knowing them, it's probably some new VR game," Kana said teasingly. But I knew her well enough to catch the note of curiosity in her voice, and almost a bit of hurt at the fact I was keeping a secret.

"Well, you're not wrong," I said easily, reaching out to trace the knuckles of her clenched fists with my fingers. Imperceptibly, she relaxed. "I can't tell you exactly what we're working on thanks to signing paperwork and stuff like that, but I'll tell you what I can.

"What I'm working on, and what Kazuto was testing, isn't exactly a game, but a new FullDive system. Specifically, a new Brain Machine Interface, or BMI." Kana relaxed a little bit more, moving her hand to hold mine lightly, and I smiled. She didn't blame me.

"Huh?" Shino gasped. "You mean, the next generation of AmuSphere is coming out soon? Are you two working for Asuna's father's company?"

I laughed. "I can see where you'd make that assumption, but no. It's..." Crap. What could I say?

"It's a venture company whose name I've never heard of before," Kazuto provided, and I sent him a grateful look. "I don't really understand the whole picture, but it has a lot of funds to fund development."

"What's the name of the company?" Shino asked, tilting her head curiously.

"RATH," I said. "It's a literary reference. Someone was a classy little bugger when they came up with the acronym. Asuna knows the source," I nodded towards her.

"In 'Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'," my sister chimed in, "there's a line in the poem Jabberwocky, mentioning a creature called a rath. According to the author, it's some sort of pig or turtle."

"...Huh…" Shino didn't seem too impressed. I happen to like the Jabberwocky. Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! What can I say, poetical nonsense speaks to me. "So they're developing the next generation of FullDive machines by themselves?"

"No, it's not like that," I said. "The machine itself is huge. With the console and the equipment needed to keep it from catching fire by turning on, it'd easily fill the room."

Kazuto nodded. "Although the experimental first generation of the FullDive machine was that size too, the size of the NerveGear is remaining stable. Even the AmuSphere 2 going on sale next year is..." He trailed off at Asuna's arch look. "...Um, that's supposed to be confidential, by the way."

He just shrugged sheepishly, and Asuna gave a little smile and shook her head. "It's fine. They're going to announce it at the Tokyo Game Show next month anyway, so knowing about it early isn't too big a deal."

"Oh, RECT is going to be part of it too, huh?" Shino murmured. "I hope it won't be too expensive..." She gave Asuna the puppy-dog eyes, and my sister nodded seriously, making a serious face.

"I hope so too," she said. "But for now, the price is still to be determined."

Kana grinned. "According to all the tech documents I've been able to sniff out, it'll have a higher render speed and still be compatible with the software. So it's worth upgrading, even if you're satisfied with ALO and GGO."

"How do you even know all that?" Asuna asked. "They've been very careful to keep everything quiet…" Kana just waved it away with a smug grin. Well, when you have a son with the habit of breaking through firewalls untraceably and a sister that works for the company…

"That right?" Shino sighed. "Maybe I should find a part-time job too..."

"So wait," Kana said suddenly. "If this huge FullDive machine isn't intended for home use, what's it gonna be used for?"

I bit my lip and looked away. "Mm..." I hummed. "This is gonna start approaching stuff I can't talk about, but I'm gonna tap-dance along the razor edge like a motherfucker. So! First off, it's not actually a FullDive. It uses different tech."

"Different?" Kana asked, leaning forward. "Isn't it just creating a VR world using polygons and then a user Dives into it? What's the difference? What's that world like?"

I shrugged. "It's... you don't actually remember. Because of how the machine works, you don't remember anything you see or do during use. Or, well, there's a… setting that can interfere with it."

"Huh?!" The girls yelped at the same time.

"You can't remember? How is that even possible?" Shino continued in a slightly quieter tone of voice. "Do you get hypnotized after using it?"

"No, nothing like that," I sighed. "Also, aside, hypnotism doesn't work like that. Back on topic, it's purely electronic. Technically, quantum-based."

I glanced at the time. "Four-thirty. Do you all have time?"

"Yes." "No problem." "I'm fine." "I know all this already..."

As the three girls agreed and Kazuto sighed his complaint, I nodded. "Shut up, Kazuto. Now, let's start from the beginning. The question of 'Soul Translation' technology."

"Soul...?" Asuna repeated slowly, tilting her head.

"Meh, the guy that named it is kind of a prick," I said lightly. "So. The human mind - where is it?"

"Mind?" Shino looked like she was going to reach for the chest, but she stopped and changed her answer. "It's in the head... the brain, right?"

I nodded. "Okay, so far so good. Now, where in the brain is it?"

"Where..."

Kazuto reached out and poked at Shino's palm. "The brain, or to be more specific, the brain cells." I sat back and let him explain as he traced a circle around the palm. "At the center is the nucleus, and around it is the cell's body..." Then he tapped her five fingers and traced a line from her wrist to her elbow. I'm pretty sure he has no idea he's about five seconds away from giving her a crush-induced heart attack. "The dendrites meet the axons and connect this cell to the next. So where does the mind exist? The nucleus, the mitochondria? The cell itself?"

"Hmm..." Shino mumbled, deep in thought.

Kana fielded this question. "Kazuto, the mind's just a network connecting a bunch of cells together? The whole neural network pathways and stuff, right?"

"Just like the Internet isn't just one computer," Asuna said suddenly.

