Sword Art Online - Volume 18 - Chapter 23.1

Chapter 23.1 – Return
7 July 2026 / Eighth Day of the Eleventh Month of the Human Empire Calendar, 380

Koujiro Rinko was sitting in the operator’s chair in the sub control room, fixating upon the tiny glass hatch situated slightly to the left on the front of the console.

The liquid crystal display above the hatch was blinking with red letters: [EJECTING…]

The low hiss of escaping pressurized air was heard.

Finally, a small, black, square-shaped object emerged behind the glass window. The letters on the LCD changed to [COMPLETE].

Rinko reached out a trembling hand, slid the hatch open, and retrieved the object within.

It was a solid metal package. A cube, roughly six centimeters wide, and unexpectedly heavy. It was seamless and jointless; only one side was carved with a six-digit number and fitted with a microconnector port.

The soul of «Alice» was sealed inside.

Just as the the system had commanded, a single cube had been ejected from the Light Cube Cluster installed at the center of the Ocean Turtle’s main shaft, bundled into a protective package, and dispatched through a long vacuum chute.

It was, at the same time, traveling from the inner realm of Underworld to the outer realm of the real world.

For a moment, Rinko found herself quite unable to speak, beset by an indescribable emotion, but quickly regained her composure and cried into the microphone while clutching the package:

“Asuna-san, Alice’s ejection is complete! Now it’s just you and Kirigaya-kun; hurry!”

She continued to yell, watching the main monitor give way to a scarlet countdown:

“There’s only 30 seconds until the maximum acceleration phase starts!! Hurry up and log out!!”

For a moment, there was silence.

And then, something she did not anticipate finally came out of the speaker.

“I’m sorry, Rinko-san.”

“Wha…? W-What do you…?”

“I’m sorry. I’m… staying here. Thank you so much for everything. I will never forget what you did for me, Rinko-san.”

Yuuki Asuna’s voice sounded calm, pleasant, and full of determination through the speaker.

“I’m leaving Alice to you. She’s a kind person. She holds great love inside her, and she is loved by many others. For the sake of the many souls lost in her name… and for the sake of Kirito-kun, please do all in your power to prevent her from being put to military use.”

Rinko was speechless. Then she heard the final words Asuna would say to her.

“And please tell everyone: I’m sorry… thank you… and goodbye…”

And then, the countdown fell to zero.

***

A prolonged siren ushered in the rumbling hum of machines, echoing throughout the narrow cable duct.

It was 10:00 am on July 7. With the end of the 15-minute countdown, the cooling system behind the wall began chugging at full force. Several massive fans started to siphon away the vast amount of heat generated by the cluster of machinery sustaining Underworld. Anyone at sea observing the Ocean Turtle now would likely be able to catch sight of the shimmering air billowing from the pyramid’s apex.

“……There it goes…”

Higa Takeru muttered softly.

“Yeah,” came the reply of Kikuoka Seijirou, hauling Higa down a narrow ladder on his back.

Upon deciding that they would not be able to prevent the onset of the maximum acceleration phase, both had immediately begun preparations to descend once more into the maintenance cable duct, but the single task of stabilizing Higa’s body with a harness had burned through eight minutes of their time.

Kikuoka continued scrambling down the ladder at a speed that was surely producing streams of sweat, but Underworld’s maximum acceleration phase was well under way before they had even made it to the pressure-resistant partition.

Almost imploringly, Higa pressed his radio switch and called Dr. Koujiro in the sub control room.

“Rinko-san… how’s everything?”

There was static, followed by a successful connection tone, but he heard only dull silence in reply.

“…Rinko-san?”

“…Sorry. I’ve secured Alice’s Light Cube without incident. But…”

In a stifled voice, Dr. Koujiro told him what had just happened.

Higa swallowed his breath and shut his eyes tightly.

“…I understand. We’ll work as hard as we can from here. I’ll contact you to unlock the partition hatch next.”

Higa disconnected and emptied his lungs in one long, thin exhale.

Kikuoka did not inquire, perhaps guessing the circumstances from their conversation. He went on exerting his muscular back.  

“…Kiku-san…”

It was a few seconds before Higa finally managed to muster a whisper, and convey to the commander what Dr. Koujiro had told him.

