Sword Art Online - Volume 24 - Chapter 9

9

The marine resource search and study agency known as Rath owned a small office building on a backstreet in the district of Roppongi in Minato Ward, Tokyo.

This was initially the Roppongi branch office, while the main location was the Ocean Turtle, which was floating out at sea off the Izu Islands. But since the government had shut down that megafloat, this was the base of operations by default.

At the appointment time of two thirty, we buzzed in at the intercom on the first floor and waited for the automated door to open, then we took the elevator up to the fifth floor. At the end of the hallway was another smart lock, which required a bio-ID and smartphone check before the door slid open for us.

“Kirito, Asuna, welcome!” cried a delighted voice as a blond, blue-eyed woman dressed in a white blouse and navy-blue skirt held out her arms.

“It’s nice to see you, Alice!” shouted Asuna, hopping forward and hugging her. I followed by raising my fist for a knuckle bump.

Of course, we’d just been with the Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty in Unital Ring this morning. But there were few opportunities to see her in the real world. After the public announcement unveiling her as the world’s first true bottom-up artificial intelligence, Alice was very busy with media, business, and school appearances, and she was still very much in the middle of a public debate over whether she truly existed.

What made things complicated was the fact that Rath was an independent administrative agency—in other words, a research agency that was half-public, half-private, so ultimately, legal ownership of Alice resided with the government. Plus, there was a battle between three different government agencies over who should have the lead in that regard: the Department of Defense, home to the leader of Project Alicization, Seijirou Kikuoka; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, which operated the Ocean Turtle as a marine research vessel; and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which was spearheading the country’s next-generation AI strategy.

Undeterred, Kikuoka and Dr. Rinko Koujiro were using the situation to slow the government’s action and bring the debate over human rights for AI into the public’s mindspace. What they needed was for as many people as possible to recognize Alice’s humanlike qualities—her actual humanity, in fact—and that required trotting Alice out at as many events and parties as possible. It was only recently that her schedule had slowed down a little, which was how we were able to go on Unital Ring adventures with her. In real life, we hadn’t seen her in two weeks.

“Come—let’s go to the STL room,” she said, turning in a hurry. The motion came with a faint but audible actuator whirring. Takeru Higa’s advanced machine body was undergoing daily improvements and updates, but it was sadly not quite at the level of being indistinguishable from a biological human being.

Still, Higa claimed that one day we would be more like Alice, too—and that in the far future, human and AI would become one, creating an all-new form of life called technium.

I hoped to see that day while I still lived, I thought as I followed Alice and Asuna down the hall.

As I suspected she might, upon seeing us for the first time in two weeks, Dr. Koujiro apologized for Kikuoka’s sudden request. But we were looking forward to the opportunity to visit the Underworld again, and we didn’t need an apology.

Naturally, Dr. Koujiro and her employees looked into having someone from Rath inspect the Underworld from the inside. But because they couldn’t use any of the super-accounts or other high-level accounts, and because they knew too little about the workings of the human realm there, they’d reached the conclusion that it was best for me to dive in myself. I appreciated the decision, but to be perfectly honest, I didn’t know much about what was happening in there, either.

In our last dive, Asuna, Alice, and I had appeared in space, where we’d seen Integrity Pilots named Stica and Laurannei, who flew us to Centoria in their spaceships(!) and then took us to Laurannei’s home by hiding us in the cargo space of a strange vehicle. There were no windows in the space, so I couldn’t see much of Centoria, and our time limit was up after just a bit of conversation with the girls, so it was woefully inadequate as a fact-finding mission. Currently, the Underworld was locked to real time, so it was not accelerated. We wouldn’t find ourselves centuries further in time the next time we dived in. And yet…

“…I wish they could turn it back to a thousand-times speed just for while we’re in there,” I grumbled as I took off my uniform jacket in the STL room.

Dr. Koujiro looked up from checking the machinery and gave me a smirk. “I hear that five times a day around Rath. They want us to speed it up because the tasks take forever, or they don’t have time to play games.”

She looked quite tired, to be honest, so I asked her the honest question on my mind. “Can you not actually use the STL that way? Not just for the Underworld, I mean. Can you dive into a random virtual office and use the fluctlight acceleration rate to get your work done faster…?”

