Chapter 9
The chapter begins in the SAO Survivor School in the real world from Asuna's perspective. 28 September, Monday, 12:45 PM. About 5 minutes until her fourth period ends and Asuna is fighting back against her sleepiness. The first period at the school begins at 9 AM, which is a great thing when you live far away from school, but, in turn, the classes end later, which isn't all that pleasant when you didn't get enough sleep last night. The text then describes Asuna's complicated route of getting to school. At first, Asuna brushed off Kirito's idea of going to school by motorbike... but she has been giving the idea a more serious thought lately.
Asuna stayed up till 5 AM that morning and only got an hour's worth of sleep. She was so sleepy that she almost missed her first stop on the train, so she put on her Augma to have Yui keep her awake. She also had a Kazuto-ish thought of having Yui pilot her body to school. Although she had to fight her drowsiness during lessons, she did not regret her decision to stay up late, as they managed to finish their house repairs. Their avatars were now lying in the living room of the repaired house. Apparently, people can't waltz into another player's home uninvited (they tested it with Lisbeth before forming a party with her, it seems) even in UR. Though, the house wasn't indestructible. So, Agah and Yui were keeping watch on the house.
So, the gang set some goals - build sturdy walls around the house and get some more tamed monsters to protect the house - before logging out. For that they needed to find more resources and Asuna couldn't wait to get back home and use her AmuSphere... despite the fact that she had aimed to play VRMMOs in moderation before.
As soon as the teacher left, VRMMO playing students formed several groups to exchange info on Unital Ring. Asuna herself planned to meet with Rika, Keiko, and Kazuto in the cafeteria + use the Augma to get in touch with Suguha and Shino to discuss some things with them. Shino had separate accounts in both GGO and ALO, but her main (GGO) account was already converted to Unital Ring. Sinon herself had spent last night staying alive somewhere in UR, which is why they hadn't heard anything from her that night.
UR caused a storm on the Internet and there already was a walkthrough site for the game (that Yui was keeping an eye on). Yui seemed to be regretting that she had no special privileges in UR, but Asuna was actually a bit happy that she was a player now. Since now Asuna would be able to protect Yui, rather than just rely on her for help all the time. Although there was a possibility of her dying now that she had HP, Asuna wouldn't allow anyone to hurt her.
Just as Asuna stood up, about to go to the cafeteria with that resolution in mind... someone came up to her desk... and asked if she was Yuuki Asuna. Asuna looked up, finding a girl student looking at her with a faint smile. Asuna didn't know who she was. And the girl's grey blazer with a navy blue collar definitely wasn't their school's uniform. The girl had glossy black hair that reminded her of the expression "color of a crow with wet feathers". Her hair was as long as Asuna's. Her skin was snow white. Her face was so cold that it could make you feel a chill.
Asuna confirmed that she was Yuuki and asked who the girl was as she stood up.The girl was about the same height as Asuna and she gave her a slight bow, as she introduced herself as "Kamura Shikimi" (神邑 樒)... a student who had just transferred over that day.
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At that point, the story switched to Kazuto's perspective. Kazuto was trying to apply some eye drops to his eye, while fighting back yawns. He was reminded of his daily routine in SAO, when he'd only get 2-3 hours of sleep before going out again. Compared to those days, Kazuto felt that he's become less capable, since one sleepless night was already taking its toll on him.
Finally, lunch break arrived. His classroom was nosier than on a usual Monday, since all the VRMMO players were gossiping about UR, as it still wasn't clear what was going on, while Ymir and other companies only posted that they were investigating things. Though, Kazuto surmised one thing: there was only one man capable of a grand stunt like merging the entire The Seed Nexus - Kayaba Akihiko, the guy who created The Seed and the Cardinal System. Yui was constantly on the look for the guy on the Net, but she's only been able to find some faint traces of him occasionally so far. As Kazuto questioned what Kayaba was after for the umpteenth time, he closed his eyelids.
He then remembered that he still had eye drops in his left hand, and thus was about to raise his head, when... "I'll apply your eye drops for yoU", he heard someone say in front of his desk. With his eyes still closed, Kazuto half-reflexively thanked the person.
Once that was done, Kazuto suddenly had a thought... who was the person who helped him with his eye drops? The voice definitely sounded familiar, but it did not belong to Lisbeth, Silica, or Asuna. At that point, he opened his eyes... And saw a petite female student. The girl wore a blackish sailor uniform with a khaki parka on top. The girl's slightly discoloured hair was a short bob. Her face looked familiar.
When Kazuto asked who the girl was, she shrugged in exasperation. "That's so awful of yoU. Here I went out of my way to transfer over, and you don't even remember Big Sis anymorE?" At that point, Kazuto took notice of the girl's particular nasalisation at the end of the sentence. Wait wait wait, Kazuto thought. As the guy assumed a half-rising posture, the girl put on her hood and drew three lines on her cheeks with her fingertips.
"Ah... Aaaaaaaah!?", Kazuto gave a hysteric shout the moment he finally realised who the person was. This attracted attention from the other students, but Kazuto ignored them, as he said,
"A...Argo...!? Why...... How......!?", Kazuto refrained from adding "So you're alive!" at the end, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. Argo the Rat, the skillful info broker from SAO, gave him a smile as she said, "Long time no seE, Kii-bou."
(To be continued)
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