Even so, Kirito was able to accurately target the bullet that aimed for his left thigh with a flash of his lightsaber. That was not a gamble. Moreover, at this distance, this projectile velocity, Bullet Line assist would be useless. In the end why - how he did…?
Even overwhelmed by surprise for the moment, Sinon’s hand did not stop. While she was pushed backwards, her left hand let go of the Hecate, then she reached instinctively for the MP7 at her waist.
However, he was faster than that.
Like lightning, Kirito dashed across the ten meters gap between them and appeared in front of Sinon. The blade in his right hand hummed and dyed her view a brilliant blue.
She will be cut.
Even with that prediction, Sinon did not close her eyelids. Her open eyes saw, with a huge sunset for background, glossy black hair sway in arcs like a fan.
Then, everything stopped.
The Hecate in her right hand, and the MP7 in her left hand dangled as Sinon was deeply bended backward. However, no matter how long, she did not fall to the road. Kirito’s left hand supporting her back was the reason.
And then in the swordsman’s right hand was the lightsaber, held against Sinon’s exposed and defenseless neck. Only the sound of the blade’s plasma vibration hum, and the sound of the wind blowing afar could be heard.
With his left foot forward, Kirito was bent towards Sinon who was leaning back, just if they were enacting a scene in a dance as they were close together, and it remained paused for a while.
The dark pupils were right in front of her eyes. Until now, both in the real world and even in this virtual world, she had not allowed anyone to come this close to her. However, Sinon was not aware of this and asked in a whisper while peeking into Kirito’s eyes.
“…How did you predict my aim?”
At the other end of the energy blade, he softly spoke;
“Even through the scope’s lens, I saw your eye.”
Eye. In other words - her sight.
He read the bullet’s path by her sight, was what Kirito said.
There was actually someone in this world who could do this. Sinon had never thought about this. A small tremble that is either terror or not travelled its way from her back to the top of her head.
So strong. Kirito’s strength, had gone beyond the level of a VR game.
However, since this is the case - why then, in the corner of the Standby Room, did he tremble so much? Why did those cold hands firmly hold on to Sinon’s hand?
Sinon opened her mouth and a small voice asked.
“You are this strong. What are you afraid of?”
Then she saw the eyes of Kirito momentarily shake. After a brief silence, Kirito answered as if he was enduring something.
“This is not strength. Just skill.”
At the moment she heard those words, Sinon forgot about the blade of light next to her throat and shook her head violently.
“Lies. You lie. If it was just technique, it would not be possible to cut Hecate’s bullet. You should know. How did you become this strong? I… I want to know that so…”
“Then let me ask you!”
Kirito suddenly interrupted her in a low voice, but with blue flame like heat mixed in his voice.
“If that gun’s bullet will really kill the real world player… And then, if you do not kill, either you, or someone important to you will be killed. If that is the case, would YOU. PULL. THE. TRIGGER!?”
“…!”
Sinon forgot to breathe, and her eyes widened.
Does he know? she thought that for a moment. The mysterious visitor, did he know that Sinon’s past was paint in darkness, and an incident happened?
‘- No, wrong. It’s not like that. Probably… this person as well, in the past…’
The left hand supporting Sinon’s back became hard with tension, but soon relaxed. While his hair touched Sinon’s forehead, Kirito shook his head and whispered;
“…I can no longer do that. That’s why I am not strong. I… cut two people at that time, no, three people, and I do not even know their real names… I just closed my eyes, plugged my ears, and pretended to forget everything…”
Sinon did not understand what he meant.
However, she was sure of one thing. Inside Kirito, a darkness similar to Sinon’s - a fear was hidden. And then probably, while he waited in the Standby Room, something happened. Something that made his supposedly buried darkness overflow.
Sinon’s left hand let the MP7 fall onto the ground.
Her empty hand rose as if pulled by an invisible string, and closed near Kirito’s cheek past the lightsaber blade.
Right before her fingers touched - .
Unexpectedly, the usual carefree smile returned to Kirito’s cheeks. His eyes still retained a painful light. Even so he shook his head, and said as if to interrupt Sinon’s hand.
“- Well. It appears that I’ve won the match… do you agree?”
“What…? Ah, that’s…”
While she blinked as she was unable to switch her feelings, Kirito’s face closed in and he whispered.
“Then, would you submit? I do not like to cut a girl.”
Hearing his very rude and cheeky words, Sinon finally realized her situation. In other words, she was restrained by a left hand on her back and a lightsaber at her throat, and while she was in an unmovable state in extremely close contact with Kirito, that miserable appearance - that scene, was broadcasted live to the Standby Room, Presidential Lobby, and all the pubs in Gurokken, such was the situation.
While conscious of the blood rushing to her face, Sinon spit out a retort from her clenched teeth.
“…I am thankful to have another chance to fight with you. In tomorrow’s main tournament, absolutely stay alive till you encounter me.”
And then she turned her face away, and loudly shouted, “I Resign!”
Match time: 18 minutes and 52 seconds.
F Group, Third Bullet of Bullets qualifying final ended.
(To Be Continued)
Author’s Notes
I’m Kawahara Reki. I’m extremely grateful that you bought the fifth volume of this series. Including the other series, this would be my 10th work, «Sword Art Online 5, Phantom Bullet».