“In short, yes. But to do that, you need hardware like the Main Visualizer on the Ocean Turtle. And to build one of those, it would cost as much as ten state-of-the-art mainframes.”

I thought about asking how much one of those mainframes cost but decided better of it.

Dr. Koujiro chuckled and continued, “But in the distant future—let’s say thirty or forty years from now—wearable devices with FLA capabilities might be common, so everyone can work or study in a time-accelerated environment. Or play games, of course.”

“Thirty years…?”

In 2056, I’d be nearly fifty. Would I still be playing VRMMOs then? Would the concept of the MMORPG still exist at that point?

“It would be nice if it happened sooner. In ten years, if possible…,” I replied, glancing at the reclining chair set up next to the STL. Alice was already seated there, patiently waiting for us to finish getting ready.

“Alice, how are things going in Kirito Tow—I mean, in Ruis na Ríg?”

The knight’s answer was as smooth and practiced as if she were waiting for me to ask. “At the point that I logged out thirty minutes ago, it was very peaceful. The Patter were hard at work on their fields, and the Bashin had gone hunting and brought back a large deer. Everyone was trading their crops and meat and getting along surprisingly well.”

“That’s great to hear. I was a little worried the Bashin might try to eat the Patter,” I said, only half joking. It wasn’t Alice who responded but Asuna from the other side of the screen that separated the two STLs.

“The Bashin eat a mostly plant-based diet,” she said, sounding annoyed. “They’re not allowed to hunt animals until they’ve prayed to the Trees of God, and there’s a limit to how many they can hunt in a day.”

As she spoke, I heard the sound of clothing shifting. I took off only my jacket before the dive, but Asuna, as she did the last time, was changing into the provided STL gear (which was what Rath called the simple pajama gown). When I asked her why, she claimed her uniform would get wrinkled.

“…Are the Trees of God those gigantic trees in the Giyoru Savanna?” I asked, lying down on the STL’s gel bed. Asuna, already changed, popped out from behind the wall to answer.

“That’s right. I saw them last night. They’re like baobab trees, two of them, standing three hundred feet tall at the top of a hill. It was an amazing sight. I can see why you’d pray to them.”

“Ahhh…That reminds me, the silver coin Sinon gave me was carved with two trees on the back. I wonder if those are the same trees you saw.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see the coin,” she replied, shrugging.

“No,” said Alice from the other direction, “the trees on the 100-el coin were not like the baobab trees of the real world. If anything, they looked more like broad-leaved trees, such as platinum oak.”

It was a bit tricky, because platinum oak was a species unique to the Underworld, but I understood what Alice meant. Most likely, there was another culture in the world of Unital Ring aside from the Bashin that also worshipped an image of dual trees. I made a mental note to ask Sinon, if I met up with her tonight, where she’d gotten the coin.

“Well, we’re all ready,” Dr. Koujiro told us. She’d finished fiddling with her tablet. “How are you feeling?”

“Good to go!” I said, speaking for the group. Asuna and Alice nodded eagerly.

“In that case…it’s almost three o’clock now. When it turns five, use the same gesture command as the last time to log out. If you don’t emerge on your own, I’ll disconnect you at five ten.”

“…Are you sure we can’t push it to six o’clock?” I pleaded, but Dr. Koujiro was not convinced.

“No,” she said firmly. “This dive is to check for safety. We can’t allow you to dive for longer periods unless we know you two are able to connect without any issues.”

“Fiiine…”

“The actual investigation into the break-in will have to wait for Saturday. You’re free to look around Centoria, but do not approach Central Cathedral!” Dr. Koujiro said, making her point very clear. She turned to Alice and continued, “I’m sure there is much that you wish to know, too…but I’ll ask for a bit more patience. I’ll make sure you can visit the Underworld every day for as long as you want. Very soon.”

“Yes, Dr. Koujiro. I know,” Alice replied with a smile. She leaned back in the reclining chair and closed her eyes. Asuna and I went to lie back on our gel beds and fit our heads into the depression on the headrests.

“Let’s begin, then.”