***

Critter stared in silence at a new window that popped up on the main monitor and the message appearing within it.

The short memo informed him that a single Light Cube had been ejected from the Cluster and sent to the sub control room beyond the pressure-resistant partition.

This meant that «Alice» had been acquired by RATH.

It also meant that their 10-hours-and-counting operation of locating Alice within Underworld and obtaining her had completely failed. All of the effort that went into Vassago and Captain Miller personally diving in, urging the Dark Territory army into an invasion of the Human Empire, waging an extravagant war that was the envy of a Hollywood movie, and even going as far as to drag tens of thousands of online gamers from the US, China, and Korea into battle, had gone to utter waste.

Critter scratched his close-cropped hair, snorted, then switched trains of thought.

With eight hours left until the destroyer began its raid, did they still have a chance at making a second, physical attempt to get Alice?

They had no way of breaking through the ultra-strong, composite material pressure-resistant partition from this side; it would be a different story, however, if they managed to unlock it, like RATH just had.

But why were they even opening the partition to begin with? Did RATH really think they stood a chance of holding them back with a clumsy robot and a couple of smoke grenades?   

What if that had been a diversion…? If they had another reason to open the partition, what in hell was it?

Critter turned to address the squad, which had just begun playing cards again.

“Yo, you know that robot that just came at us from upstairs? Did it have a bomb or anything strapped to it?”

Whereupon Hans’ tall figure scratched his mustache and replied:

“Well, I definitely made sure to check, y’know? There weren’t any fixed weapons on it at all, let alone a bomb. They were probably trying to use it as a ballistic shield, but it stopped moving after we lit it up. And the soldiers following behind it made a quick retreat after that, y’know?”

“Hmm… —By the way, the JSDF guys aren’t ‘soldiers’, they’re called personnel.”

Critter spun his chair back forward after adding a wholly unnecessary bit of trivia.

So that robot’s little disturbance must have been a diversion. But even with smoke grenades, rushing past Hans, Brigg, and the others without them noticing was impossible.

In that case—

He picked up the tablet computer sitting on the table and pulled up the sketch of the Ocean Turtle’s interior.

“Hmm… here’s the main shaft, and the partition cuts across from here… this must be the stairway that the robot was hauling ass from…”

At that moment, the countdown on the monitor reached zero and a shrill alarm blared. Underworld’s time acceleration was beginning again. What was more, Brigg’s numbskullery had resulted in him breaking off the operating lever, which was causing the speed multiplier to rise to outrageous levels.

But it no longer mattered what happened to Underworld now. Since the Alice retrieval mission had failed, Vassago and Captain Miller had probably «died» in their dives and should now be undergoing logout procedures in the attached room.

In that case, Critter had to devise their next plan of attack before Captain Miller reappeared.

He magnified and scrolled over the complex sketch, before finally becoming aware of something.

“Oh, there’s a tiny hatch here too… ‘Cable duct’? What’s this…?”

***

Having communicated the situation to Higa Takeru, Rinko sighed wearily and leaned back into her mesh chair.

Yuuki Asuna’s determination to stay in Underworld herself just because Kirigaya Kazuto had no way of escaping before acceleration started, was too young, too impulsive, and yet — pricelessly beautiful.

She could not resist thinking of him. 

How the man she once loved had deserted her in the real world and vanished into cyberspace.

If she had the chance to go with him back then, what would she have done? Would she had chosen to fry her own brain with the STL prototype like he had, leaving behind only a copy of her own consciousness?

“Akihiko-san… you…” Rinko said in an inaudible whisper, closing her eyes.

A «true alternate world», realized merely with the floating castle of Aincrad and the 10,000 players trapped within: that had been his… that had been Kayaba Akihiko’s ambition.

But he had discovered something — had learned something over the two years he spent in that floating castle. It was this something that had changed his mind.

There was still much, much more work to be done.

He had realized that SAO was not the end point after all; rather, it was only the beginning. It was this very reason that had spurred him to continue condensing the NerveGear technology, and finally complete the prototype with which he would end up destroying his own body in a Nagano mountain village wrapped by primeval forest.

His development data was left to Rinko, who adapted it to design a medical-use high precision FullDive device, the «Medicuboid».

