Sword Art Online - Volume 4 - Fairy Dance

by Reki Kawahara

  It seemed Kayaba had decided to die with the collapse of the world of SAO before the incident even occurred. But it was an unusual way to die. It seems he remodeled a FullDive machine to perform a super-high-power scan of his brain, where it burned out his brain and killed him.

  The probably of the scan being successful wasn’t even 1 in 1000 - and, although it was baseless, she told me that in her heart she had the feeling that he somehow had succeeded.

  If it worked as Kayaba intended, his own memories and thoughts, all of the electrical signals in his brain should have became digital code and should exist in the network as a real electronic brain.

  After some hesitation, I told her how I had talked with Kayaba’s consciousness in the old SAO server, and how he helped me save Asuna, and what he entrusted to me.

  She bowed her head for several minutes, and after a drop of tear fell, said to me:

  ‘- I visited the mountain cottage where he hid with the intention of killing him. But, I couldn’t do it. Because of that, many young people lost their lives.

  What he and I had done was not something that could possibly be forgiven.

  If you hate him, please erase the thing he entrusted to you.

  But if… if you have something other than hatred inside you…’

  “- Kirito-kun. Hey Kirito-kun. About today’s offline meeting…”

  Asuna struck me with her elbow, and I pulled myself back together.

  “Ah - sorry. I was in a daze.”

  “Ohh. Either there or here, you’re still an easygoing kind of person when you are relaxed.”

  Asuna shook her head as if amazed, then with a sunny smile, rested her head on my shoulder.

  Part 2

  Seated at the third circular table from the south, near the windows on the west side of the cafeteria, I was sucking forcibly through a straw, trying to get to the remainder of my strawberry yogurt drink at the floor of the carton. The loud slurping noise of my attempt was quite unladylike and caused Ayano Keiko, seated across the table, to frown.

  “Mou[6], Liz… Rika-san, please drink a little more quietly.”

  “But that…. ah-, that Kirito, sticking together so much…”

  From my height advantage in the cafeteria, I could see over the treetops at the bench where they were sitting, a boy and a girl nestled together with their shoulders touching.

  “So outrageous jeez, doing that at school…”

  “Yes, that’s a bad hobby, peeping!”

  I looked at Keiko for an instant before speaking in a slightly nasty tone.

  “Saying that, wasn’t Scilica also looking hard until just a little while ago”

  Keiko, the dagger user Scilica - it may have been the opposite - looked down with her face completely red, and began to stuff her mouth with her shrimp pilaf[7].

  I crushed the empty pack and threw it in the trash a few meters away, then set my face on the table and let out a huge sigh.

  “Ahh… if it was going to be like this, we shouldn’t have agreed to that «One Month Truce»!”

  “But wasn´t that Liz-san´s idea?! We should let those two get lovey-dovey for only a month, you said… that was totally naive.”

  “You have a piece of rice sticking to your face.”

  Once again, I sighed, then looked up through the glass windows at the white clouds passing by.

  How did he find out my mail adress? I still don´t know, but in the middle of February I suddenly received an e-mail from Kirito.

  I was astonished, in my head I heard the ringing of a gong for the second round while delightedly heading to the meeting place, however, what Kirito had to tell me at that coffee shop was even more surprising.

  Kirito seems to have been involved in that huge uproar with the «ALO incident». I was told that among those involved, Asuna was a special type of victim.

  He said that Asuna really wanted to see me, of course I went flying over for a visit. Seeing that figure, like an ice spirit about to melt away, my protective instincts for her in Aincrad, were triggered very strongly.

  Fortunately, Asuna regained her spirit day by day and was able to enroll with us at school. When I saw Asuna again, rather than seeing her as a rival, I had the urge to protect her like a little sister. With the friend in front of me who loved Kirito in the same way, I had formed the «Let’s watch those two in warmth during May» alliance - the pact was done. But.

  Sighing for the third time, I swallowed the last piece of my BLT sandwich, and then looked at Scilica.