Kazuto nodded deeply. "The brain cell network is the mind. In this context, I think that's as close to a correct answer as we're going to get. But the Internet, we could say that it's the structure in which the computers are connected to each other."

He pointed at the table where his and Asuna's phones were sitting. "So every computer is part of the Internet. And if we expand it, then we could claim that every user in front of the computer is part of the Internet too." He closed his eyes. "Nick, continue, please," he said, and took a sip from Asuna's drink. Heh, he's stealing my gimmick.

"Sure, sure, whatever," I said as he and Shino started talking about the taste of the drink. "So, the human mind and the Internet. How are they related? And don't say that you need a mind to use the Internet, I've read message boards and comments on videos and I know for a fact that it's not a prerequisite." Geez, thanks Kazuto. Throwing me a softball here. Where in the hells was he going with this?

"Hm..." Kana mused. "Well, if we assume that the shape of the Internet is the hardware - the server and router, the PCs and phones that make up all the nodes... That would be analogous to the cells of the human brain. Right?" My gods I love this woman. I bullshit something, and then she manages to turn it into pure gold.

I smirked slightly. "Bingo. So, now we have the hardware of the human internet. Right, Kazuto?" Aaaaaand, toss it right back to his court.

"Right," he said, rejoining the conversation. "But then, what's the content?"

Shino frowned in thought for a moment before saying, "It's what's flowing through the structure, isn't it? The data that's being transferred. Which, in the mind... the electric signals?"

Kazuto nodded. "We can use that, sure. The essence of the network is probably more how they go along the structure and communicate the information."

"So," I said, waving in the air. "Now that we know what the essence of the Internet is, what's the essence of the mind? Carry along the metaphor, and it's theoretically whatever data is being transferred. The electrical pulses between cells, in other words." You know, when I first started this job, I didn't expect high school biology to be a major part of my computer job. "So how do we capture that?"

Kana grinned. "And that's where modern science has been unable to keep going."

"Exactly." I grinned knowingly and leaned back. "But this is where RATH is trying to be pioneering and... okay, fuck it, I don't even care about being smug and knowledgeable."

Kana raised her eyebrow at me. "Who are you and what did you do to Nick?"

"Bleh." I stuck my tongue out at her. "Anyway, there's all this quantum brain shit and theory and I couldn't care less. If you do, ask Kazuto later. The theory is kinda cool, but I haven't paid that much attention to it. Long story short, there's like a skull thing inside the brain cell, and inside that skull is a series of hollow tubes - really tiny tubes, like nanometers in diameter - and those tubes hold some tiny photon. The science guys call it an 'Evanescent Photon'. It's quantum. Like a cat in a box." I am like ninety percent sure this entire theory is bullshit but whatever, it works, I'm not asking questions.

Kazuto sighed with a grin and shook his head. "It's a little more complicated than Nick makes it sound. The photon's existence is quantum like he said, which means it's endlessly fluctuating according to probability theory." I'd noticed that Asuna's eyes were starting to glaze over a bit, so I'd sped things up a bit and snapped her out of it. Sometimes, I don't get why people need to overcomplicate things. "Those fluctuations... that's what the human mind is, according to the theory."

Shino shivered.

"Kirito," Asuna said, her eyes shining with a strange light, "the name of the machine is the Soul Translator, right? Soul... So, the collection of those lights is a human's soul?"

"They're overly dramatic," I said, shrugging. "The engineers at RATH call it the Quantum Field. They probably thought about it. Anyway, we're getting bogged down in minutiae again. There's all this stuff the machine records in regards to the photons, but basically the collection of photons that acts as the computer's memory is what RATH calls the Fluctuating Light. Or, abbreviated...

"Fluctlight."

It looks cooler than it sounds.

"Fluct...light," Shino repeated, and then rubbed her arms. I kinda wanted to give her a hug - she looked a little shaken.

Beside her, Asuna hugged herself. "So, the machine that reads... No, it's translating it... That's what the Soul Translator does. But... the translation isn't just one way, right?" Shino tilted her head and stared at Asuna. "Think about it, Sinonon... The AmuSphere doesn't just read the commands sent to our bodies. It generates the senses for seeing and hearing and smelling... It creates the experience of a virtual world. It's the core of the technology, right? So the Soul Translator is the next generation of that, isn't it?"

"In other words..." Shino continued slowly, "it could write something into the soul of the person connected?"

At that point, all three girls turned to me and Kazuto. I sighed. "The STL - abbreviation of the Soul Translator, because gods know everything needs to be an acronym - is bidirectional, yes. It reads and translates the information in our mind, and does the same for the information being fed to us. If it didn't, we wouldn't be able to make a virtual world."

Kana frowned. "So. This is what's affecting the memory of the soul? You said that you don't remember anything that happens inside it, right? That means it's overwriting memory, or at least erasing it."

"Well, technically, no," I said, and Kana let out a small sigh of relief. "Technically it's just interfering with the path being used to create and or store memory - it's hijacking the signal rather than actually having access to the database. Same thing as the NerveGear or AmuSphere, really. We don't worry about mind control when we're playing… I mean, um…"

A shadow had crossed over Asuna's face, and I winced. Way to go, Nick, bring up one of the worst experiences in her life. Brother of the year, right there… "I mean, we don't worry about them leaving us paralyzed, even though it interferes with the signals to and from our brain." It wasn't smooth in the slightest, but it got us out of the danger zone. Without a word, Kana scooched her chair over and leaned against my side, and I got comfortable with a grateful murmur.

