Sword Art Online - Volume 18 - Chapter 23.3

Chapter 23.3
Clack.

…Clack.

The noises stopped directly in front of me.

And then, someone called my name.

“…Kirito-kun.”

It was a steady, lucid voice, one I thought I would never hear again.

“You’re always such a crybaby when you’re alone… I understand all of it. Everything you did.”

Slowly, I lifted my tear-stained face.

Standing there with both hands behind her back, head tilted slightly, and wearing a smile, was Asuna.

I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was stare and stare at Asuna’s face, and those nostalgic hazel eyes.

A cool breeze blew past; a butterfly between us rode atop it in a graceful jig, disappearing into the blue sky.

Asuna watched it go, then looked back to me and reached out her right hand without a word.

I felt that she would vanish like an illusion if I touched her. But the warmth coming from her white palm announced that the person I loved was indeed there.

Asuna knew. She had known that this world was going to be sealed immediately. Returning to the real world would likely mean reaching the other side of an eternal river of time.

That was why she decided to stay behind. For my sake. For me, who would do the same for her if the situation was reversed.

I reached out and tightly grasped Asuna’s small hand.

Pulling myself up with that hand, I gazed into those beautiful eyes once more from a closer distance.

And I still couldn’t say anything.

But I felt that I didn’t need to say much. So all I did was pull her slender body towards me and hug it tightly.

Gently resting her head on my chest, Asuna spoke in almost a whisper:

“…Alice’s going to be furious when we get back to the other side.”

I visualized, in my mind’s eye, the tenacious knight’s blue eyes flashing, almost sparking as she rebuked us, and smiled softly.

“It’ll be all right. As long as we try our best to remember. As long as we never forget a second of the time we spent with her.”

“…Yeah. You’re right. As long as we never forget Alice… Liz, Klein, Agil-san, Silica… and Yui, it’ll be all right.”

We let go of our embrace, nodded to each other, and simultaneously looked towards the uninhabited temple.

With all of its functions suspended, the «World End Altar» slept silently under the gentle sunlight at the end of the world.

We turned, took each other’s hands once more, and began running along the marble path.

After proceeding for a short while through the polychrome flowers, we arrived at the northern end of the floating island.

Beneath the sky, which was now deepest blue, the world expanded as far as the eye could see.

Asuna looked to me and inquired:

“Hey, how long are we going to spend in this world?”

It took me a bit of silence before I told her the truth.

“They told me at least 200 years.”

“Oh.”

Asuna nodded as the same smile, unchanged from the old days, blossomed over her face:

“As long as I’m with you, not even a thousand years is a long time…… Now, let’s go, Kirito-kun.”

“…Yeah. Let’s go, Asuna. There’s still much we have to do. This world has only just been born.”

And so, each clutching the other’s hand, we opened our wings and took our first step into the infinite azure.

References
1. Kawahara meant #4 and #5.