Dr. Koujiro tapped the tablet, lowering the lights in the room. With a deep rumbling sound, the head block of the STL slid down and over my head.

The mechanical sounds became distant, turning into a strange noise like a breeze or waves lapping at the shore. The machine accessed my fluctlight—my very soul—pulling me away from the world of reality.

I felt peaceful, weightless. As I fell into darkness, it felt almost nostalgic to me.

First, I saw light.

The tiny little brilliance expanded, refracting into an array of color—enveloping my sense of vision—and even beyond.

I blinked several times at the light, then realized I was staring directly at the sun through a window. After pulling my gaze from the large arched window, I stared at my surroundings. The ceiling was high in the room, and the walls and supports were finely decorated in a medieval European…no, in a Centorian way. This was the guest chamber at the Arabel home, where Laurannei had brought me in my last dive. I was sitting on a small sofa in a large room.

On the right, there was a three-seat couch where Asuna and Alice sat side by side. Both were looking around the room without a word. Asuna assumed the appearance of the Goddess of Creation, Stacia, with pearlescent armor over a white dress. And Alice was dressed in golden armor over a blue dress, her Integrity Knight outfit.

Next, I looked down at myself.

I had on a black jacket with an elongated, coat-like hem, with pants of the same color. There was a large fold of fabric in the fly-front style (to hide the buttons) and shoulder epaulets, plus sleeves and collars made of white fabric with gold stitching. This was…similar to but not exactly the uniform of the elite disciple of Swordcraft Academy. It was what I’d borrowed from the armory of Central Cathedral after escaping the underground cells. I’d been wearing it through all the battles against the Integrity Knights, Prime Senator Chudelkin, and Administrator, so it was tattered and torn at the end, but now it was perfectly pristine.

“…Say, Alice, whatever happened to these clothes?”

“Huh?”

Alice frowned and blinked.

“Errr…I put them among your belongings when taking you to Rulid from Central Cathedral. Selka gave me needlework lessons, and I repaired them, then put them back on you when we took part in the battle to defend the realm. I don’t know what happened after that…”

“Hmm…but there are no signs of repair on this at all…”

“Kirito, is that really something you need to figure out right now?” wondered Alice with exasperation. Then, as though playing back the words she’d said just seconds earlier, she bolted to her feet, armor clanking. “Selka!”

She rushed across the floor to the arched window to the south, pressed her hands against the glass, and was still.

Asuna and I shared a look, then got to our feet. We moved to stand next to Alice and saw what had been impossible to see through the sunlight earlier.

Beyond the city stood a vast white tower that split the evening sky. The Axiom Church’s Central Cathedral, the very center of the four empires of humanity…

At last, I truly realized I was back in the Underworld, and I breathed in deeply. My hands moved of their own accord, searching for the source of the weighted feeling on my hips.

On my left side was a black sword with a powerful design: the Night-Sky Blade.

On my right was a beautiful white sword with an elegant design: the Blue Rose Sword.

I lifted the hand holding the sheath of the Blue Rose Sword, tracing the fine rose carving on its hilt. I continued brushing and rubbing it to see if I could feel anything. But the only sensation coming through my skin was cold and hard. There was, of course, not a single trace of the body warmth of this sword’s rightful owner, the boy with the flaxen-colored hair.

Next, I moved to grab the slender handle. I tried to pull the sword loose, but I could not.

During the battle against Administrator, the Blue Rose Sword fused with Eugeo and became giant, then was broken in half by her rapier. During the Otherworld War, after I recovered from my coma, I repaired the sword using Incarnation, but I couldn’t tell now if it was still whole or if had reverted to its previous broken state. Incarnation in the Underworld used the power of the imagination to overwrite the state of things, but it was a temporary power and did not permanently alter anything.

A notable exception was Alice’s beloved sister, Selka Zuberg.

Though I didn’t remember it myself, after awakening in the real world on August 1st, I told Alice, “Your sister, Selka, chose to go into deep freeze to wait for your return. She’s still slumbering now, atop that hill on the eightieth floor of Central Cathedral.”