Asuna still looked worried. "But... I'm scared, Kirito, Nick. Something like manipulating memories... And this job of yours came from Chrysheight - no, Mister Kikuoka of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, right?" She bit at her lower lip. "While I know he's not a bad person, I feel like his heart is surrounded by this dark cloud. I can't see into its depths... and the last person like that was Heathcliff..." My nostrils flared. Kayaba.

I didn't hate the man - it's hard to hate someone who could be my mirror image someday - but I could come close thanks to what he put Asuna and Kazuto through.

We all have our reasons for why we worked with the STL machine. For me, that was because it was a job. I was being paid to work on it, so I worked on it. No more, no less; I wasn't in it to make a difference, or save lives, or develop a new form of entertainment. I was in it because it was part of my payment to Kikuoka for ensuring Kana and I got into the school we wanted to go to, the one in America. I don't know why Kazuto was doing it, though.

I realized he was talking and tuned back in. "...although its functionality is entirely new, its architecture is based off of the Medicuboid."

Oops. Asuna let out a small shudder and held her head low. After that, she said, "I'm just worried. About what's inside the Soul Translator. What if it turns out like the NerveGear, and it's more than just a toy?"

I let out a quiet sigh. That was the crux of it, wasn't it?

Kazuto, on the other hand, just mimed gripping his sword and swung it down as he said, "No matter what, Asuna, I'll come back. This time, too. Even if I'm not as strong in real life."

"...Even though you're wide open without me at your back," Asuna said with a light smile. I'm pretty sure she was forcing it. "Really, Sinon, this man has so much confidence."

Shino grinned mischievously. "Well, we're talking about the Legendary Hero, after all." Just like me and Kana, she'd kept mostly silent during Asuna and Kazuto's tense conversation. "I read the Complete SAO Incident Report book that came out last month, by the way. It had some great stories..." She studied Kazuto and frowned. "But it's hard to believe that this guy's the same Black Swordsman in the book."

"H-hey," Kazuto said weakly, his smile twitching.

"Yeah, I know, right?" Asuna giggled and nodded. "It said that he was some amazing leader that influenced everyone. The records are accurate -"

"Of course they are, I submitted most of them," Kana sniffed.

"- but there's so much bias in the character description. Like when Kirito fought against the orange players..."

"Once I draw my other sword, the battle's over... for you!" Kana quoted, the three of them bursting into happy laughter.

Shino giggled. "And then there's Nick's lines from when you fought that one water boss on Floor Fifty. 'One in four fighters entering that boss room will not walk out of it again.' It's like they tried so hard!" They all started laughing again, and I just rolled my eyes.

Where Kazuto was the grand hero, the shining knight of the story, they'd portrayed me as the heartless and remorseless… well, tactician, ordering people to their likely deaths without blinking. While I couldn't really fault them for showing it that way – especially since most of the information I'd given them about my experiences was either the admittedly cold-blooded tactics from boss battles, or a dispassionate recounting of the people I'd killed – I wished they'd managed to do so without making me sound like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.

"And the best part is," Shino managed to say after the three girls recovered from their latest laughing fit, "it's been translated and published in America. So Mister Hero is world famous now!"

Kazuto sighed and shook his head. "And after all the trouble I went through to forget about it..."

Shino smiled as he grumbled something about forwarding royalties. "Hey, Kirito, Nick. Getting back to the STL, doesn't it just do the same thing as the AmuSphere? Creating a VR world using polygons, and then sends the image and sound to the user? What's the point of spending all this money on another machine?"

I shrugged. "I don't really know the hardware end of it, or how all the world creation stuff works. Kazuto chatted with the engineers, they'd probably tell him. Another one of those ask him later topics, I think." Kazuto nodded. "Regardless, think of it this way. See the glass?" I held my glass of water, now empty, in my hand. When Shino nodded, I reached over and covered up her eyes with my hand. "You can't see it any more. Does it still exist in your mind?" I asked over her squawk of surprise.

"Of course it does," she said immediately. "I have object permanence, I know things don't disappear when I'm not looking at them. I remember it, even if the memory starts fading over time."

"Exactly," I said, leaning back triumphantly.

Only to have all three girls looking at me like I was insane. "What?" they all chorused.

"Kazuto?" I whined, looking over at him. "Explain in words, please?"

He smiled. "When we see the glass, or table, or even each other," he said to the girls, "that image - data - is stored in the sight section of the Fluctlight. Even if we close our eyes, it won't disappear right away. Otherwise we'd forget everything the instant it can't be seen. Basically, the Fluctlight is storing everything about the glass, so perfectly that even if we can't see it, it's been stored at a precision far beyond anything polygons can imitate. Or, to put it another way, it's exactly the same thing as the real glass."

"Yeah, but," Shino said, "that's just dealing with retention of consciousness, right? That's just messing with... memory..." She trailed off slowly.

"The AmuSphere shows us the polygon data," Asuna said quietly, "but the STL writes it directly to our consciousness... the short-term memory. It's not an artificial thing, it's actually... real."

I nodded. "It's real, alright. That's what this is for," I told them, waving my right hand at them.

"I still have my memory of my first test Dive using the STL," Kazuto said slowly. "It was just an empty space about the size of a bedroom, but... at first I didn't know it was the real world."

Shino's eyes widened. "That means... Kirito, could you be... still inside the STL machine? Even now? That all of us here are just your memories of us?" Automatically, I rubbed my thumb along the ring on my right hand. Before Kazuto could reply, though, Shino grinned. "That's ridiculous, though."

