Chapte 19.7
Gabriel and Critter’s secret plan was completely out of the RATH technicians’ imaginations.
On the other hand, even if they discovered it, they had no way of cutting off the satellite connection when the main control room was occupied like this.
But at the moment Critter sent out the suspicious URL, someone discovered that packet.
From within the portable terminal that Yuuki Asuna had brought with her, the Top-Down artificial intelligence that had been observing the Ocean Turtle’s internal status — Yui, accessed the announcement website and correctly extrapolated Gabriel’s goal.
She searched for a way to transmit a warning to the physically locked sub control room, but Asuna’s terminal had been left in her cabin, and no matter how much she sounded her ringtone, no one could hear it.
As a last resort, Yui could only pull her consciousness back to Japan on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and called several portable terminals at the same time.
***
Asada Shino, a high school girl in the real world and an elite sniper in the virtual world, was jerked awake, and jumped off her bed in her own apartment.
Her bedside clock read 3:00 AM. Although she had been awoken at a time like this, she was not the least bit drowsy. The reason for that was the melody she heard was Kirigaya Kazuto’s ringtone.
Was it Kirito, who had disappeared unconsciously, calling her?
Clumsily pressing on the terminal and putting it to her ear, she heard the frantic voice of a young girl.
“Sinon-san, it’s Yui!”
“Eh… Y-Yui?”
Of course, she knew Kirito and Asuna’s «daughter» — the artificial intelligence Yui. A week ago, when she had been discussing Kirito’s disappearance with Asuna and the others, she had personally witnessed Yui’s high-tech information processing abilities and emotional expressions.
But, to call her directly by telephone was completely out of her expectations; Shino was temporarily speechless. A slightly electronic, sweet yet urgent voice reached her ear:
“I’ll explain the details later. Get ready to leave your house and take a taxi. I’ll send the destination and the shortest route to your terminal. First, I’ll wire the taxi fare into Sinon-san’s electronic wallet.”
Then, with a charin sound effect, Shino’s terminal notified her of an online money transfer.
“Hah… T-Taxi? Where…?”
Shino stood as Yui instructed, slipping her foot out of her sleepwear and asked with a heavy head. But Yui’s next words jolted Shino’s consciousness awake like ice water.
“Please hurry. Papa and Mama are in danger!!”
***
“D… Danger?! Onii-chan and Asuna-san?!”
A high school student and swordswoman, also Kirigaya Kazuto’s younger sister, Kirigaya Suguha demanded as she buttoned her pants.
“Leafa-san, you’ll wake up Aunt Midori if you’re that loud.”
Listening to the calm voice from the terminal, Suguha hurriedly closed her mouth.
“Ye…Yeah. Hey… This is my first time sneaking out this late…”
“Very regrettable, but now there’s not much time to explain the reason for your excursion to obaa-sama. Just leave a message in your home server explaining that you needed to attend an early morning club activity.”
“O… Okay. Wow… Yui sure is a great strategist.”
Suguha exclaimed as she finished dressing. She descended the stairs with soft steps, and extended her hand towards the front door handle. Although they lived in an ancient Japanese-style house, their online security system still ran throughout the night, but the alarm line seemed to have been severed.
After Kazuto disappeared, her mother came home early every day. Feeling guilty for her own actions, Suguha put her hands together and apologized before leaving through the entrance.
— I’m sorry, Mom. I will definitely save onii-chan.
After reaching the main road, a taxi appeared before her. Probably one that Yui had reserved online. Although the driver was slightly surprised at Suguha’s age, after she explained that her relatives were ill, she glanced at her terminal and said:
“Um… Please head to Tokyo harbor.”
She probably shouldn’t be too specific and say “Roppongi” 4 .
***
Higa Takeru felt a half-eaten Energy Bar hit his leg after dropping from his desk, and suddenly opened his eyes.
After blinking forcefully a few times, he confirmed the time on the wall clock. There was still a while before 4:00 AM, Japan Standard Time. Glancing beside him, he saw that the RATH technicians watching the sub control room all had fatigued expressions.
Professor Koujiro Rinko sat horizontally on on a chair at the control console, her head drooping up and down as she drifted in and out of sleep.
Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka was not asleep, but his thin slits for eyes staring at the main monitor from behind his black-framed glasses has lost their usual sharpness.