RATH and Higa Takeru then built upon three years of extensive data provided by a tester — a young girl — of the first Medicuboid prototype, to complete the STL.

In the end, you could say that Underworld, the ultimate alternate world, had been borne out of Kayaba Akihiko’s dream.

Did that mean, then, that with Underworld’s completion Kayaba’s dream had been fully realized?

No, that couldn’t be it.

Why? Because the other piece he had left behind — the jigsaw piece he called «The Seed» package, still did not seem to fit anywhere in the puzzle.

Yes, the standardization of VRMMOs built with The Seed was what made it possible for the Japanese players to retaliate against the foreign attack by converting their accounts.

But not even Kayaba would be able to predict this years before it happened. The account conversion rescue was, at most, only a secondary effect.

What on earth had been his goal, then? Why was there a need to bring many VR worlds together and unite them under a common standard…?

The duralumin safekeeping case containing Alice’s Light Cube sat atop the console.

Being an aggregation of quantum gate elements, the Light Cube was non-volatile, but since the driver circuit of the logic gates inside the package required electric current to function, Alice’s soul would remain inactive as long as it was sealed within the case.

Caressing the silver container with her right hand, Rinko turned towards the humanoid silhouette poised in the left corner of the sub control room — the mechanical body «Niemom».

Installing Alice’s Light Cube package into the socket on the robot’s head would turn Niemom into Alice’s body, and she would be able to move and speak.

She thought of carrying out that idea, of talking to Alice — but Rinko gave a slight shake of her head and chased away the impulse. This was no time for that sort of thing, not when Kazuto and Asuna were still in such danger; besides, although considerably slimmer than Ichiemom, Niemom’s complete lack of feminine properties would probably come as a shock to Alice if she woke up with its body.

Cutting short her silent reflection, she took her right hand away from the duralumin case, and—

“Dr. Koujiro,” came a voice behind her, and she spun around.

Captain Nakanishi was standing there, having returned to the sub control room at some point.

“Preparations are complete for reopening the partition hatch. We’re ready when you are.”

“Ah… okay. Thanks a lot.” She replied, checking the monitor clock. More than a minute had passed by since the maximum acceleration phase had begun. In Underworld time, that was… 10 years.

It was unbelievable. Kirigaya Kazuto and Yuuki Asuna’s «soul lifespans» now exceeded her own.

Even with the passing of a minute and a second, it was imperative that those two were logged out as soon as possible. If they managed to escape before their soul lifespans totally ran out, it would be possible to remove all of their memories after the maximum acceleration phase began. But in theory they had fewer than 12 minutes left to achieve that.

—Higa-kun, Kikuoka-san.

—Hurry!!

Rinko pleaded, positively chewing her lip.

***

Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka’s throat was wheezing painfully. A waterfall of sweat was discoloring his shirt, even seeping into Higa’s clothes.

Several times, Higa had swallowed the suggestion that he would climb the rest of the way down by himself.

Taking the maximum dose of painkiller had not lessened the throbbing pain from Yanai’s bullet wound in his right shoulder. His body felt weighed down by the sheer amount of blood he had lost; it was enough to prevent him from supporting his own weight.

Even so — Higa thought.

In all honesty, considering their present circumstances he had not expected Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka to put up such a desperate fight.

They had secured Project Alicization’s ultimate goal, the boundary-breaking Fluctlight «A. L. I. C. E.». All they needed to do now was analyze Alice’s framework, identify what set it apart from other Fluctlights, and they would be able to work out a way of mass-producing bottom-up AI. Japan would establish an unparalleled technical foundation in the forthcoming age of autonomous weapons and break free of the American military system’s domination — they had already accomplished the goal that RATH been created to fulfill.

This was supposed to be Kikuoka Seijirou’s dearest ambition.

This was the only reason he had stuck his nose into the SAO incident — even amid a temporary transfer to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications — and the only reason he had created the character of «Crysheight» to remain in contact with the VRMMO players.

Therefore, Kikuoka’s first course of action was more likely to gravitate towards keeping the pressure-resistant partition firmly shut and defending Alice’s Light Cube with his life, before the Aegis destroyer stormed the ship. He would refuse to relent even if Kirigaya Kazuto and Yuuki Asuna’s Fluctlights, still left in Underworld, fell to collapse. Even if they had to lock Dr. Koujiro in her room, as she would no doubt strongly object to such a decision.

