Early and Late

by Reki Kawahara

  And then…

  Yolko bit her lip and simply shook her head back and forth.

  Asuna and I didn’t know what to say. To our relief, Yolko gave us a reprieve by wiping her eyes and saying in a trembling but firm voice, “The time of death was one hour after taking the ring to the upper floor. The cause of death…piercing damage.”

  “…There’s no way you’d take a valuable item like that out of the town. So it must have been…a sleep PK,” I muttered. Asuna’s head bobbed.

  “Half a year ago was just before that method started getting around. Back then, there were more than a few people who slept in public spaces, to save the money on an inn room with a locking door.”

  “And the lodgings at the front line are expensive. But…I have a hard time thinking that’s a coincidence. Whoever went after your leader had to know about the ring…meaning…”

  Yolko nodded, her eyes shut. “One of the other seven members of Golden Apple…We considered that as well, of course. But…there’s no way to go back and look up who was doing what and when…So with everyone suspecting everyone else, it didn’t take long for the guild to fall apart.”

  Another heavy silence settled over the table.

  It’s a very nasty story. But also very plausible. It all adds up.

  It wasn’t that hard to find stories about perfectly friendly guilds with no dramatic storm clouds overhead being thrown into sudden turmoil by the lucky advent of a powerful item. The only reason they didn’t pop up in rumors more often was because the people involved just wanted to forget it ever happened.

  But at this point, I had to ask Yolko something.

  As the older girl looked down in pain, I took a practical tack. “Just tell me one thing. What were the names of the three people who were against selling that ring?”

  Several seconds later, Yolko steeled her resolve and looked up, answering clearly, “Kains, Schmitt…and me.”

  The answer took me by surprise. As I blinked, Yolko noted ironically, “But their reason for opposing it was not the same as mine. Kains and Schmitt were both forwards, and they wanted to use it themselves. And I…had just started being involved with Kains at the time. So I prioritized his opinion over the good of the group as a whole. I was a fool.”

  She closed her mouth and stared down at the table again. Asuna finally broke her silence to ask softly, “Yolko, are you saying…that you and Kains were still an item from the end of your guild breakup until now…?”

  Yolko shook her head almost imperceptibly, without looking up. “When the guild broke up…we did as well. We met from time to time to catch up…but we couldn’t stick around for very long before thinking about the incident with the ring. It was like that yesterday, too. We were only getting dinner…but before then, well…”

  “I see…It doesn’t change the fact that it’s a terrible shock. I’m sorry for asking you about these painful things.”

  Yolko shook her head briefly again. “No, it’s all right. Now…about Grimlock…”

  That name brought me back to my senses. I sat upright.

  “He was the sub-leader of Golden Apple. He was also the husband of the guild leader. Husband in SAO only, of course.”

  “Oh…your leader was a woman?”

  “Yes. She was very strong…for a mid-level player, that is…But good with a one-handed sword, pretty, and smart…I admired her so much. So…it’s still so hard to accept that she was so cruelly PKed in her sleep…”

  “I suppose it must have been a terrible shock to Grimlock, too, losing someone you love enough to marry…” Asuna mumbled.

  Yolko shivered. “Yes. Until that point, he had been such a kind and cheerful blacksmith…and after the incident, he was a terrible wreck…Once we fell apart, he fell out of touch with everyone. I have no idea where he is now.”

  “I see…I hate to ask all these painful questions, but there’s just one more. Do you think it’s possible…that Grimlock killed Kains yesterday? We took that black spear that was stuck in Kains’s chest and appraised it…and it said that Grimlock was the crafter.”

  It was tantamount to asking if the true culprit of the ring incident half a year ago was Kains. Yolko looked hesitant for a while, then very briefly nodded.