On the other hand, four technical crewmembers were sprawled like corpses on mattresses laid out beside the wall. Considering that any Defense Officer among the Self-Defense Force could be leaking information, Kikuoka had stationed them to guard the pressure-resistant wall partition beneath the sub control room.
Since they had been attacked by a mysterious paramilitary group, fourteen hours had elapsed — or rather, finally passed by.
Ten hours still remained before the Aegis destroyer «Nagato», which was protecting them from a distance — or so it was originally — would give the order to storm the Ocean Turtle. Under this situation, their wait was despairingly long. It was even more so in the time-accelerated Underworld.
Ten hours had passed since Yuuki Asuna had dived in with Super Account 01. Calculating according to the internal acceleration rate of one thousand times, that equated to ten thousand hours — over one year. But there had been no news on whether her mission to protect Alice had succeeded or failed.
“Is it really that far away… from the Human Empire to the World End Altar…”
Higa mumbled, his mind constructing a map of the Underworld that resembled the RATH logo — Just then.
The telephone on the control console burst to life with a earsplitting pi pi pi, pi pi pi . Higa jumped without thinking.
“Ki… Kiku-san, the phone.”
Wondering whether something had happened downstairs, he notified the commander.
Also startled by the phone, a figure in a Hawaiian shirt clamored for the receiver, his clogs slipping from his feet.
“Sub control room, this is Kikuoka!”
Although his voice was slightly hoarse, he still managed a forceful reply. After a moment, from the receiver came — not the voice of Captain Nakanishi, in command of the Defense Officers, but the hesitant voice of a young man.
“Uh, um, this is the STL development headquarters of RATH… Right? I’m Hiraki of the RATH Roppongi branch…”
“Hah? R-Roppongi?”
In regards to Kikuoka, this was an extremely rare, slow voice reserved for situations completely outside of his expectations. But Higa was the same.
Why would the Roppongi branch be contacting them at this time? The technicians there were completely unaware that RATH was a disguised business venture operating on government defense budget, that its headquarters was based not on Japanese soil but in the Ocean Turtle floating far out in the south Pacific Ocean, and the name Project Alicization should be completely foreign to them.
Of course, they were even more unlikely to know that RATH was currently under attack by a mysterious enemy. The Roppongi branch was set up entirely for the development of STL-related technologies, merely an outside institution.
Right… STL…
Suddenly, a feeling of noticing something flew past in Higa’s mind, but Kikuoka coughed loudly before Higa could catch it.
“Ah, ahh, yes. I am Kikuoka of the STL development headquarters.”
“Ah, hello, hello! We’ve met before. Long time no see, I am Hiraki, honored to be the development director as you appointed me here!”
— No need for this corporate talk now, just get to the point!!
Higa screamed silently. Kikuoka put on the same expression, but the words coming out of his mouth effused a faux corporate-like tone.
“Ah, greetings and thank you for your hard work, director Hiraki. It’s pretty late; are you working overtime?”
“No, it’s just that I missed the last train as I was drinking. It’s all the fault of the office location. Oh, Roppongi. Ah, don’t tell the higher-ups, heh heh.”
— You’re talking to a higher-up right now! The highest-up ! Now just spit it out!!
Whether Higa’s willpower had achieved some effect or not, Hiraki stopped his nonsense, and quickly changed his tone.
“Ah — right, it’s like this… We’ve got a problem, it’s… something strange. Right now, someone’s suddenly come in from the outside without an appointment…”
“From the outside? Is it a client?”
“No, it’s got nothing to do with that… Also, they look kind of like high school girls, and there are two of them…”
“HAH?!”
Kikuoka and Higa, along with Professor Koujiro who had stood up at some time, yelped in unison.
“High… High school girls?”
“Yeah. I tried to turn them away, since this company’s secrecy policy is very stringent, you know. But… the things they’re saying, makes me think… “
At Hiraki’s meandering words, even Higa rose to his feet, both hands on the control console. Once more, Kikuoka exerted his admirable iron willpower, and asked steadily:
“So, what exactly did they say?”
“I remember it was like, immediately contact Kikuoka Seijirou at the RATH headquarters, and tell him: confirm the Underworld FLA rate now… That’s what they said.”
“Wh… Whaaaat?!”
The two men yelped in unison again.
Why would high school girls from outside know these words?! These are not words that those who aren’t familiar with all of Project Alicization would know.
Higa, his mouth hanging open, exchanged looks with Kikuoka and automatically turned towards the control console, his fingers sailing on the keyboard.