  “Are you going to today’s off-line meeting?”

  “Of course. Lyfa… Suguha-chan is coming too. I can’t wait to meet her offline for the first time.”

  “Scilica, you have a really good relationship with Lyfa.”

  I looked at her while wearing a teasing smile.

  “It must be that? There is a sense of closeness, because you’re both the same as an «imouto[8]».”

  “Muu…”

  Scilica’s cheek twitched as she tossed the last shrimp in her mouth, muttered, then smiled as well.

  “Liz-san is completely like an «onee-san[9]» these days.”

  For a few seconds, tension rose as sparks burst between us, then we both raised our head to look at the clouds, and sighed at the same time.

  Part 3

  Egil’s shop «Dicey Cafe», in front of its surly black door, hung an unsociable blackboard, with blunt characters saying ‘Reserved for today’.

  I turned toward Suguha beside me and said:

  “Sugu, have you met Egil yet?”

  “Yeah, I went hunting with him twice on the other side. He is a very big man!”

  “I’ll tell you, the genuine article is like that too. Be mentally prepared.”

  Beyond the wide-eyed Suguha, Asuna was giggling.

  “Me too, I was surprised the first time I came here.”

  “To be honest, I too was terrified.”

  After knocking the frightened looking Suguha’s head, I pushed open the door as my face stretched into a grin.

  As the bell sounded with a ‘clang-clang’ sound, shouts of joy, whistles, and applause rang out loudly to cover it.

  The shop that couldn’t be called large was already tightly packed with people. Big bass speakers played a loud BGM - to my surprise, it was a BGM from Aincrad, the theme of Algade city played by a NPC orchestra - under that music, everyone had a glass shining in their hands, everything seemed like it was well underway.

  “- Hey, we aren’t late.”

  I said my excuse, then uniformed Lizbet stepped forward to say.

  “Yes yes, the main character has to appear at the end. You guys were told to come at a little later time. Well, we welcome you.”

  The three of us were pulled into the crowded shop quickly, and boosted on to a small stage at the back. The door closed with a ‘Bataan’, right after, the BGM shut off, and the lights were dimmed.

  Suddenly, the spotlight fell on me, and once again Lizbet’s voice sounded.

  “Ah, everyone together ready… now!”

  “Kirito, for clearing SAO, Congratulations!!”

  Everyone chorused. Loud sound of crackers[10]. Applause.

  While my face showed a dumbfounded look, I was showered by the flashes from many bulbs.

  Today’s off-line meeting - «Aincrad Capture Commemorative Party» was planned by me, Liz and Egil, but it seemed to have went ahead without me. The shop was full of people, exceeding my expectations by many times.

  After a toast, everyone introduced themselves and then came my speech – this was not in the schedule at all – after that, Egil brought out several huge pizzas he had made specially for today, and the party dissolved into chaos.

  I accepted the thanks from the men with a shake of their hands and some of the female players got a little too close to me when they gave their thanks, and I finally staggered to the counter and sank on to a stool.

  “Master, bourbon. On the Rocks.”

  I told my unreasona
ble order to a very big man dressed in a black butterfly vest over a white shirt, who stared down at me for a few seconds. Surprisingly, he poured an amber liquid into a tumbler already holding rocks[11], and placed it in front of me.

  I gingerly licked the liquid, relieved to find that it was Oolong tea. I looked up and frowned at the happily smiling shopkeeper, then a tall man sat down on the stool next to me. He was wearing a suit with a cheesy tie and a bandana wrapped around his forehead that was equal in bad taste.

  “Egil, give me the real thing.”

  That man - Cline, the katana wielder, while holding his tumbler, turned on his rotating stool, and stared with a slack face at the corner of the shop table where a group of gorgeous girls were laughing.

  “Hey, is that ok? You have to return to your company after.”

  “I can’t work overtime without drinking. Anyway… that’s nice…”

  Looking at Cline drooping his nose[12], I sighed and took a drink of my tea.