  “…Yes…I think it’s possible. But neither Kains nor I would have PKed our leader to steal that ring. I have nothing to prove my innocence…but if it were Grimlock who did that yesterday…then maybe he ultimately means to murder all three of us who were against selling the ring: Kains, Schmitt, and me…”

  We walked Yolko back to her inn, gave her several days’ worth of food items, and told her not to leave under any circumstances. In order to make things more bearable, we paid for a week’s worth of time in a three-room suite, the largest the inn had to offer. But in Aincrad, there were no MMORPGs to play to pass the time, so we promised to solve the case as quickly as we could before we left her behind.

  “Actually, I would have felt most secure leaving her at KoB headquarters,” Asuna noted. I recalled the splendor of their new HQ building in Grandzam, the City of Iron on the fifty-fifth floor.

  “Good point…but if she insisted she didn’t want to go, there’s no forcing her.”

  In order to have Yolko under the KoB’s protection, she’d have to reveal the full details of her situation to the guild—in other words, to make public every sordid detail of the dissolution of Golden Apple six months earlier. She’d probably resisted to protect Kains’s honor.

  Right as we reached the teleport gate, the town bell rang eleven o’clock. The rain was finally letting up, only to be replaced with thick mist. Through the haze, I looked at Asuna in her black and ashy pink outfit and said, “So now…”

  “…?”

  Asuna gave me a curious look, waiting for the rest of my sentence.

  It seemed awkward to bring it up now, but late was better than never, so I cleared my throat and said, “Ahem! Well, err. I just was…going to say…you look nice.”

  I did it. I was a gentleman.

  But no longer had the thought run through my mind than her face crinkled so sharply, it nearly cracked. She thrust her index finger into my chest and growled, “If that was your reaction, then you should have said it the moment you saw me!!”

  She spun at light speed and announced that she was going to change outfits. Her red ears had to be from rage.

  It made no sense. Truly, I would never understand women.

  Asuna emerged from a nearby empty home in her usual knight’s outfit, swinging her long hair behind her back. “So what do we do now?”

  “Ah, r-right. Our choices are…One, ask around the middle floors for Grimlock to pin down his location. Two, look for the other members of Golden Apple to get confirmation on Yolko’s story. Three…a more thorough examination of the clues in Kains’s murder.”

  “Hrrm,” Asuna mumbled, crossing her arms and thinking hard. “One is too inefficient with just the two of us. If Grimlock is the culprit as we currently suspect, he’ll be hiding out. Two…the other members are the ones involved, so it’s impossible to get an accurate picture…”

  “Huh? How so?”

  “Well, let’s assume they give us some information that contradicts Yolko’s story. How will we determine which story is the truth and which is a lie? It’ll just confuse us. We need more objective material to go off of…”

  “So…three, then?”

  We glanced at each other and nodded in agreement. For one thing, hard as it would be to admit to Yolko, the reason we were so interested in solving the case was not to expose the truth of the Golden Apple killings but to identify the method of the safe-haven PK that had killed Kains.

  All we’d been able to certify so far about the murder last night was that it was not caused by piercing damage inflicted outside of town and then brought inside. We needed to have a long, thorough discussion about what other ways it could possibly have happened.

  “It’s just…I think we need the help of someone with a
bit more knowledge,” I mumbled.

  Asuna looked at me curiously. “Yes, but it wouldn’t be fair to Yolko to go spilling the details of her story everywhere we go. And there aren’t many people who are absolutely trustworthy and know even more about the SAO game system than us…”

  “…Ah.”

  A single name popped into my head, and I snapped my fingers.

  “That’s it. I know just the person.”

  “Who?”

  When I told her the name, Asuna’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.

  5

  The fact that the man actually showed up thirty minutes after Asuna sent the message was somewhat of a surprise. I doubted it was because of my insistence that I would buy lunch.

  The moment his silent, tall figure strode through the center square of Algade, the passing players in the crowd burst into murmurs. His long blond hair was tied to spill neatly across the back of his dark red robe, and he wore no weapon on his waist or back. His sheer presence alone gave him the image of an imperious mage—a class that didn’t actually exist in SAO. Heathcliff the Holy Sword, leader of the Knights of the Blood and Aincrad’s greatest swordsman, smoothly approached us, his only reaction a raised eyebrow.