“…Quite unexpected… don’t… you think?” Kikuoka panted unexpectedly, and Higa couldn’t stop himself from letting out a bizarre squawk.

“N-Nah, that’s… Well, how do I say it? I just don’t think it seems to fit your personality, Kiku-san…”

“Indeed…”

Kikuoka chuckled briefly, continuing to climb down the ladder at full speed.

“But… I’ve mentioned it before. This is… a calculated… action.”

“O… Oh?”

“I’m a guy… who likes to jump to the worst case scenario. Right now… I think it’s best… to let the enemy think… that they still have a chance at retaking Alice.”

“The w-worst case… scenario?”

Was there really a worse scenario than the enemy noticing the existence of this cable duct and attacking them from below before they could fully open the pressure-resistant partition?

But before Higa could continue his speculation, the soles of Kikuoka’s shoes touched the titanium alloy hatch.

As the commander came to a stop, gasping, Higa pressed the connection switch on his radio.

“Rinko-san, we’ve arrived! Unlock the partition, please!!”

***

“Whoa… it’s actually opening!” Critter yelled, gawking at the pressure-resistant partition release warning on the main monitor above.

But why? For what reason?

It just didn’t make sense. If they had gotten Alice now, why in the world was RATH purposely weakening their own defenses?

But there was no time to consider the matter. Critter spun his chair around and delivered instructions to the squad.

“Umm… Ahh, Hans and you lot, get to the stairs, everybody except Brigg! Fire at will and secure the barrier control!”

“Easier said than done…”

Hans clucked his tongue but raised his assault rifle. More than ten other squad members mirrored him.

“Hey… Wait a minute, then what do I do?”

Brigg was pouting and looking bad-tempered. Critter stared at him, then snapped his fingers.

“I’ve got another job for you. Something important, perfect for your brawn.”

He was speaking the words, but his mind was thinking something else entirely. If possible, it was best to let this simpleton remain somewhere he could keep an eye on him.

“Look, I want you to come with me while I go check out this cable duct. Something tells me that this is enemy’s true objective—”

“Oh… Oh, I see. That sounds good.”

Brigg grinned widely and checked his rifle magazine with exaggerated noise. Critter suppressed a sigh and patted him on the back.

He followed Hans and the others from the main control room out into the passageway, but a moment before he ran in the other direction, Critter caught a glimpse of an inner door — STL Room 1.

—Come to think of it, what the hell is taking that idiot Vassago so long to log out? He’s not taking a smoke break in there, is he?

He had a mind to check on him, but just then Brigg broke into a run along the passageway. With no choice, Critter pursued him from behind.

They reached their destination in a matter of minutes. At first glance they only saw the corridor running the length of the main shaft’s inner wall, but the map had shown a cable duct behind a small hatch on the left wall that led to the upper shaft. Of course, the duct itself was barricaded by a heavy-duty partition, but if his guess was correct—

He grasped the crank with sweaty hands and swiveled it counterclockwise.

Pushing open the heavy metal door, the first thing Critter could make out under the dark orange lamp light was a tunnel about two meters deep and less than a meter high. It stopped at a wall stretching straight up, where an unobtrusive ladder had been installed.

And directly beneath the ladder, there was what looked like a bundle of fabric—

“…Whoa?!”

The instant he recognized the object, Critter recoiled and banged the back of his head on Brigg’s chin, but pain and the brute’s cursing were lost on him as his eyes widened.

There was something inside the fabric, or rather, the clothing. A gaunt body appeared to be curled up there. Brigg shoved Critter aside and lifted his rifle, but then said abruptly:

“He’s already dead.”

Sure enough, the hunched man’s spine had been twisted at an unnatural angle. Face horribly taut, Critter inched into the tunnel and checked the man’s face.

“Wait… isn’t this that other guy? The RATH informant…? Did they kill him when they found him out? But, to kill someone in such a way…”

Reluctantly, he touched the man’s skin and felt a sliver of warmth in his finger. Judging by his temperature, the man had probably died the first time the partition was opened. Did that mean it was first opened because he was trying to flee to the lower shaft? And then he lost his footing on the ladder and fell to his death?

