Sword Art Online - Volume 10 - Alicization Running

by Reki Kawahara

  Yui diverted her stare back from afar, took a deep breath, and concluded.

  “As I said, right now, there are two rationales for the term Artificial Intelligence — AI. One of them would be like me, an NPC that is part analytical program and part character, a pseudo-AI. The other kind would be one that can develop concepts, those would have the ability to create and adapt while learning, a true Artificial Intelligence.”

  “Adaptability...”

  Asuna muttered as she parroted the word.

  “'A highly adaptive Artificial Intelligence'.”

  She returned the stares of the duo and Yui, one by one, gradually formed a conclusion in her mind, then slowly turned it into words.

  “Wha...What if RATH developed the STL not as an aim, but as a means...? Well, it's true that Kirito-kun had such a doubt before. RATH wanted to do something with the STL, so... If through the analysis of the human soul, the first real... bottom-up AI in the world... if that happens...”

  “Then, the real codename of the AI would be 'Alice'... wouldn't it?”

  On hearing Asuna's words, Lyfa muttered. Sinon had a similarly lost expression as she continued,

  “In other words, RATH isn't an enterprise that develops the next generation of VR interfaces... But in fact, an enterprise that aims to develop Artificial Intelligence... Is that it?”

  As they continued to discuss the situation with the 'enemy',the severity of it gradually became apparent. Such development caused the trio to quieten down. It seemed that Yui herself could not handle all the information, as she frowned.

  Asuna reached her hand out to her mug, reheated it from a pop-up menu, then took a large gulp from it, "houu", she sighed, and then said as she considered her opinion on the enemy's strength,

  “If RATH is the 'enemy', this won't be any ordinary enterprise we're dealing with. Considering the method they used for the abduction -sending a fake ambulance to a helicopter, and that there's a monster-like machine called the STL in that research facility -which we don't even know the location of, with the aim of creating an AI that's on par with a human. Then... the one who introduced Kirito-kun to work for RATH was Chrysheight... Kikouka-san of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. That guy has many links with the VR-related world, and speaking of which, RATH may have some national ties...”

  “Kikuoka Seijirou. As I expect, he's not just a bespectacled man who's pretending to be stupid like I saw... Can we still contact him?”

  Sinon, who was frowning away, shook her head weakly.

  “As of two days ago, we couldn't reach him by phone, and he wouldn't even send a message in return. During this time of emergency, I wanted to charge into the virtual division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, but it would most likely be futile.”

  “Yeah... Even though Kirito had once tried to track that guy down, that guy easily shook him off, or at least that's what Kirito said...”

  4 years after the SAO incident, the «SAO Incident Victims Rescue Countermeasure Team» was placed within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Technology, and after the incident was resolved, it was left behind as a division to deal with virtual related problems. One of them was the civil servant with black-framed spectacles, Kikuoka Seijirou, who seemed to have established contact with Kazuto after Kazuto returned to the real world. For some reason, he paid a high price to buy the services of the ordinary high school student in the real world, Kazuto, and requested him to investigate the Death Gun Incident.

  Asuna met him several times in the real world as well, and she partied with his avatar in the world of ALO, the Undine Chrysheight. However, she felt that under his relaxed and friendly attitude, there was something hidden, an impression that she could not ignore no matter what, even now. He called himself a civil servant but had no permanent place and was often treated coldly, so perhaps he was from a department that was more exclusive —Kazuto had doubts about this as well.

  Kikuoka introduced Kazuto to the mysterious enterprise called RATH for a part-time job. Asuna had tried many times to contact him once Kazuto disappeared, but his portable terminal was always set to auto-reply and he could not be contacted.

  She angrily called the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Technology, only to be told that Kikuoka was working overseas. It was reasonable that he could not be contacted because of that— But thinking about it the other way, was Kazuto's disappearance related to that man? One could not help but wonder.

  “But...”

  At this moment, Asuna and Sinon stared at each other's frowning faces, and Lyfa said slowly,

  “If Kikuoka is the link between RATH and the nation, why must he still work covertly no matter what? There's a need to protect secrets for the benefit of the company, but if it's an amazing scheme the nation is pursuing, wouldn't it be better to promote it hugely under normal circumstances?”

  “Now that you mention it... That's true...”

  Sinon turned her head around nimbly, nodded and answered.

  In recent years, this, together with the development of the virtual space technology, were two brand new frontiers. While each country was rapidly developing -America, and later Japan announced the construction of a spaceship that did not use external boosters, an artificial base on the moon, and the construction of a space station elevator. The impact of the development of real Artificial Intelligence was unprecedented, and each government had their reasons to protect their secrets -which Asuna had not thought of.

  But if that were true, if Kirito's abduction was something classified at a national level, then it would be impossible to think that they could do anything as ordinary high school students... Besides, this was an area that could not be accessed without police interference. Asuna drooped her shoulders as she was beaten by her weakness, and her eyes met Yui's as Yui looked up at her from the table.

  “Yui-chan...?”

  “Pull yourself together, mama. Papa never thought of surrendering when he was searching for you in ALFheim here.”