Kazuto just frowned and studied her. "Wai... S-stop," Shino said hurriedly, waving her hands. "I'm the real me!"

"If you're the real Sinon..." Kazuto said slowly, "then you have to remember what you promised me yesterday."

"P-promised?" Shino yelped.

"You offered to buy me as much cheesecake as I wanted, as thanks for calling me out today," Kazuto said seriously. I tried not to break a poker face, and saw that Kana was doing the same. The two of us met gazes for only an instant, but the amusement present in her eyes – and I'm assuming it was twinned in my eyes – almost broke both of us.

"E...ehh?! I never promised that! B-but I'm not an impostor, I'm the real one, right, Asuna?" Shino asked, looking to my sister for confirmation.

Only to be met with the dreaded puppy-dog eyes from her. "Sinonon... did you already forget? You promised to treat me to an all-I-can-eat dessert tart..."

"Ehhhh?!" Shino yelped. After a second, Kazuto's and Asuna's poker faces broke, and they let out small bursts of laughter. At that point, Shino's face was a treasure; she realized her plan had backfired horribly. "So, Nick, what's with the rings?" Shino asked me once the others stopped giggling, clearly trying to change the subject. "Are you and Kana the first to make it official?"

I glanced at my hands automatically; it'd only been a few weeks since I got them, so I wasn't a hundred percent used to wearing the rings yet. "Official? What do -" Oh. Like marriage. Even though neither were on the ring finger of my left hand. "No, we're waiting for Asuna and Kazuto to be first."

The named pair blushed and looked away. Kana just snorted. "Please, you know the second he has a stable job I'll be wearing a ring. Or maybe I'll save up and ask him, just for the novelty."

Shino glanced at me, and I just grinned innocently. I wouldn't put it past her, actually. "Heh. Anyway, tangent time to explain. Do you know why I find insanity so terrifying?" I asked her. "Why having a mental break is one of the very few things I'm genuinely terrified of?"

She blinked, obviously not expecting that. "Wow. Serious suddenly. Okay, uh, no, I don't."

"Because how can you tell?" I asked. She opened her mouth, and I stared at her. "Your mind is what determines what exists and what doesn't. There've been studies showing that people's health is influenced by their state of mind - patients struggle through what should have been fatal accidents through sheer will, for a quick example. So what happens when that mind turns against itself?" I shrugged.

"Let's say I'm insane. Don't you start," I snapped at the table at general, since literally every single one of the traitorous finks opened their mouth at the same time. "Actually insane, not just me-insane." Their mouths closed. "Good. Now, I'm insane. I have no way of telling whether or not I'm nuts. I can't call someone up and ask them if the walls are bleeding, because no matter their answer I can't be certain I actually picked up the phone to call them. Am I feeling the hot blood under my fingertips, or has my mind decided to jump off a cliff and start making things up?"

There was a show I'd seen, once, where the main character snapped and beat his two best friends to death with a metal bat because he thought they were trying to kill him with a lethal injection. It made me feel sick to my stomach even though they got better – long story and unrelated to the subject at hand – because I know that I'm capable of that, if I wasn't in my right mind. "Am I seeing four-sided triangles, or circles with five hundred forty degrees, or tasting the color green? Is it reality or just a hallucination? I have no way of telling. The machine that parses reality is broken, and the only thing that can fix it is itself."

The others fidgeted uneasily under my near-manic stare. "Well, that's what the rings are for, basically," I said, letting my eyelids droop again. "With what the STL machine is doing, the virtual world is as close to the real one as possible. Our bodies are real in a way that makes in nearly impossible to tell the difference between the two. I feel pain, I get tired and hungry and dirty, my hair grows, I have to use the bathroom. If only mentally, of course.

"So if the only difference between the virtual world and the real one is an arbitrary designation, well, that goes back to that whole conversation we were having before." I waved my hand; the scorpion ring on my index finger flashed in the light. It wrapped around my finger, tail pointing towards the middle joint and claws resting near the knuckle. A small blue gem made of glass was set where the main body would be, catching the light.

It was a little clunky, especially since I hadn't gotten used to it, but that was the whole point. "The ring itself doesn't matter, it's what the ring represents. If the ring is on, I'm in the real world, and if the ring is off I'm in the virtual one. I take it off every time before I Dive using the STL, and I've made sure to tell every technician involved with the process the same thing. That means there're three options: I wake up with the ring on, and it's the real world; I wake up with the ring off, and it's the virtual world; or I wake up with the ring off in the STL machine and immediately put the ring on." While it's possible for someone dedicated to tricking me to create a copy of the ring from my memories, I still wouldn't wake up with it on – the virtual body is created by asking the soul what the current state of the body is, and the soul would know I didn't have my ring on. Hopefully. It's not an exact science.

"That's actually pretty clever," Shino said, eyes wide.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't sound so surprised, Shino. I might act like I don't care about anything, and I don't, but that doesn't mean I'm an idiot."

"So what's the one on the left hand for?" she asked. "If you only use the right to tell the difference."

I glanced at the ring on the middle finger of my left hand. It was a plain black band with the aces of each of the four suits inscribed on it in silver. "Oh, this? It's an Ace ring." She stared at me with a flat look. "No, seriously. See? The four aces."