If so, then why was the partition being opened again?

Critter wanted to examine the hatch on the partition above them more closely, and for that, he needed to drag the body out of the way. But he didn’t want to do it himself.

He backed out of the tunnel into the hallway, and commanded Brigg:

“Help me check if the coast is clear up the duct.”

The stubbled giant snorted, entered the tunnel, and yanked the spy’s body outside. Then he went back in and arched his body upwards, staring towards the other end of the vertical duct.

Even Critter’s amateur instincts were alarmed by the sight of Brigg putting his head so far up the passage, but just then—

“Shit!!” Brigg yelled. He raised his assault rifle and fired.

Yellow flashes seared themselves into Critter’s retinas as two different kinds of gunfire pounded his eardrums.

Leaping back and swallowing a scream, he watched as Brigg’s monster figure slumped onto the tunnel floor, as though he was struck by an invisible sledgehammer.

“Whoa!! What happened?!” He screamed, sitting backwards onto the hallway floor. Brigg laid motionless where the informant’s huddled body had been only ten seconds ago. Critter didn’t need the blood pooling on the floor to tell him that Brigg had met the same fate; there was a RATH combatant somewhere up in the cable duct, and they had shot him.

—Now what?

Cold sweat pouring down in torrents, Critter began to think.

Retrieve the rifle from Brigg’s right hand, and return fire at the enemy in the duct in revenge? Of course not! I’m just a computer geek; my job consists solely of thinking and hammering on a keyboard.

He continued to think while half-crawling back towards the main control room in retreat.

At least he now knew that RATH had every intention of using aggressive force. However, in terms of battle strength his own side was clearly superior. If fighting broke out, there was little doubt that RATH would also suffer losses. If they weren’t careful, they could lose the entire upper shaft, and then, wouldn’t they end up losing Alice again too?

Had RATH’s commander considered a scenario even «worse» than that? Did RATH think they had enough firepower to blow up the entire Ocean Turtle? The C4 charges they had on hand weren’t even capable of breaching the partition hatch…

Firepower…

Critter gave a sudden gasp. The two bodies lying in the passageway behind him were quickly forgotten.

They did have it.

There was only one way of completely destroying the Ocean Turtle, of sending Alice’s Light Cube and the RATH workers all to a watery grave.

In the event that procuring Alice became impossible, their client’s orders has been to liquidate it. But could he really implicate this entire, gigantic, self-propelling megafloat and her ten plus crew in order to achieve that goal?  

There was no way he was making such a terrible decision on his own. The prospect would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life.

Critter stood up and ran towards the main control room, seeking the opinion of his captain.

***

“Ki… Kiku-san! Are you all right, Kiku-san?!!”

Higa demanded in a strangled voice. The enemy that appeared at the very bottom of the cable duct had fired off at least three shots.

There was no reply. With his back to Higa, his right hand on the ladder and his left gripping a pistol, Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka’s head drooped as his shoulder seemed to press into the wall.

—No way. Hey, don’t do this to me. I still have things I need you for.

“Ki…”

Kikuoka-saaaaaaaaan!!

He was just about to scream when the lieutenant colonel went into a fit of coughing.

“Ugh… Ahh, damn… He got me. Looks like I was right to wear a bulletproof vest…”

“That… That goes without saying! Were you really going to come here in nothing but a Hawaiian shirt…?”

Higa heaved a deep sigh of relief and looked down at Kikuoka’s back again.

“You’re not hurt, then?”

“Well, I think I was only hit once, on my vest. Are you hurt? Those bullets bounced all over the place.”

“N… No. Neither I nor the computer got hit.”

“Then let’s hurry. The maintenance connector is just ahead.”

Swaying on Kikuoka’s back as he began climbing down again, Higa muttered to himself again: Quite unexpected.

Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka had always struck him as someone without a hint of physical skill, but right now his broad muscled back felt like steel, and the marksmanship he just displayed — as uncomfortable as hanging from the ladder and firing with only his left hand was, both of his rapid shots had hit bang on target: right though the enemy’s throat and chest.