If that was true, then she would still be waiting for Alice there, in that white tower before our eyes. She had been waiting all this time. But according to Stica and Laurannei, it was currently stellar year 582. That was just a change in calendar name from the HE (Human Era) designation and was not a replacement, however. The Otherworld War broke out during 380 HE, so over two hundred years had passed. Had the people managing the cathedral left Selka as untouched as a stone statue during that time?

According to the girls, it wasn’t the Axiom Church that controlled the Underworld anymore but a body known as the Stellar Unification Council. It sounded vaguely familiar to me.

After stopping Gabriel Miller, who’d acted as the God of Darkness, Vecta, I’d returned to Centoria with Asuna and the Human Guardian Army. We found ourselves working, as a natural course, with the Integrity Knights to quell the situation. Apparently, the new ruling group that we settled upon was the Human Unification Council.

“Hey, Asuna…”

I turned to her, intent on asking if she had the same memory. But the moment I did, I flinched and froze.

Behind Asuna, who was staring at me in surprise, I could see a door slightly ajar. And peering through the crack at us was a small figure.

Alice and Asuna noticed just as quickly. After attracting the attention of three people, the little figure quickly withdrew, but Asuna called out, “W-wait! We’re nothing out of the ordinary.”

Uh, yes, we are, I thought. If that was someone who lived here, we were basically trespassers who’d broken into their home.

But Asuna’s natural virtue—if you wanted to chalk it up to that—was convincing enough, and within a few seconds, the person appeared again. We waited patiently as they came into the room with agonizing slowness.

It was a child of eight or nine years, probably a boy. He wore a white shirt and black velvet half-pants, and his black hair was cut short. He looked just like a fancy little boy from a rich family to me. Based on his features and the color of his hair, I guessed he was Laurannei’s brother.

The boy looked at me, then Asuna, then Alice. He bowed and spoke in a voice that was much louder and crisper than I expected.

“I have heard about you all from my sister, Laurannei. I am Phercy Arabel. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

I was just thinking that it was a very brave introduction from someone who was trying to run away moments earlier, but then I noticed that his slender limbs were trembling.

Of course he was scared. I didn’t know how Laurannei had explained us to him, but we were coming through time from the distant past, so we were closer to ghosts than trespassers. But Phercy clasped his hands and straightened up tall.

The girl from the Arabel family who served as my personal page at Swordcraft Academy was the same way. Normally, she seemed timid, but when the time came for it, she could be stunningly courageous. As a mere student during the Otherworld War, she’d joined the Human Guardian Army and fought to protect me while I was in my comatose state.

Laurannei and Phercy were probably distant family of Ronie’s, or perhaps direct descendants. And Laurannei’s fellow pilot, Stica Schtrinen, was a descendant of Ronie’s friend Tiese.

Yes, in stellar year 582 of the Underworld, Ronie and Tiese were long gone. And not just them; Sortiliena, Miss Azurica, Old Man Garitta, Sadore…everyone who had helped and guided me had returned to the root of their fluctlight. Even though I had logged out of the system only a bit more than a month ago…

Stricken by a sudden stabbing pain in my heart, I couldn’t react. So Asuna carefully proceeded toward Phercy instead; the boy flinched with fear. She crouched down when she was about six feet away, putting herself at his eye level.

“It’s nice to meet you, Phercy. I’m Asuna. That man there in the black is Kirito, and that woman in the gold is Alice. Hello.”

“……”

Phercy spared barely half a second on me before staring at Alice. His blue-gray eyes went wide with shock.

“Lady…Alice…”

There was deep fear and reverence in the boy’s frail features. Apparently, the legend of Alice Synthesis Thirty still lived among the people of this world, two centuries later. According to Laurannei, Asuna and I possessed the stately titles of Star King and Star Queen until thirty years ago, but Phercy didn’t seem to recognize our names. Personally, I didn’t believe two-thirds of that Star King mumbo jumbo anyway.

The boy kept his eyes locked on the golden knight as he spoke. “Are you…really her? The same Alice, the Osmanthus Knight, who shows up in all the history books and tales…?”

Alice didn’t seem sure of how to react to this.

“I do not know how you would know I am ‘really her’ or not…but my name is indeed Alice Synthesis Thirty, and this is the Osmanthus Blade.”