"I get it," she said, interrupting my joke. "Because you're asexual." I just grinned. "Never mind, forget I asked. I forgot how much I hated that smug smirk of yours."

"Your words, Shino. They are an arrow aimed at my heart," I moaned dramatically. "And after I bared myself to you, hoping for the same in return."

She stared at me. "How? How do you always make it sound dirty?"

I shrugged. "It's a gift." And practice and a lot of memorization of lines and possible straight lines.

"Anyway," Kazuto said slowly, "the world created by the STL technology is what we'd call a Real Dream, maybe..."

"That is how dreams work, though," Kana said. "It's something our mind cobbles together from memories and desires."

"Wait," Shino said suddenly, narrowing her eyes. "So you got paid to sleep three days straight, then. And you," she said, turning to me, "got paid to watch him?"

"T-that's what I said at the beginning, isn't it?" Kazuto asked her. "I didn't eat or drink for three days. I had an IV, but..."

I nodded. "And that's why he needed extra food. Speaking of, Kazuto, I'll cover the second plate." Or, rather, my boss will. "But yeah, he basically slept all weekend and got paid for it. And as for my job, I've been assigned to Kazuto for the next few days to make sure there's no ill effects he ignores or forgets to mention."

"Three days of continuous dreaming, huh..." Shino muttered with a sigh. "If I could dream that long, I'd love to finally be able to finish that cake. You know how it is, always waking just before you get to eat it?"

Kana nodded seriously. "Or when you're about to get a kiss, then you wake up." I blinked bemusedly at her. "Oh, don't give me that, Nick," she muttered, cheeks red. Don't give her what?

Kazuto just laughed. "It's too bad, because you don't get to remember what you eat during the dream anyway. Well, talking about all-you-can-eat cake every..."

He trailed off in the middle of the sentence and frowned. "What's wrong, Kirito?" Asuna asked, worried.

"...Cake... no, that's not it," he muttered, gesturing like he was eating something. "It's... harder, and salty... but it's delicious, what..."

I sighed. "Don't try to force it, Kazuto," I told him. "The techs said you might get flashes of memory from this Dive, remember?"

"Yeah..." He looked at me. "But I know it didn't taste like anything in reality."

"Is something like that possible?" Shino asked suddenly. "To eat something in STL that doesn't exist in reality? Since it's built from our memories, shouldn't the user not be able to see what they haven't seen, or eat what they haven't eaten?"

"Ah, that's right," Asuna added. "If that's how it works, then the virtual world from STL is very limited, right? Not like Aincrad or Alfheim."

I smiled. "Smart, ladies, very smart. This is touching on stuff that I'm not allowed to talk about, though... Hey Kazuto, what do you remember about the early Dives? Do you remember the Cat Room?" He barked out a startled laugh. "I'll take that as a yes. Anyway, the one mistake you made is..." I let the sentence trail.

"You never said that the memories came from the Diver," Kana said, eyeing me.

"Bingo," I said, pointing at her. While Shino and Asuna stared, I nodded. "Kana nailed it. It doesn't steal memories from Divers. Instead, it builds them itself. Back when Kazuto and I first started, it was in basic testing, so there was no memory restriction. One of the worlds was the Cat Room - hundreds of different cats, a lot of which couldn't exist in reality." I grinned slightly as Shino's mouth went slack for a second as she imagined the kitty heaven. We both shared a fondness for felines. …I will deny spending several hours in that room one weekend and anyone who says otherwise is a lying liar that lies. "There were ones that had wings and flew, some that curled up and bounced around... Things that couldn't possibly exist in the real world, and so couldn't be from someone else's memories."

"But if it came up with them from nothing..." Asuna said, "couldn't they... make an entire world from nothing?"

I hid my pleased smirk. They figured it out themselves, piecing together the information from public knowledge, and I didn't have to break any of the agreements I'd signed. I was so going to rub this in Kikuoka's face later. While the girls all absorbed that little bombshell, I flagged Agil over and quietly paid the bill for the extra plate of beans and Kana's drink. I could do that much for them, at any rate, though Kazuto would still have to pay for the other two plates and the drinks. Besides, I'd be reimbursed by RATH once I submitted the report.

"A real world..." Shino murmured. Oh good, they've finished parsing it.

"But, Kirito, Nick," Asuna asked, "could the STL machine create a whole separate reality, a different world without a designer's involvement?"

"I don't think so," Kana murmured, fielding the question instead. "Most of the environment should be able to be generated, but spawning a large-scale town is probably out of the question. The residents won't know what to do if something breaks or if they need more room. But if they had a few hundred test players, and let them build the town from scratch... A civilization might be able to be developed."

"But that would take forever," Shino pointed out.

"That would be very time-consuming, though," Asuna said at the same time.

I grinned. "And this is where the second bit of weird voodoo magic comes into play. The STL has something called the FLA function. The human brain is, quite frankly, terrible at telling time. Have you ever been in a boring class and had thirty minutes pass like three hours? Or, for that matter..." I reached out and covered the phones on the table. "Without looking, could you tell me what time it is?"

Kana blinked, then narrowed her eyes as she realized what I was driving at with my question. "Um... four fifty?" Shino offered.

I revealed the phones; it was long past five. "Our perception of time is a bit flawed. Especially in dreams. We really only spend a few minutes in dreams that feel like they take two or three hours."

Kazuto placed his hand on the table and started tapping rhythmically. "The human brain has something the RATH researchers have called a thought clock control signal, even though they don't know exactly where it is."