  “Bu...But...I...”

  “It's your turn to look for papa, mama!”

  At that moment, Yui, who proposed her responses were part of a simple learning program, showed a kind and warm smile that could not be imagined with her words.

  “There's still definitely a way to contact papa. Even if the enemy is the Japanese government, I believe that it definitely won't break the bond between mama and papa.”

  “...Thank you, Yui-chan. I will never give up. Even if the country is our enemy... I'll barge into parliament and grab the necks of the prime minister and the officials.”

  “That's the spirit!”

  Asuna and her daughter stared at each other and smiled. Sinon smiled as she looked at them, and suddenly frowned hard,

  “...? What is it, Sinonon?”

  “No, well... The current problem is that even if RATH is a national research organization, I guess the government or the parliament still doesn't know the specifics about the research.”

  “Yes... and then?”

  “If this were a secret plan of a clandestine department, I don't feel that it's easy to hide that department, right?”

  “What...?”

  “The budget! Whether it's a research facility or the STL, there's definitely a need for a huge budget. I'm not sure how many millions or billions or more, but I think it's impossible to withdraw such a sum secretly from the treasury... In other words, they need to account for it as part of the country's budget under some name, right?”

  “Yes, but... according to what Yui-chan searched, looking at those related to VR technology which require such a large budget is... Ah, I see... It's the wrong term...? It's not VR technology, but Artificial Intelligence...?”

  Yui looked over at Asuna and nodded with a serious expression, telling her to hold on for a moment before opening her arms wide. Her fingertips glowed purple, and she connected to the network from within ALO.

  The trio spent several se
conds full of expectations and uneasiness. Yui opened her thin eyes and said in an unemotional tone that was like an electronic ethereal voice which was completely different from several seconds ago.

  “Connected to the budget information data of each ministry and agency. Artificial Intelligence, AI, 38 other similar networks are being searched now... Confirmed 18 universities, 7 third-party departments, sums used for each research project are all small... Land infrastructure and maritime exploration development projects... Automobile development project... concluding them to be unrelated...”

  After that, Yui again raised a few items that were hard to comprehend, but deemed that they also were unrelated, and continued to raise examples before finally shaking her head slightly.

  “...I can't find any suitable and aberrant large budget sums through normal searches and special searches. Maybe it's divided into many small sums and disguised, which makes it hard to find out from the uncovered reports.”

  “I see... As expected, we find out that there are no avenues left open by them...”

  Sinon folded her arms as she groaned. Asuna sounded like she was grasping at straws as she raised her voice to shout, “But.”

  “—There might be a hidden budget of RATH amongst the items Yui-chan found. Why aren't we finding it? Well, I think that marine resources have nothing to do with this... So why must they carry out such a research?”

  “Erm...”

  Yui again widened her eyes slightly, connected herself to the relevant database, and immediately lifted her head.

  “...I guess it's some form of research like searching for oil underwater or precious metal deposits on the surface of the seabed and letting a small submarine navigate on its own. There would likely be a slightly large budget channeled for those submarines that house such AIs as priority.”

  “Heh... That sort of thing has to be robotized... Where are they developing it?”

  “The project is located in the... «Ocean Turtle». It was finished this year, a mega-float that aimed at researching on the ocean.”

  “I-I saw it on the news before.”

  Lyfa interrupted.

  “It appears a little like a ship with a pyramid floating on the sea.”

  Asuna silenced herself and frowned. She lowered her head for a while then suddenly lifted it back up,

  “Speaking of which, I did hear about this before. Ocean... Turtle...”

  “Hey, Yui-chan... Do you have a picture of that research facility?”

  “Yes, please hold on for a moment.”

  Yui waved her right hand, and a screen appeared on the table like the previous map, before immediately forming a 3-D image of the sea. What appeared was a complicated wire frame that was drawn on the center of the picture and a refined texture.

  What appeared on the small sea was truly something that one would immediately call a black pyramid.

  But, viewed from above, it was not square, but a rectangle that had edges with a ratio of 2 to 3. The height of the pyramid was approximately the same length as the shorter side. If one removed the long and narrow windows, the exterior would look like it was giving off a dark grey glossy glow. If one looked at it, one would get the feeling of an equilateral hexagon that had solar panels placed tightly together.

  There were projections from the four corners, and on one of the short sides, you could see a small command bridge attached. The H-logo on the roof would be the helipad, but it looked rather small. From a calculation based on the scale of the length, it was a shocking 400m.

  “I see... The four legs, four sided head, the pyramid-like shell, this does look like a turtle. But isn't that too big...”

  Sinon said in near amazement. Asuna swayed around to look, and pointed at the bridge of the Ocean Turtle with her right index finger.

  “But, look, the head here looks like it has a protrusion on the front face. Can you tell what kind of animal it is?”

  “Ah— That's true. It really looks like a pig. A turtle pig that can swim.”

  Lyfa said with an innocent voice.

  And then, seemingly shocked by her own words, she widened her eyes, moving her lips continuously before squeezing out with her hoarse voice.