On the pitch-black monitor, the current time acceleration rate appeared.
x 1.00.
“Gh… One?! When did this happen?!”
Higa turned away, breathing hard, as Kikuoka frantically shouted into the mouthpiece.
“Na… Name. Did those two girls mention their names?”
“Ah, yes. That was funny… They didn’t sound like their real names at all. They told me to tell Kikuoka-san that they were ‘Sinon’ and ‘Leafa’. They looked Japanese, though.”
Clack .
That dry noise was the sound of the clog hanging on Kikuoka’s right foot falling to the floor.
***
Only after the automatic lock on the door to RATH’s Roppongi branch had clicked open, and Asada Shino and Kirigaya Suguha had trotted in, did the artificial intelligence Yui feel slightly calmer.
In particular, she breathed a small hoh of relief, and allocated a large portion of her calculating power on another task she was running at the same time.
Yui estimated that achieving her goals would come with a great deal of difficulty, because this was something that she definitely could not bring about on her own.
But at the same time, if she failed, the ones she held most dear, Kirito and Asuna, would be faced with grave danger.
Pulling her consciousness away from Shino’s portable terminal, Yui gazed with round eyes at each of the four fairies across from her.
Yui and the others were currently within the VRMMORPG — «ALfheim Online», in Kirito and Asuna’s virtual cabin on Floor 22 of New Aincrad.
Before Yui, who had transformed into a Navigation Pixie and was floating in the air, sitting on the couch was the Cait Sith player Silica, with triangular ears and small fangs.
Beside her, with a head of metallic pink hair, was Lisbeth, a Leprechaun.
Leaning his waist on a table a slight distance from them, his standing red hair tied in a drab bandanna, was Klein, a Salamander. And beside him was a huge gray-skinned man with his arms crossed, Agil, a Gnome.
They were battle-worn VRMMO players often known as SAO survivors, who had lived through the death game «Sword Art Online», and also best friends of Kirito and Asuna. Even though it was currently very early in the morning, as soon as they received Yui’s call, they had quickly logged into ALO, and had just finished listening to an update on the situation.
Afterword
Thank you to everyone for reading the sixteenth volume of Sword Art Online, [Alicization Exploding], published a year after the previous one.
Ever since the battle in the Central Cathedral ended, the story has finally extended from the Human Empire to the entire Underworld… I’m very sorry for making everyone wait for so long. In this volume, Asuna finally descends into the battlefield, and seems like some familiar characters are joining the battle as well, so from now on, I hope I can recover the normal pace until the end of Alicization arc. After being constantly protected since the last volume, Kirito-shi may make a big comeback in the next one. I just can’t help feeling so!
The subtitle of [Exploding] was added to reference the various explosions and bursts that occurred in this volume. Although the names were kind of short at first, like [Beginning] and [Turning], they’ve been getting longer and longer recently 6 , so I want to shorten the next volume’s name a bit. Below, I’ll be discussing the plot of this volume for a bit. The first half of this volume is titled [War of the Underworld], and it gives a taste of a war chronicle since various characters are all fighting in a mess. Because of that, I’ve shifted the writing style from a limited third-person perspective to the so-called “omniscient third-person perspective”. Please forgive me if you were confused by the endlessly appearing information that should remain unknown to that part’s central character!
Although I want to describe the author’s situation, life has been pretty normal like last time, so there aren’t any topics worth mentioning… I haven’t been playing any MMORPG games properly these few years.
I’d love to start something new yet I haven’t done that since long ago, so I at least tried a western open-world RPG on the PS4, and wow, that was awesome. The map’s too big, there’s too much freedom, so after wandering around for a while I forgot what would happen during the main quests. I’m pretty sure that if I used an HMD 7 and motion controllers to play this kind of game, I wouldn’t be able to return to the real world! I’m always dreaming that one day SAO will become like this kind of game, but when I pleaded to producer Futami over at Namco Bandai Entertainment, “Please turn the entire Underworld into something that you can adventure around in!”, I only got a stupefied smile in return.
Lastly, some routine words of thanks. To abec-san, who gave the Stacia version of heroine Asuna-san the most beautiful and cutest design possible (Sheyta, Renri, and the Goblin Tribal Chiefs are great, too!), and to Miki-san, who as chief editor proofreads for me deep into the night, thank you very much! See you next volume, everyone!
A certain day in June 2015
Kawahara Reki
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