"Clock...?" Shino repeated.

"It's what we mean when we talk about a computer's processing power. Typically in gigahertz," I provided helpfully. "The number of calculations it can do in a second."

Kazuto nodded. "Typically, it runs a little slower than listed, but..." Slowly he sped up the rhythm of his tapping. "When it needs to, it speeds up the operation clock. As the clock speed increases, so does the number of calculations per second. The same principle applies to the Fluctlight."

"Like how adrenaline makes us process things faster," Kana nodded. "Makes sense. So the STL taps into that somehow?"

I shrugged. "Don't ask me how it works, I call it weird voodoo magic. Regardless, the FLA - Fluctlight Acceleration - lets the STL user experience time much faster. So, three days might feel like nine or ten."

In reality, it was much, much faster - but it had been locked to just three-ish times normal rate, as far I was aware.

"I wonder what you were doing in a world like that, Kirito," Asuna mused. "Can you take real world memories in with you? And were you alone, or were there other testers?"

"Just him," I said. "As for the real world memories, I'm not sure why he couldn't bring them, but I think it has something to do with not contaminating the test." Makes sense to me. "What I can tell you is the name of the virtual world he was exploring, though:

"Underworld."

The girls were unimpressed. "It sounds... depressing..." Kana said. "Like it's a gloomy cave or something like that."

"Full of bats?" I asked her, smiling faintly. She always hated seeing those mobs in Alfheim. It made fighting vampires fun.

"Bats and dark corners."

"It's dark and you're likely to be eaten by a grue?"

"How do you even know that reference?"

"Because I'm not a filthy heathen that only plays games with pretty pictures? The classics are called that for a reason."

"Meh, I prefer having graphics."

As Kana and I had our little back and forth conversation, Shino seeming to get dizzy as she turned her head to each of us in turn, Asuna tapped her chin. "Maybe the name comes from Alice, too."

"Alice...?" Kazuto murmured.

"Yeah," she continued. "Since RATH's name comes from Alice in Wonderland. The original title was Alice's Adventures Under Ground."

Shino let out a soft snicker. "Maybe Kirito had a tea party with the March Hare or played croquet with the Queen of Hearts."

I wasn't listening – well, I was, if only to make a half-formed snarky mental joke about Shino being the Cheshire Cat, but not enough to comment. I was too busy watching Kazuto; he was staring at the table and frowning, deep in thought. "Hey, Kazuto," Kana said, snapping her fingers. "Doing okay in there?"

"N-no... It's just that... when I heard Alice... I felt like I'd forgotten something important..."

I shrugged. "Eh. Probably just something from the Underworld." Then I blinked. "Actually, no, wait... Alice..." I closed my mind and tried to remember. What was it... Artificial... something Intelligence... No, I'd lost it. "Never mind." It was something I'd heard mentioned absently by the people at Roppongi. Since it wasn't part of my regular duties, I didn't pay all that much attention.

"Maybe it's something you remember from the experiment?" Kana mentioned.

"Didn't you say all the memories were removed, though?" Shino asked.

"It's not an exact science," I told her. "Weird voodoo magic, remember?" She just rolled her eyes at me. "Seriously though, some bits probably slipped through. It's a good thing that the memories are removed. Kazuto's living an extra few days in the year, so he's getting older faster. If he remembered all of that…"

"I wouldn't... mind that," Asuna said, blushing slightly. "It'd be like the gap is narrower." Right, she was a year older than Kazuto.

"Still, it felt weird this morning. Like it'd been a long time since seeing the town, or seeing the TV shows," Kazuto said slowly. What was going on with the Underworld? "I don't think it's anything to worry about, but..."

"Kirito, I think you should stop doing this part-time job," Asuna said, leaning forward to put her hand on his. "It's putting a burden on your body."

"Don't worry," I sighed. "The final test for it is starting next month. Besides, the continuous testing period was pretty much the last hurdle to clear, so it's just fixing up odds and ends."

"Hey," Shino grumped, "don't remind me of tests. Just because you and Kana are out of school doesn't mean the rest of us are." I just grinned mockingly.

"Why don't we study together sometime?" Asuna suggested. Then she glanced at the clock on the wall. "Ah! It's almost six!"

Yeesh. Took longer than I expected. "Well, Kazuto, if you could go settle the rest of the bill, we'll get going," I said, stretching and standing up. "We can talk BoB tactics while we're leaving."

"I don't feel like using anything but a lightsaber, though," Kazuto laughed.

Shino sighed. "I keep telling you, it's a light sword."

Kazuto laughed as he headed over to the counter; the rest of us grabbed our stuff and headed out. Shino was the first out, grabbing her umbrella and stepping outside. I was right behind her, which meant I was the one that almost ran into her when she stopped all of a sudden. "Something wrong?" I asked her quietly. She wasn't shaking, so it wasn't anything like a panic attack... A small twitch ran down my spine as I clenched my fists, ready for anything.

"No, it's nothing," she laughed after a second. "Just felt weird for a second."

I shrugged, letting my body relax. At least the rain had stopped, though judging by the sky it was going to start again before nightfall. Kana and I were headed in the same direction, so we waved goodbye before heading off away from the others.

The walk was peaceful; it always was, after a rainfall. At least I wasn't getting rained on this time.

It was about, oh… five, ten minutes later when my phone chimed and I smiled. I haven't heard that chime for a while. "Hey, Dad?"