She patted the longsword on her left hip, and Phercy’s face sparkled. Just like in the real world, boys of this age in the Underworld seemed to be fascinated by weapons.

“The Osmanthus Blade! Holy cra—I mean, that’s incredible! It’s a real divine weapon from the ancient times…The one that eradicated a mountain and silenced storms with a single swing…!”

“……”

Alice couldn’t help but flinch at that. The Osmanthus Blade’s Perfect Weapon Control art had incredible power—I’d experienced that for myself—but the stories about it might have grown a little in two hundred years of telling.

By resisting the urge to tease the proud knight, I noticed that the sting of my grief was ebbing. I exhaled and asked the boy, “Hey, Phercy, you said ‘real divine weapon’…Does that mean Divine Objects no longer exist in this era?”

Phercy’s expression hardened somewhat again. “That’s right,” he said. “When the Integrity Knights—not the Integrity Pilots, like my sister, but the ones who rode on living dragons—were sealed away for good, all the existing Divine Objects were sealed with them, it is said.”

“Sealed…?”

I shared looks with Alice and Asuna.

A bit over a month ago, Stica and Laurannei had given us a lesson on the current state of the Underworld in this very room, but due to time constraints and the fact that they had questions for us, too, the best we could glean was a picture of the world balance and ruling structure at the moment. I knew almost nothing about what had happened in the past two hundred years. On top of that, the word sealed felt more than a little ominous.

“Phercy, when were the ancient knights sealed away?” Alice asked.

The boy’s cheeks flushed the tiniest bit as he replied, “I’ve heard it was right after we switched from the Human Era calendar to the Stellar Era…so about a hundred years ago.”

“A hundred years…,” Alice repeated. She gazed at the cathedral through the window again.

Time in the Underworld was in sync with the real world now, so it was after three o’clock in the afternoon here, too. But the seasons didn’t seem to be aligned—probably because the Underworld’s months were uniformly 30 days, and their years 360 days—so the sky here looked significantly darker already. The air in the room was distinctly chilly.

Asuna, who was dressed the lightest of us, shivered a little, which Phercy noticed.

“Oh…it’s rather cold in here, isn’t it?” he said. “I’ll turn on the heater.”

H-heater?

But I had barely a moment to wonder about this before the boy walked to the wall near the entrance and pulled one of two levers on the wall. There was a thunking sound from five or six long slits along the wall, just above the floor. A low hum followed them, and suddenly there was warm air flowing over our feet. It was much faster than even the air conditioners in the real world.

“H…how did you do that?” Alice asked.

Phercy was momentarily taken aback by the question. He trotted back and said, “Oh, of course, there were no coolers in your era, Lady Alice.”

“C-coolers?”

“Yes. In the basement are sealed canisters of eternal-heat elements, eternal-frost elements, and eternal-wind elements, and the control panel. They provide cooling and heating for air and water throughout the house.”

““Sealed canisters?!”” Alice and I shouted at the same time. Frost elements were one thing, but putting heat elements into a hardy sealed container was extremely dangerous. It was very easy to put them into an uncontrollable overheated state, leading to a huge explosion.

That was probably how Laurannei’s and Stica’s dragoncraft worked, but who would have developed such a wild, reckless usage of them? Alice and I were racked with both surprise and exasperation.

Asuna spoke up for the group. “Ohhh, so that’s how it works. How fascinating. Do all the other homes have the same thing?”

“Yes, and they’re making their way into some commoner homes, too, not just noble mansions. But,” Phercy said, his childish face taking on a note of very adult solemnity, “about three years ago, all the major cities, not just Centoria, started suffering from a lack of spatial power supply. We use sealed canisters not just in homes and businesses but also in factories, public facilities, and the mechamobiles and mechamotives that travel about the city.”

“Mecha…motives…?”

I shared another look with Alice. The last time, we were escorted to this home from the airport by something like a horseless carriage. So that was called a mechamobile. Out of the eight elements, heat elements consumed the highest amount of spatial sacred power, so it stood to reason that utilizing them in limitless amounts around a huge city was going to dry up the power supply.

Who would have thought they’d be dealing with depleted natural resources in the Underworld, too? I lamented, listening to the faint groan coming from the air-conditioning system. Then I realized I wasn’t hearing anything else.