  “If it's a turtle... and also a pig...”

  Asuna, Sinon and Lyfa exchanged looks with each other silently, and then shouted,

  “—RATH!”

  Part 2

  The EC135-type helicopter passed through the thick fog above the sea, and from the window could be seen a large blue expanse below.

  Unlike the view from a passenger plane at high altitudes -here, the wave peaks could be clearly seen and the sunlight dazzled from the surface of the sea as Koujiro Rinko thought, How many years has it been since I last played in the sea?

  It would take merely an hour for Rinko to move from her current workplace, the California Technical Institute to the San Francisco Bay area, but even though she could have enjoyed a sunbathing lifestyle whenever she wanted, she had never taken a step onto the beach during the two years she had been working in the university.

  It was definitely not because she did not like the sea breeze or the sunlight, and it seemed that a lot of time would be needed before they could take a vacation where she could earnestly enjoy herself. Rinko realized that it would likely take her another 10 or 20 years in a foreign country she did not know for her to forget about her past.

  So, Rinko -who had thought that she would never step into her homeland Japan again, was now flying towards that place which was the connection to her abandoned past while looking outside the window with an indescribable feeling.

  Four days ago, she had received a rather long mail that was sent from an unexpected person. She could have deleted it immediately and forgotten about it, but for some reason, Rinko had not done so. After spending less than an hour considering, she sent a reply back and had made a flight reservation. As she considered the last 2 years, she recognised that every day her thoughts had been frigid and she had been emotionally detached, and while she knew that this endeavour was completely futile, she had still decided to go...

  She took a flight from San Francisco back to Tokyo, stayed in a hotel in Narita, and then cautiously took this helicopter; Rinko sighed as she forced back this mystery she had been asking herself deep within her mind. Once I see what I need to see and hear what I need to hear, the answer will come naturally to me.

  Indeed, the last time she went swimming was ten years ago, during the first year of college when she did not know anything. She invited the second-year senior, Kayaba Akihiko out and had borrowed money to buy a light automobile to drive to Enoshima. That naive 18 year old back then did not realize what kind of fate she was going to meet at all...

  Rinko's mind wandered back from the musing on her distant past as the passenger beside her shouted to her with a voice that would not lose to the rotor's sound in volume,

  “I SEE IT!”

  The eyes from under the long, combed blond hair and sunglasses narrowed, and truly, on the other side of the curved glass window from this transport, there was a small little black body on a corner of the immense ocean's surface that extended out.

  “That's...the Ocean Turtle...?”

  Rinko muttered as she saw the dazzling rainbow glow due to the reflection of the black solar panels. The co-pilot in a dark suit who had been on the seat as they flew answered quietly.

  “That's right. There's still 10 minutes till arrival.”

  The helicopter flew approximately 250km in a long trip from Shinkiba to Tokyo -and the surroundings of the large ocean research facility «Ocean Turtle» then got into landing position in a serviceable manner.

  Rinko was inadvertently gobsmacked by the overly majestic sight. The term ship could not describe this completely. The large pyramid was standing steadfastly in the middle of the sea with a length that was 1.5 times that of the largest ship in the world, the Nimitz. The height was equivalent to a 25-storey building —she had investigated this data beforehand, but
the difference between her imagination and reality was like the distance between the Earth and the moon.

  The four-sided pyramid that was 400m long and 250m wide had black glowing panels that covered it like a shell. All of these panels were as large as the helicopter that they were currently in. How much did they invest in this thing here? Rinko could not tell. There was a rumor that in recent years, they had fully invested in the precious metals on the seabed off the Sagami Bay Coast, and after seeing that large body which defied common sense, one could tell that it was not simply a rumor.

  The mechanized megafloat ocean construct looked like it was developed for the next generation of seabed oil extraction —that should be the case, but in fact, what was installed inside was a research facility for the next generation Full Dive Machine that might be called the «Soul Translator» one that could read people's soul -that was what she was told in the mail a week ago. Rinko herself was doubting this, but after personally arriving, she had no other choice but to trust the mail.

  Why, why must the research with this brand new full-dive technology, the Brain Machine Interface be on the sea far from the Izu Islands? She had no idea what the reason behind it was at all, but in this black pyramid, there was a machine that combined the Nerve Gear that Kayaba Akihiko designed and the Medi-cuboid Rinko improved on for medical treatment, and as she considered this, she suddenly realized...

  The two years of her life overseas had merely numbed the wound within Rinko; it never healed completely. Well, in the end, she guessed that whatever she saw on this ship would either heal her wound -or rip it open and let the blood burst out.

  Rinko slowly took a deep breath inside the helicopter that was slowly descending and stared at her fellow passenger, who nodded slightly through the sunglasses, and readied herself to get off.

  Perhaps the pilot was a very skilled veteran, as the machine did not seem to sway much as it landed on the designated helipad on the roof of the Ocean Turtle's bridge. First, the man in the dark suit, who was the guide, alighted from the machine nimbly and saluted, then a man in a similar suit came running over.