  Well, the scene was certainly a feast to the eyes. Asuna, Lizbet, Scilica, Sasha, Yuriel, Suguha and other female players assembled in full force were worth taking a picture of. No - in fact, I should take a picture for Yui.

  Someone had already sunk into the stool across from me, he was wearing a suit, and unlike Cline, he gave off the impression of a decent businessman. He was the supreme leader of «The Army», Sinker.

  I raised my glass and said:

  “By the way, I heard you married Yuriel-san. It’s bit late but - Congratulations.”

  Clinking our drinks, Sinker smiled with embarassment.

  “Well, I am still doing my best to re-adjust to the real world. My job is finally on the right track…”

  Cline also raised his tumbler and leaned over.

  “No, I’m really happy for you! Damn, I wish I’d found a partner over there too. That reminds me, I saw that new publication: «MMO Today».”

  Sinker once again revealed a shy smile.

  “No, I’m ashamed… It is still lacking on content… Also with the present MMO circumstances, capture data or news is pretty much meaningless.”

  “This feeling is like the chaos at the birth of the universe.”

  I nodded, and looked at the shopkeeper who was shaking the shaker with a ‘chakachaka’ sound.

  “Egil, how did it go? After that - about the «Seed».”

  The bald headed giant grinned, exposing a smile that could make a child cry, and very happily said:

  “Awesome. There are now about 50 mirror servers… around 100,000 downloads. About 300 large servers are running it.”

  The «World Seed» entrusted to me by Kayaba Akihiko’s conscious modeling program -.

  Several days after my meeting with Kayaba’s female assistant, with some help from Yui, I downloaded the huge file that had been stored in my NERvGear’s local memory onto a memory chip and brought it to Egil’s shop. The reason I took it there was because I thought he was my only acquaintance who could help the seed germinate.

  For Kayaba and his creation, the floating castle Aincrad, of course there were some feelings of hatred. The world of that death game had killed some people who had ties to my heart. For those people who died in fear - and also for her, I would never forgive Kayaba.

  However, even among that great hatred, there exists a feeling of sympathy, which I unfortunately can’t deny.

  Because there was life and death, that castle truly felt like a real and different world. Even though I was eager to escape that world, at the same time, I loved it deeply. There was surely an everlasting feeling of hope deeply etched in the depths of my heart.

  Thus, I thought that I should at least find out what buds from the «Seed».

  The Seed of the World.

  Developed by Kayaba, it was the complete sensory environment for the FullDive system, it was called «The Seed», a preset series of program packages.

  Kayaba modified the SAO server autonomous control program «Cardinal», downsizing it to be able to run on small servers, above that he added game components for development to the package.

  In other words, if you want to create a VR world, you need a so-so big server with enough bandwidth, download the package, design the 3D objects or put in an existing one, run the program, then a new world will be born.

  The development of a program to control the input and output of five senses was extremely difficult. All VR games which were currently operating in the whole world were controlled by the cardinal system developed by Kayaba in Argus, with a terrifyingly huge licencing fee.

  With the fallout of Argus, the program rights were transferred to RECTO, and when RECTO Progress was dissolved, there were offers to sell the rights, but with the enormous price tag, and the decline of the VR game genre due to social criticism, not a single company accepted, so the VR genre itself seemed to be in retirement.

  What appeared on the stage was the completely free compact VR control system, «The Seed». Egil made full use of his connections to thoroughly inspect the program entrusted to me, confirming there was no danger of any kind.

  Where Kayaba’s real intention was - to say that there is no risk in the program, and what happens after it was released, no one knows other than Kayaba himself. However, I think the basis of his intentions originate from one simple feeling.

  That was the pursuit of «another true world», an endless dream.

  I asked Egil to help upload «the seed» to servers around the world, completely free to everyone, whether personal or companies.

  For the dead ALfheim Online, it was saved by ALO players, who had many people from venture companies.

  They funded a new company, and bought all of the ALO data from RECTO for a very small fee.

