Sword Art Online - Volume 6 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  Sinon frowned and continued to search her memory before she dived in.

  “…Maybe I didn’t lock up.”

  “I see…then listen to me!”

  As Sinon had never seen Kirito look so worried, her chest immediately felt like it was stuffed with ice blocks and had a chilly feeling throughout her deep inside.

  No, I don’t want to listen on— though she thought this way, the lips in front of her had no intention of stopping and said something shocking,

  “At the ruins, when we were at the stadium, Death Gun already intended to use that gun after you were stuned. And…he really shot the gun at you when he used the mechanical horse. In other words…they were ready.”

  “Ready…what…”

  Sinon asked in a voice which nearly couldn’t be heard. Kirito himself nodded and answered softly,

  “…Right now, at this moment—perhaps, the accomplice of Death Gun in the real world entered your room, and is waiting for the image of when the gun hits you.”

  After a long while, Sinon’s consciousness finally comprehended what Kirito was saying.

  The image around her immediately became blurry. The familiar scene of her room appeared in her mind. She was looking down at her 6mat room like it was an illusion.

  The wooden floor tiles that were often vacuumed, the light yellow floor mat, the little wooden table.

  The black table was lined together with her bed, facing the wall on the west. The bedsheet was completely white, and Sinon was still lying on the bed in her underwear and pants. At this moment, her eyes were closed, and there was a machine on her forehead that was made from twin-layered metal rings. Other than that—

  There was also a black shadow stealthly standing there, watching Sinon who was dived in. That person who was covered in black completely like a cut-out figure, only he had a special clear substance in his right hand. It was a cylindrical shape and was made of translucent glass, and there was also a silver needle at the tip—a needle that was full of deathly liquid.

  “No…no…”

  Sinon turned her neck and moaned. Even if the illusion was gone and she returned back to the cave, the glint of the needle in the intruder’s hand was still in her eyes.

  “No…that…”

  This wasn’t just the simple emotion of ‘fear’. The intense emotion to resist should be running all over inside her body, causing her to continue to tremble. She couldn’t move, and couldn’t look around her. She was that weak, yet there was someone she didn’t know watching her inside her room. No—that wasn’t just it. That person could be touching the skin…looking for the place to inject…

  There was a sudden blockage feeling deep inside Sinon’s throat, causing her to be unable to breathe. She straightened her back and continued to gasp for air.

  “Ah…ahhh…”

  The light was leaving her, getting further and further away. A rumbling cry rang in her ears. Her ‘soul’ seemed like it wanted to leave her virtual body—

  “No, Sinon!”

  Her wrists were suddenly held forcefully, and there was a shocking voice that rang beside her.

  “It’s dangerous to auto log out now! Let’s do our best…calm down! It’s alright. You’re not in danger yet!”

  “Ah…ahh…”

  Sinon opened her eyes that couldn’t seem to concentrate, and her arms continued to flail. Finally, she got the person who let the voice out. Her arms were wrapped around the body which had warmth, only wanting to hug that person.

  She immediately had this strong and forceful arm grab her back, exerting even more force to steady her. And the other hand reached out, gently stroking Sinon’s hair.

  The murmuring rang again,

  “Before Death Gun’s handgun…the «Blackstar» hits you, the intruder can’t hurt you. That’s the limitation these guys set. But if you log out because of your heart rate or a change in body temperature, there will be danger when you see the intruder’s face. So you have to calm down first.”

  “But…but…it’s scary…really scary…”

  Sinon continued to cry like a kid and buried her face in Kirito’s chest.

  As the girl forcefully grabbed Kirito tightly, there was a weak but regular heartbeat from that person.

  Sinon continued to try her best to listen to this sound to chase away the terrifying image in her mind. Tokun, tokun, almost a second each worth of heartbeat entered her body. Sinon’s crazily beating heart finally went back to being like a regular beat.

  As she recovered, she realized that she seemed to be on the same mental wavelength as Kirito, and her fear left her slightly. Even though the fear within her didn’t vanish, the sanity that was enough to suppress these emotions was recovering.

  “…Have you calmed down yet?”

  Behind her, Kirito’s deep voice rang as his hand was about to leave Sinon’s back. However, Sinon shook her head slightly and said softly,

  “Let’s just leave it like this for the time being…alright…”

  Thought she didn’t hear the reply, the girl’s body again felt the other party hugging her. Every time the slender hand patted her head, there was a warm feeling that was melting the frozen heart of hers bit by bit. Sinon took a deep breath, closed her eyes and relaxed her body.

  After maintaining that position for several seconds, she blurted,

  “…Your hand, it feels like my mother’s…”

  “Mo, mother’s? Not like your dad?”

  “I have no impression of my dad. He died in a car accident when I was a baby.”

  “I see…”

  Kirito’s answer was rather short. Sinon forcefully brought her face near Kirito’s chest,

  “—Tell me. What should we do?”

  Her voice was sturdier than what she imagine. Kirito stopped the hand that was patting Sinon’s hair and immediately answered her,

  “We’ll take Death Gun down. With that, the accomplice who’s ready to kill you in the real world can’t do anything and leave. But you just need to stay here. I’ll fight. That guy’s handgun can’t kill me.”