—And to think I’ve known this guy for so long and still can’t figure him out.

Gently shaking his head, Higa pulled a cable from his pocket for the maintenance connector, which was now coming into sight.

***

Critter retraced his steps through the passageway at a sprint, bursting into the main control room as he heard rapid gunfire coming from the stairs.

There was no trace of Captain Miller or Vassago inside. Had they not exited the STLs yet? Five minutes had already passed since the start of the maximum acceleration phase.

He was still hesitant over whether to tell them what he was considering. He knew that as soon as he brought it up, both of them would immediately put it into action. They were the type that didn’t flinch at civilian deaths for the sake of completing the mission.

Without arriving at a decision, Critter threw open the door to STL Room 1.

“Captain Miller! Alice got taken by the enemy…”

His next words died in his throat.

Gabriel Miller was lying in front of him on STL #1’s gel bed. Everything above his forehead was obscured by machinery, and an expression Critter had never seen him with before was plastered on his face.

No, it would be more accurate to say that Critter had never seen any human with this expression before.

His blue eyes were bulging so hard that they looked ready to pop out. His mouth gaped hugely, his jaw looking almost dislocated and slightly crooked. His tongue protruded all the way out of his mouth. He looked like an alien creature.

“Ca… Cap… tain…?”

Critter was gasping, his knees shaking violently. He knew that if Captain Miller’s bulging eyeballs started moving, he would not be able to hold back a scream.

It took several seconds for him to steady his breathing. Then he put forward a timid right hand, and felt the wrist of the left arm hanging limp from the bed.

There was no pulse.

What’s more, the skin was cold as ice. Gabriel Miller, Ocean Turtle raid team captain, was dead without a single wound on his body.

Trying with all his might to keep down the contents of his stomach, Critter gave a hoarse yell:

“Vassago… get up now! The captain’s… d-dead…”

He walked around the gel bed on feet that felt like water, bringing STL #2 into closer view.

This time Critter really did let out a shrill scream.

Vice Captain Vassago Casals was, at first glance, sleeping peacefully. The eyes on his expressionless face were closed, and his arms lay straight on both sides of his body.

But—

His once long, raven-black wavy hair…

…was now a shock of crusty white wire, like the head of someone over a hundred years old.

No longer feeling the need to check Vassago’s pulse, Critter took slow steps back. His highest personal axioms consisted of logic and source code, and right now he was certain that if he did not leave this room at once he would end up the same way as these two.

He pelted out of the open door and slammed it shut with his right foot.

Wheezing uncontrollably, Critter began reorganizing his thoughts at a furious pace.

He had no way of investigating what happened to the captain or Vassago, and he didn’t want to know. He guessed that something had probably befallen them in Underworld, resulting in the total destruction of their Fluctlights.

In summary, the mission had failed. With their commander now dead, he could not make the decision on whether or not to destroy Alice and this ship together with it. There was no meaning in staying here any longer.

Critter snatched up a mouthpiece from the console and spoke in husky tones:

“Hans… get back here. Brigg, Vassago, and the captain are all down.”

Seconds later, the manliest member of the team burst into the main control room, a razor-sharp look on his face.

“Brigg’s down?! Why?!”

“He… He got hit from above, in the cable duct…”

Hans had barely finished listening to him before raising his rifle and turning right around, but Critter barred him in desperation.

“Stop! They took Alice’s Light Cube. There’s no point in fighting anymore…”

Hans was silent for a moment. Suddenly he roared and punched the wall, then took a few steps towards Critter.

“…No, we’ve still got orders. If we can’t get Alice then we have to destroy it. You have some sort of idea, don’t you?”

Hans’s painstakingly straight-cut mustache was quivering. Intimidated, Critter gave a tiny nod.

“Well… Well, it’s not like I don’t have one… No, we can’t. We can’t make that kind of judgment without the captain.”

“Tell me. Spit it out now!!” Hans bellowed, jabbing the rifle barrel into Critter’s throat. Faced with the dangerous glare of a mercenary — a mercenary who had been Brigg’s partner for many years before his employment by Glowgen — Critter found it impossible to refuse.

“The… The engine…”

“Engine? Of the ship?”

“Yeah… The main engine of this massive ship is a nuclear reactor…”