  Asuna gave him an audibly crisp salute and quickly explained. “Forgive me for the sudden summons, Commander! This id… Er, this man has some questions that he refuses to back down from…”

  “Well, I was just planning to eat lunch, myself. It’s not often I get the opportunity to receive a treat courtesy of Kirito, the Black Swordsman. I have a meeting with our gear managers this evening, but I have time until then,” Heathcliff said in a smooth, steely tenor. I looked up at his looming face and shrugged.

  “Well, I haven’t thanked you yet for drawing aggro for so long in the last boss fight. In exchange, I’ll tell you a very interesting story.”

  I guided the top two members of the strongest guild in the game to the sleaziest, scummiest NPC-run restaurant I knew of in Algade. It wasn’t because I liked the taste there, just that the overall aesthetic of the place somehow struck a chord in me.

  For five minutes I walked them through a maze of alleys, turning right, ducking down, spinning left, climbing up, and so on, until we finally reached the dingy-looking restaurant. Asuna looked at it and said, “You’d better guide us on the return trip. I don’t think I can find my way back to the square.”

  “From what I hear, there are dozens of players who got lost and didn’t have a teleport crystal, still wandering the alleys to this day,” I joked with a macabre leer.

  Heathcliff flatly pointed out, “You can pay ten col to an NPC on the side of the road to guide you back. And if you don’t have that much…”

  He lifted the palms of his hands in a shrug and walked into the building. Asuna made a face and joined me in following him.

  As I had hoped, the cramped interior was totally empty. We sat at a cheap four-seat table and ordered three servings of “Algade soba noodles” from the suspect-looking owner, then sipped ice water from cloudy cups. On my right, Asuna grimaced and said, “It feels like we’re having a consolation party…”

  “Just your imagination. Anyway, let’s cut your busy commander a break and get to business,” I said, glancing across the table at the cool-faced Heathcliff.

  His expression did not change the tiniest bit as Asuna offered an efficient explanation of the events of last night. The only reaction he gave was a twitch of an eyebrow at the scene of Kains’s death.

  “…So we were hoping, if it’s not too much trouble, to make use of your knowledge, sir,” Asuna finished. Heathcliff took another sip of ice water and grunted.

  “First, I’d like to hear Kirito’s conjecture. What do you make of the means of this safe-haven murder?”

  I relinquished the hand that was propping up my cheek and lifted three fingers. “Basically…I have three theories. The first is that it was a proper in-town duel. The second is some kind of loophole in the system using a combination of already known methods. And the third…is some kind of unknown skill or item that nullifies the Anti-Criminal Code.”

  “You can rule out the third,” he replied immediately. I couldn’t help but stare. Similarly taken aback, Asuna blinked a few times.

  “You seem…very certain of that, Commander.”

  “Just imagine. If you developed this game, would you insert a skill or weapon with that power?”

  “Well…I suppose not,” I said.

  “And why do you think that?”

  I looked back into those brassy eyes, their gaze full of a magnetic power, and answered, “Because…it wouldn’t be fair. While it pains me to admit it, at its core, the rules of SAO are fair. With the one exception being your Unique Skill.”

  I threw in that last comment with a little smirk, which Heathcliff silently returned. That caught me by surprise, but I didn’t show it. Even the commander of the KoB couldn’t possibly know about the secret skill I’d been hiding recently.

  Asuna watched the two of us exchanging enigmatic smiles, then sighed, shook her head, and interjected, “At any rate, it would be a waste of time for us to speculate on the third option, since there’s no way to be sure of it. So let’s begin with the first possibility: that it was a duel-based PK.”

  “Very well…By the way, this place certainly seems to take its time serving the food,” Heathcliff said peevishly, looking back over to the counter.