  “Is that…really alright?”

  “Un. I didn’t state my name and address when I registered, and I didn’t dive in at my own house, and there’s even someone beside me. Thus, I’m alright. I just need to beat that guy who broke the rules.”

  “But…even without that «Blackstar», that mantle guy’s tough. You saw him dodge the Hecate’s snipe even with a distance of 100m? Maybe he can match you if it’s just dodging ability alone.”

  “Truthfully, I don’t have the confidence to say that I’ll definitely win…but the remaining choice, like what you said—we’ll hide here all this time until there are 3 people, and both of us commit suicide…”

  At this moment, Kirito glanced at the watch and Sinon looked at it too. It’s 9:40pm. Unknowingly, the scan at 9:30 passed through. It’s been about 25 minutes ever since they escaped to this hole.

  Sinon looked at Kirito’s face and then shook her head slightly

  “I probably can’t hide here any longer. The other players should have noticed that we’re hiding in a desert cave. There aren’t many of them, so we may end up having grenade attacks. Or rather, we’ve been lucky that we were safe for 30 minutes.”

  “—I see…”

  Kirito bit his lower lip and looked at the entrance of the cave. Sinon watched the side of his face silently and said,

  “Since both of us worked together till now, let’s just fight together until the end.”

  “…But…if you’re hit by that handgun…”

  “That thing was just an old single action handgun.”

  Sinon was more or less shocked that these words came straight out of her own mouth. That’s because that handgun—the «Type-54 Blackstar» was always the sign of the fear that tormented her.

  No, the fear never vanished. If it was just a coincidence that Death Gun chose the Blackstar as his split personality, that gun would be the curse Sinon could never shake off. However,
at least in this game, the Type-54 handgun wasn’t some powerful weapon. It was the increase in fear in her own heart that made her really afraid, that made her lose her original fighting ability.

  “—Even if he shoots me, you’ll just use that blade to easily knock those bullets back away for me, right? Besides, its rapid fire rate is several times less than an assault rifle.”

  On seeing Sinon suppressed her own trembling and finish what she wanted to say, Kirito gave her a smile that had worry and relief in them.

  “Un…I won’t let him hit you. But for safety reason, you better not appear in front of Death Gun.”

  After using his hand to stop Sinon who was about to argue back, Kirito continued,

  “No, I’m definitely willing to fight with you. But Sinon, you’re a sniper. Isn’t your specialty to snipe from afar?”

  “That’s true…”

  “Then let’s do this. During the next scan, I’ll appear outside to lure Death Gun over. That guy must be hiding somewhere to snipe me. I’ll then use that bullet to find his hiding place, and you shoot him. How about it?”

  “…You intend to be bait and spectator at the same time?”

  Sinon could only grumble at this overly daring plan, but in terms of their abilities, this may be the best option. A close-ranged type working together with a far-ranged type would definitely cause one side’s forces to be worn down.

  Sinon took a hard deep breath and nodded her head,

  “I got it. So be it then. But before that, you better not get shot to death by Death Gun in one hit.”

  “I, I’ll try my best…but that guy’s sniper rifle’s almost completely silent, and I can’t see the initial bullet line.”

  “I don’t know who said that he wanted to ‘predict the bullet line’.”

  Both of them were still close together. In such a conversation, Sinon felt that the fear that’s clinging onto her back was leaving slightly.

  Maybe there was a killer who entered her room in the real world—to be honest, she merely didn’t look or think about this scary guess. Right now, she could only believe what Kirito said, that the person couldn’t do anything once they take Death Gun down. Of course, besides Kirito’s words, the virtual warmth he gave to Sinon brought some comfort to her. She will have to leave the hole, separate from Kirito and get into sniping mode alone. She didn’t know whether she could maintain this current mental state. Thus, at least she should take more of the other avatar’s warmth. Sinon leaned her body closer for the last time.

  At this moment, Kirito muttered in a surprised manner…

  “Eh…let’s forget about that for now. Sinon, there was some red dot blinking at the bottom right corner since just now…”

  “Eh…”

  On looking over, she could find that it was just as what Kirito said. Sinon thought about what exactly was he talking about, but immediately looked up at bulletspeed. As expected, the object was at the top of the cave. She wanted to jump away from Kirito’s legs, but it would be meaningless to do this now, and she could only sigh.

  “Ahh…damn it, I was really careless…”

  What was floating in the air—was something mysterious, a round aquamarine concentric circle. However, that wasn’t a real object, but a glowing object in the game. Kirito, who discovered the same thing, tilted his head and asked,

  “Eeh…what’s that…”

  Sinon shrugged her shoulders and then answered,

  “A live camera feed. It would normally show the footage of battles, but now that there aren’t many people left, they would come over here.”

  “Eh…damn it. Was our conversation just now…”

  “Don’t worry. It won’t spread if we don’t shout or something—How about we just wave our hands at them?”

  Then, she continued with a cold and cruel voice,

  “Or will you be troubled about letting some people see this footage?”