  The vast land of ALfheim was given birth in a new cradle, all the player data was completely inherited. It seems less than ten percent of the previous players left the game due to the incident.

  Of course, ALfheim wasn´t the only new world born from this “Seed”.

  Hundreds of companies and individuals who previously couldn’t afford the licensing fees, started VR game servers one after another. Though some charged and others were free, they came to be connected mutually as a natural flow, and some meta rules were introduced. Now, they are implementing a mechanism that will allow a character created in one VR game to be converted to other game worlds.

  Also, The Seed’s use isn’t only for games. Education, communication, tourism, new categories of server are born everyday and every day produces new worlds -.

  The day when «real area placement» of the VR world exceeded the size of Japan would not be far away.

  Sinker continued with a wry smile, his eyes still immersed in a dream somewhere.

  “We are probably witnessing the creation of a new world. To bind that world to the term MMORPG is too narrow. I’d like to update the name on my homepage… though the right word doesn’t come easily.”

  “Umm… Hmm…”

  Cline folded his arms with his brow furrowed deep in thought. I elbowed him, and laughingly said:

  “Hey, nobody expects anything from someone who has the sense to name their guild «Fuurinkazan».”

  “Say what! To tell you the truth, I’m being flooded with applicants for the new Fuurinkazan!”

  “Ooh. I hope there is a cute girl.”

  “Guh…”

  Seeing Cline struck speechless, I laughed then turned to Egil and said:

  “Well, has the plan for the second meeting changed?”

  “No, tonight at 11 o’clock, in Yggdrasil City.”

  “So that means…”

  I said, lowering my voice.

  “That worked?”

  “Yes. It seems they grouped the new servers and used them as one, after all it’s the «legendary castle». The number of users has increased, and the capital by a great deal.”

  “I hope it runs smoothly.”

  - After initialization, the old SAO server was completely discarded. However, when the de
velopment data from Argus was given to the new managers of ALO, it contained something that no one expected.

  I finished drinking my tea, and held the glass in both hands while looking at the ceiling of the shop. The dark panelling looked like a deep night sky. Faint gray clouds flowed through. The moon appeared, dying the world blue. Then something huge emerged from the distance -

  “Hey Kirito, come here!”

  Lizbet who looked dizzy suddenly shouted as she waved her arm to get my attention. “…That girl, she couldn’t possibly be drunk…”

  While my eyes were fixed on the huge glass filled with a pink liquid she was holding, I whispered. Hearing me, the outlaw shopkeeper wore a straight face and said.

  “It’s below 1% so it’s fine. Tomorrow is a holiday anyway.”

  “Hey hey….”

  I shook my head and stood up. It was going to be a long night.

  Part 4

  Through the jet black night sky, Lyfa was soaring.

  She kicked the atmosphere with the four pieces of her wings, slicing through it, accelerating endlessly. The wind roaring in her ears.

  Before, for the sake of gaining the maximum flight distance from a limited flight, for the most efficient cruising speed, it was necessary to use a flight method cycling acceleration and gliding, a lot of things had to be taken into account while flying.

  But that was now a thing of the past. The shackles that bound her did not exist in the current system.

  After all, there was no City in the Sky above the World Tree. The fairies of light, ALF, did not exist. The Fairy King bestowing rebirth to those who visited him was a fake king.

  However, this world collapsed once, it reincarnated in a new land, the new rulers - no, moderators, granted the inhabitants of every fairy race with wings of eternal flight. Not as an ALF, but as the people of green wind, Sylph, Lyfa felt that it was plenty.

  Logging in an hour before the meeting time, Lyfa was flying from the capital city of the Cait Sith, «Freelia», the place she was staying at for the moment, she had already been flying continuously for nearly 20 minutes. Meanwhile, without even resting for a second, her wings simply oscillated with full strength on her order, the magical propellers emitting a glass green light did not lose power in the slightest, continuing to respond to Lyfa’s will.