I fished out my phone and glanced. "Hey, Din. Sorry I haven't been around much, work's been a bi-iiiit of a problem," I corrected hurriedly at Kana's glare. Oh come on, he'd heard me swear like a sailor in Alfheim.

He grinned. "No, it's fine. Actually, I was just letting you know you got a weird message on the forums..."

I raised an eyebrow. "What kind of weird message?"

"I… really think you should see for yourself."

I shrugged and glanced at it.

Then I went very, very still.

"Kana," I breathed. "Go to my house immediately. Take the spare key in with you. Lock the doors and windows, and then don't let anyone in without verifying who they are. Treat intruders as armed and dangerous. Lethally so."

"Nick?" she asked. "You're scaring me."

I hissed out a breath of hatred. "I don't have time to explain. I might be too late as it is. Please, Kana, just go."

She studied me, then nodded. "Okay. I love you. And make sure you come back."

"I will. Love you too."

As she moved forward with purpose, I slipped the scorpion ring off my finger and dropped it in my pocket. Then I turned and bolted down the street. I had to make it in time. Gods, let me make it in time.

Damn that message. It was so stupidly simple, too. Just a picture of my house and of Kana's house. The message body was simple too. 'Such a lovely life, Rythin. I think I'll start by killing the Black Swordsman. Then you. Then I'll take my sweet time with your sweet girlfriends. Johnny Black.'

Arrogant Laughing Coffin bastard. He sent that message to taunt me. He wants me to try to save them and fail. He wants to play a sadistic game where I can't win.

I'll kill him before he touches them.

"Din," I snapped as I tore down the street, heedless of whoever might see me or get in my way. "Initiate Contingency 'Johnny Black'. Destination is Asuna's current location."

"Acknowledged," he reported in a clipped staccato. "Deactivation phrase?"

"...'A very merry unbirthday'," I said, my voice tense. Needed to focus on breathing so I wouldn't be exhausted if I made it.

Din was silent for a second. "Phrase accepted. Contingency initiated." A pause. "Dad? He threatened you and Mom. Gut the bastard."

I just grunted out something and lowered my head, trying to pour on speed. "Direct me."

"Take a left at the next intersection and then go straight after that," Din said.

I let the scenery blur past me as I followed his directions. Damn it. I'd been stupid. Shino had frozen because she'd sensed bloodlust. That meant Johnny Black had been watching us in the Cafe for a long time. He must be following Asuna and Kazuto. He was going to attack Kazuto. I had to stop him. Or kill him.

I was going to kill him.

Equipment. What do I have? No dagger. No knife. Nothing bladed. Bare hands, then. Ring, band on left. Johnny Black specializes in poison. He still has the Death Gun or he wouldn't assault us. Consider him armed and willing to kill.

Going to kill him.

I ran.

Kill him.

I ran.

And then I arrived at the scene.

Just as I reached the commotion, I heard it. A soft sound, just like the sound a soda let out when it was opened. I'd heard that sound before. When the boy attempted to murder Kazuto.

The shaft of Kazuto's umbrella had stabbed into the base of Johnny Black's right thigh. Possible artery struck.

And the syringe in Johnny Black's hand was pushed against Kazuto's left shoulder.

The boy had attempted to kill Kazuto. He failed.

The man succeeded.

For an eternal instant, time stopped and I considered the situation with an icy cold clarity. Kazuto was injected with a drug. There was no chance Kazuto could survive without immediate emergency medical attention. I wasn't trained to provide immediate emergency medical attention. I could kill the man. I was going to kill the man.

The instant ended.

Kazuto toppled backwards, falling backwards into the road violently. I crossed the distance between me and the man faster than I'd ever moved before, totally silent.

My arm caught the bastard around the throat as he started toppling backwards, and I threw him to the ground. His head hit the pavement with a delicious crack, and I immediately followed through, slamming my fist into his face. His nose squished and let out a spray of crimson blood.

The man was laughing madly as I set about beating him to death. I struck at the vulnerable parts of the body - the face, the solar plexus and stomach. Striking bone was inefficient, as the bones that make up the hand will break before the bones that make up the ribcage. Instead, aim for painful blows to inflict as much injury as possible. If possible, inflict bleeding wounds to sap strength. Once target is neutralized, utilize environment to damage and possibly destroy skull.

Suddenly he moved like lightning and his arm flicked out. I stared in stunned confusion as his hand struck my upper arm. There was another of the soft hissing sounds, and fire bloomed in my arm.

He'd used the second syringe on me. Stupid. I'd forgotten about that.

I had thirty seconds at rest before the drug kicked in. Less in actuality because my heart rate was accelerated. Assume three seconds for the drug to reach the heart, then five seconds to pervade entire bloodstream. The dosage is high, so effect will kick in in under five seconds after that. Timeline, approximately ten seconds, fifteen at best.

So I punched him in the throat. Straight down, with all of my weight.

Then I pushed myself backwards and collapsed, staring at the cloudy sky.

The ringing in my ears stopped finally, and I could hear the sound of the man gagging as he attempted to breathe with a crushed throat. I could hear Asuna sobbing as she knelt by Kazuto and talked to someone. I'd look but I couldn't move.

But the man would suffer before he died. And if he didn't die, he would never escape the consequences of killing Kazuto.

Probability of the man's death is less than one hundred percent. Sacrifice… was unacceptable… "Sorry, Kana…" I breathed, the first sounds I'd made since arriving. "Broke… promise…" I needed to reduce heart rate to extend survival time.