In Net-gaming, there are two rather popular forms of gaming genre other than MMORPGs. One of them is «Real-Time Strategy», and the other one is «First Person Shooter».
I like both genres, but if I want to talk about RTS, this column wouldn’t be enough, so I’ll have to cut it short (laughs).
And as the title implies, FPS is a game genre that normally allows the main character (=player) to wield a gun through a first-person view and play. It originated from America, so right now, no matter whether it’s the number of games or the number of players, Americans form the majority. But when fighting online in a player vs. battle, there would be situations where people would feel like saying “Are you the revived version of Simo Hayha?” Most likely, it’s those kind of situations while I’m still rushing forward at full speed, I’ll hear a bang from afar, and then there’s bleeding from between my eyebrows and I died, or that in close ranged combat, I already got an assault rifle and am shooting recklessly, but the enemy is closing in on me, dodging left and right, and then using the knife to kill me easily (At this moment, I really feel like saying: “Are you the revived version of Simo Hayha!?”). However, people would just say that I’m a Greenhorn.
The PvP in MMOs would be affected greatly because of the level and equipment difference, but the FPS character’s ability itself would rely on the player’s own skill. One of the reasons why I created this «Phantom Bullet» is to present this «ability» in the «SAO» series.
However, the problem was that even though I like FPS, I don’t understand anything about guns at all…this time, I used a lot of gun names and unique terms, but these were all hastily compiled knowledge at the last second. To the readers who are rather well-versed in this, you may feel that there are a lot of sc
enes where you’ll go “How is this possible!”, but I hope that everyone can be forgiving and treat it as “It’s part of a game anyway.”
To Miki-san, who is beginning to have more and more related tasks and yet still patiently waited for me to fine-tune my original script, Abec-san, who was able to present the charm of two (laughs) female leads perfectly in the illustrations, and everyone who supported me even after I wrote that ‘I’ll be going crazy’, please accept my headshot gratitude with your foreheads. I hope to meet you next time!
2010, June 10.
Kawahara Reki.
References
↑ Cream Puffs
↑ Napoleon Pastry
↑ The more formal version of -san
↑ University of Tokyo (Tokyo Daigaku) considered to be the most prestigious university in Japan
↑ Yggdrasil City
↑ Japanese Standard Time
↑ 7.0 7.1 this is a series of puns in Japanese... Basically, 'Usujio' is a type of soy sauce (with 20-30% less salt content, making it ideal for preparing most light and delicate dishes), and 'Tarako' means 'Cod Roe' (as in the fish's eggs). With the other name, 'Hokkai' means 'Northern Sea' (pretty much everyone should understand that 'Hokkai' refers to 'Hokkaido', famous for its seafood), and 'Ikura' means 'Salmon Roe'. Obviously the main joke here is that both characters are named after fish eggs, hence Kazuto/Kirito's comment on them probably being related... urh... because they're named after different species of fish, and so...
↑ look up "Nomura's jellyfish" if you're curious
↑ a traditional wintertime inuit food from Greenland that is made of auks preserved in the hollowed-out body of a seal. Around 500 auks are put into the seal skin intact, including beaks, feet and feathers, before as much air as possible is removed from the seal skin, which is then sewn up and sealed with grease, with a large rock placed on top to keep the air content low. Over the course of several months, the birds ferment, and are then eaten during the Greenlandic winter, particularly on birthdays and weddings.
↑ Scandivnavian rotten fish
↑ $2473.42-$3710.13
↑ Search for "Eitai Dori" in google maps, that will help you guys a bit to see where they are going for their date.
↑ The whole Imperial Palace area
↑ Augmented Reality
↑ Short for French 'Mini Mitrailleuse', mini machine gun, maybe the FN Minimi
↑ Before any gun maniacs complain, I found out from the web that the Ultima Ratio is the anti-personnel baby brother of Hecate II. Either the author doesn't know the difference or it's a combo of both guns. You should just ignore the Ultima Ratio part, but I have to put it in since it's in the raw.
↑ 6 mats ≈ 9 ft × 12 ft
↑ Japanese 911, police and emergency number
↑ firearm configuration in which the action is located behind the trigger group
↑ Japanese driver is on the right side.
↑ Japanese post offices also has banking functions
↑ This roughly means that he only started to think these questions after everything has already happened. I.e. agreeing to the request, going to the hospital, etc.
↑ While this name is not that used in Japan, RLGL is the equivalent of the game mentioned.
↑ This part is written in katakana and shows how to pronounce the word in Japanese.
↑ Kirito is asking because kouken is not an actual word. It is one of those composite words you get from combining two kanjis and their meanings.
↑ Sinon explains the kanji that is used in the first sentence here. It uses the character of light and sword. The character for light can also be pronounced as 'kou' and sword is 'ken'.
↑ Star Wars reference
↑ 餓え丸, katakana given as ウエマル
↑ In the original, the text gave it as コの字型
↑ Sci-Fi. Again, referring to Star Wars
↑ Legendary sniper of Finland who racked up the most confirmed number of kills. 505 sniper kills, and well, you can read the rest here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4
Sword Art Online - Volume 5 - Phantom Bullet Page 21