  I shrugged. “As far as I’ve seen, the guy here is the least motivated NPC in Aincrad. In a way, that’s worth enjoying. And there’s all the ice water you can drink,” I said, filling the commander’s cup to the brim from the cheap pitcher on the table. “If a player dies within a safe haven, then it’s common sense that it was from a duel. But—and I assure you of this—when Kains died, there was no victory display. Have you ever heard of a duel like that?”

  Next to me, Asuna wondered, “By the way, it never occurred to me before to ask, but what determines the location of the victory screen?”

  “Huh? Umm…”

  I hadn’t given that any thought, either. But Heathcliff answered the question immediately.

  “It is the median point between the two duelists. If they are over thirty feet apart at the time of the finish, a window will appear in the near vicinity of both players.”

  “…I’m surprised you know a rule like that. Which means that, at the very farthest, it would have been within fifteen feet of Kains.”

  I replayed the atrocity in my brain and shook my head. “There were no windows in the open space around him. There were dozens of witnesses, so that’s a certainty. Now, if it appeared in the church behind him, that’s a different story, but the killer would have to still be inside, and Asuna would have encountered him when she burst into there before Kains’s death.”

  “And I didn’t see any winner’s display inside the church, either,” Asuna added.

  I grunted in acknowledgment. “So…I guess it wasn’t a duel…”

  It felt as though an even darker shadow had fallen over the gloomy restaurant.

  “Are you sure you chose right with this place?” Asuna mumbled, finishing her cup of water and smacking it onto the table. I wasted no time in refilling it. She shot me a look and thanked me, then held up two fingers. “That leaves only the second option: a loophole in the system. I just keep coming back to one thing.”

  “Which is?”

  “Piercing DOT.”

  Asuna picked up one of the toothpicks from the holder on the table—a useless item, as teeth didn’t get dirty here—and jabbed it like a tiny weapon.

  “I don’t think that spear was just for a show of public execution. I feel like the damage over time was necessary for the PK to work.”

  “Yeah, I’d agree with that,” I said, only to shake my head at another thought. “But remember our experiment? If you’re pierced by a piercing weapon out in the field, then go into town, the damage stops.”

  “When you walk back, yes. But what about
a corridor crystal? If you had a crystal set up to teleport into that church room, then traveled through it from outside of town…would the damage stop then?”

  “It would,” Heathcliff said promptly. “Whether on foot, or through a corridor teleportation, or if thrown by another player, the code works on any player as soon as they enter the town. Without exception.”

  “Hang on. Does ‘the town’ only count on the ground and in buildings? What about the air?” I asked, struck by a sudden revelation.

  The rope. Could it be possible to hang a rope around Kains’s neck so that he hung out of the church window from a corridor crystal, bleeding out from the spear, as he did not touch any surface of the town?

  Even Heathcliff showed a moment of doubt at this thought. But two seconds later, his ponytailed hair shook from side to side.

  “No…strictly speaking, the safe-haven zone extends vertically from the borders of the town up until it touches the ‘lid’ of the floor above. As long as a player intersects with that pillar of space, they are under the code’s protection. So even if they set the exit of a corridor crystal to the air hundreds of feet above the town and tossed a victim in from outside its borders, they would suffer no fall damage. Not that the resulting nerve shock would be at all pleasant.”

  “Ohhh,” Asuna and I marveled in tandem. Not at learning the shape of the town’s safe-haven zone, but the sheer mental and observational skill of Heathcliff that he knew such a thing. Part of me wondered if that was just the kind of mentality one needed to be a guild leader, but then the scraggly face of a certain katana-warrior floated into my mind, dashing that notion to pieces.

  However—that meant that as long as Kains was within the town borders, even that piercing damage-over-time effect would stop. Which meant the source of the damage that eliminated his HP came from outside the Guilty Thorn. Could that be where the loophole was?

  I thought hard, and I eventually conjectured, “The Monument of Life included the cause of Kains’s death along with the time. It said ‘piercing damage.’ And the only thing his disappearance left behind was that black spear.”