Asuna was saying something - I could hear emergency sirens. Din had called them as soon as I initiated the man. Too late, though. I wasn't going to make it. I felt them loading me onto a stretch and carrying me. I just felt so heavy, though... I tried to breathe, but I couldn't.

I couldn't do anything.

There was shouting.

I needed to breathe. Needed to breathe and move. I struggled to breathe but my chest wouldn't move.

I was going to die and that scared me. I was never going to see Kana again and that terrified me.

No. Absolute rage filled me and wiped away the icy terror. I tried to struggle; I tried to move, sit up, do anything. My muscles betrayed me and refused to move. I wanted, forced myself to breathe, but nothing happened. I'd be writhing as my oxygen ran out except I couldn't move.

No. No! Nonononono…

…

OH DAMN

IT'S HERE

And we're kicking it off with a 15k chapter. Let it not be said I don't spoil you all. (You might have also noticed the 'Book One' in the title. That's because my tentative outline for all of Nightblade 4 is running at least 70 chapters, if not more. I'll be breaking it up so that this thing isn't a million words long.)

Anyway, welcome to Nightblade IV! I promised you jerks, right? Nick doesn't know everything about Underworld because, like he said, he's working on a smaller side project. He knows a bit about how the STL tech works, but at the same time he can't actually explain a lot of it, since, well, NDAs and shit. Also because he doesn't care too much about how the black box works, so long as the black box works. He's still an intern there, after all, even if he's on break, and he's not a legal expert so he's playing it safe. That being said, he doesn't really care how the tech works (everything he knows was picked up by osmosis and/or bored reading of technical manuals) just so long as he can program in it.

Another of Nick's fears is revealed – going insane (or, more generally, not being in control of himself). It's kinda strange, given that Nick self-admits to being completely nuts, but that's the difference. Nick's particular malfunctions don't (often) interfere with how he parses the world, aside from assuming that everyone is watching him and waiting for him to make a mistake. He prides himself on his mind, so losing that is terrifying. Really, the only other thing he's terrified of (which is different from fear – Nick's scared of plenty, like sudden noises and the dark and not seeing what's coming and insects) is being alone. Being left behind.

And yes, he does memorize innuendo and suggestive lines, and the possible straight line situations in which they'd be useful. Mainly for situations exactly like this. It goes more or less like 'Shino takes a drink from my glass or from Kazuto's glass - Steal the glass and deliberately sip from where she did', and 'After explaining something personal, Shino makes a snarky dismissive comment - Reply with "And after I bared myself to you, expecting the same in return!"' (A lot of these are to reply to Shino, since that's kinda the relationship between Nick and Shino. Nick pretends to flirt with Shino, Shino pretends to aggressively hate him, but both of them care deeply for the other underneath it all.)

Nick's Contingency plan is something I'd had planned for a while, ever since Din became a major character. It's something entirely within his character, especially knowing Johnny Black was a major threat, to create a plan to deal with it; that's ninety percent of the reason he always does so well in planning, because he's always planning for as many situations as he can think of. Of course, it's also entirely within his character to ignore Johnny Black as a threat until it was too late. For what it's worth, a good lawyer could likely get Nick off of any homicide charges, given the threat against him and his as well as the actual (and successful!) attempt on Nick's life. Whether you feel he was in the right or not, he's stated before how far he was willing to go in order to protect Kana and the others. (You'll remember he was a few heartbeats away from killing Kyouji last story.)

Poor, poor Kana. Nick screwed up, and now she's going to lose him. The rest of the story is going to be from her point of view as she copes with his death.

Oh, and if anyone's wondering: this is just the prelude. The real story starts next chapter. So we'll go over the ground rules then, okay? Okay!

Canon Omake: Big Sisters – Part 1

Sometime in late April

It was a nice day out, and I was briefly considering just going outside and flopping down on the grass. Asuna's house did have a nice lawn... But I was here to help Asuna with her schoolwork while her mother was off doing something else, not goof off. I shook my head and glanced over at Asuna, expecting her to be working on the latest problem set, only to find her studying me with a speculative look. "What's up?" I asked her. "Need something?"

"No..." Drawing the word out, she reached out and grasped my hair, tugging slightly as she twirled her finger in a lock of it. "Just noticing that you could use a haircut, is all..."

"A bit random..." I replied slowly. Ever since the end of March, Asuna had initiated casual contact a lot more often. Nothing that would put me on Kazuto's shit list, naturally, but things like resting her hand on my shoulder or bumping my shoulder with her own as we walked down the school hallways. I'd gotten used to it, and even looked forward to it from time to time. "Are you bringing this up because you want to take a break?"

She glanced down at all the papers scattered across her table and sighed. "It would help. Not that you're not helping, it's just... the numbers are swimming in my head and I'm not thinking straight." She stood up, stretching. "While we take a break, I'll cut your hair."

She can do that? "You can do that?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course I can," she said with a smile.

She didn't elaborate, so I just shrugged. "I guess..." I'd been meaning to get a haircut ever since January, but I just kept putting it off. It was pretty shaggy by this point.

"Don't worry," she said soothingly, probably mistaking my silence. "I won't screw it up, and it'll just be a trim anyway."

I shrugged and stood up, letting her drag me off. The worst that could happen was that I needed to schedule an emergency haircut. And besides, spending time with Asuna was never a bad thing.

Oh hey mood whiplash what's that?