  On hearing this, a terrified look flashed over Kirito’s face, but he immediately slipped through with a stiff face.

  “Ah—…no…well…I guess you’re the one who should be worried. Speaking of which, those who are seeing this would most likely think that we’re girls, right?”

  “Uu…”

  That was right. After that, she might have to explain to others what was going on. However—that was something that’s to be done after they pass through this crisis.

  Fuun, Sinon used her nose and snort and said,

  “—The one who panicked after discovering the camera had an uglier look. I don’t really care. Well…if there was some rumor that I had some strange liking, at least it would reduce a lot of troubles to me.”

  “Do I have to act as a girl all the way?”

  “Don’t say that you forgot. You asked me to lead you by dressing as a girl…ah, it vanished!”

  The outside audience can’t tell that we were making jabs at each other after seeing us like that, right? As Sinon thought this, the object that represented the live camera feed disappeared as it looked for a new target.

  Sinon sighed and then really supported her upper body.

  “Un…time’s almost up. There’s still two minutes till the next scan through. I’ll stay inside the cave, an you go outside to check the device, okay?”

  Sinon said as she slowly got up before pulling up Kirito who she used as a chair up till now.

  Soon after taking a step back, the cold air of the desert immediately covered her entire body, causing her to shrink her neck back. She picked up her beloved gun beside her foot and then carried the metal gun that had a tinge of warmth in the cold air.

  “Ah…speaking of which…”

  She looked up after hearing Kirito’s voice, and saw the lightsaber warrior frown, looking like he was thinking about something.

  “What else? There’s no time to alter our plan.”

  “No…the plan goes on. What I want to say is…Death Gun’s real name, or rather, the actual name of the character should be that «Sterben».”

  “Un…right, that’s true. Who knows how he derived that name.”

  “I’ll ask if I get a chance to fight him at close range. I’ll make a move first then.”

  The black-haired lightsaber warrior nodded his head as he watched Sinon’s eyes. He then turned his slender body around and walked towards the exit of the cave.

  This cold feeling that couldn’t go away even though I’m carrying Hecate, is it because I’m nervous about facing the final battle, or is it that I’m in danger in the real world—or is it because Kirito left me? Sinon couldn’t tell.

  She brought her shoulders closer in, breathed in the dry desert air, and then said to the profile that was gradually moving away,

  “…Be careful.”

  That profile’s back that was facing Sinon give a thumbs up on the right hand to answer her reminder.

  Chapter 13

  Asuna fought against an increasing uneasiness as she continued to wait for the moment to arrive.

  3 minutes ago, she logged out from her room in Yggdrasil City, went back to the Dicey Cafe in the real world and then dialled that person’s number. After questioning that person and forcing him to log into ALO, she went back to where everyone was gathered. It has been less than a minute since she logged in, but each second just felt extremely long.

  “Calm down, Asuna…but you won’t be listening to me anyway.”

  Sitting beside her on the sofa was Lizbet, and once she said this, Asuna then exhaled slightly before answering in a stiff voice,

  “Un…sorry. But…I just have a bad feeling. Something big must have happened for Kirito-kun to hide this «Laughing Coffin» incident from us and converted to another world. This is definitely not because of a grudge…maybe there’s something dangerous in the real world…”

  “After seeing that just now…I can’t say that you were thinking too much…”

  What Lizbet was referred to was the strange incident that happened in the tournament event of the otherworld «Gun
Gale Online», which was airing on the large screen on the wall that’s facing the sofa.

  The player in a mantle used this chilling handgun to fire one shot at the other player. And then, the player who was hit suddenly disappeared because of a disconnection. And the live telecast they were watching showed the mantle guy declaring to countless players “Don’t forget. Nothing is, over. Nothing, is, over—it’s showtime—”

  On hearing these words, Cline, who was in front of the bar counter felt extremely shocked, but still indicated definitely that the player under the mantle was a member of the SAO red guild «Laughing Coffin».

  During the two years they wandered in the floating city, Asuna herself went through many large-scale battles, and the crusade alliance against the Laughing Coffin members may be one of the most dangerous ever. In a group battle of players vs players, there had never been a case when more than 30 players died.

  To be honest, Asuna herself had forgotten about the details of this battle. However, what left the deepest impression on her was the back profile of the «Black swordsman» that continued to swing his sword like a devil as he stood right in front of the crusade that was about to collapse. If it wasn’t for him—Kirito’s fighting, the crusade could have been wiped out.

  The duration of the battle was rather short compared to clearing boss levels. After the deathmatch, there were about 10 casualties on the crusaders side, and Laughing Coffin had more than 20 casualties. They locked up the survivors of this red guild into the Blackmetal prison and then held a little mourning for those who died in battle—after that, nobody mentioned that battle again. No matter whether it was Asuna, Cline or Kirito, everyone forgot about this in their own way. That should have been the case…

  …However, the unexpected thing was that it’s been a year after SAO was cleared and every player was released, yet the bloodied past appeared right in front of them in such a manner.

  In the room, Asuna, Cline, Lizbet, Scilica and even Lyfa, who had no direct connection to this continued to remain silent and wait, waiting for the person who should know what was going on.