“Hey, Phercy, are Laurannei and your other family members not home?” I asked, not bothering with any special form of address for the boy. He didn’t seem to mind.

“No. My sister is on duty at the base, of course. My mother is there, too, and my father works for the North Centorian government. Oh, but…”

He opened the door and clapped twice, loudly. There was a jangling in the hallway, out of sight. Within seconds, a huge gray mass bounded into the parlor, and all three of us leaned backward in alarm.

It was a sheep…no, a dog. But I’d never seen a real dog that looked like this. In a single phrase, it looked like an Afghan hound with large, puffy curls. Its face was slim and handsome, but decorative hair curled around its ears, which reminded me of medieval European noblemen for some reason. In fact, I realized it looked like a specific person: the portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach that hung in my elementary school music room.

The large gray dog sat politely next to Phercy, its front paws neat and lined up, and stared at us with big eyes. Phercy petted the back of its head and said, “This is Beru, a Bruha Curl from Wesdarath. He might be older than me, but he’s my best friend.”

The curly-haired dog barked happily, as though agreeing with the statement. Asuna immediately clasped her hands before her chest and shouted, “Oh…what a big doggy! May I pet him?”

“G-go right ahead,” said Phercy, but Asuna was already on the move. She approached low and from the side, so as not to intimidate the dog. She crouched and said soothingly into its ear, “Hello, Beru. I’m Asuna.”

“Wuff!”

The reply did not seem hostile. Asuna let Beru sniff her hand for a good while before she scratched softly behind the dog’s ear. It looked very pleased with that, so she scratched harder.

“…Asuna really does love dogs,” Alice whispered. I nodded back.

“I thought she was more into little dogs, but she seems to like big ones, too.”

“It makes me wonder how she would react to a canine Divine Beast.”

“Huh…you have that in the Underworld?”

“Very, very long ago. More importantly,” Alice said, dropping her voice even quieter, “don’t you find this odd? If his sister and parents are out working, this would presumably not be a day of rest. So why is a child of his age not in school?”

“Huh…? You don’t think he’s already come home from school?”

“It’s only three fifteen,” Alice said, looking at an analog clock hanging on the wall. When I was diving into the Underworld, the way you told time was with special bells in every town and village that played distinct melodies on every hour and half hour. I couldn’t count how many times I’d wished, If only I had a clock. Apparently, someone had invented them in the two centuries since then.

In any case, the golden hands were indeed pointing at three fifteen. I didn’t know the details of elementary school times and after-school activities here, but if you told me it was too early for him to be home, I might believe you.

“…Ask him directly, Alice.”

“…Ask him yourself.”

“You’re the one who brought it up.”

“I just said it was a little odd.”

While the two of us bickered and refused to act, Asuna, whose hands were rubbing all over Beru’s neck, asked, “So did you already finish school today, Phercy?”

The two of us looked his way. Phercy’s blue-gray eyes widened briefly before he cast them to the ground. Asuna’s expression didn’t change, however; she waited for the boy to speak. That gentle, all-encompassing aura of hers, her very presence rather than words or gestures, was Asuna’s greatest asset.

Phercy lifted his face just a little to look at her. Beru leaned over and licked his master’s hand. That seemed to give the boy the courage to speak.

“Actually…I haven’t gone to school in nearly three months,” he said.

First environmental problems, now an educational crisis! I thought glibly. Of course, I wasn’t going to say it out loud, because regardless of the world, a boy his age not being able to go to school was a grave problem.

Asuna gave him a very kind and gentle smile, nodded, and asked, “And what year are you in, Phercy?”

“…In the third year of North Centoria Primary Juvenile School.”

As I expected, that put him at around eight or nine years old. He spoke older than his age, but on the inside, he was still very young. Based on Laurannei’s example, it didn’t seem like his family was totally dysfunctional, so perhaps there was a bullying problem? Were there still issues with hazing, like the things the upper nobles did to Eugeo and me after we showed them up?

Depending on how this shakes out, I might have to storm into that juvenile school and tie some kids up, I thought.

But Phercy just scratched Beru’s neck for a while. He looked at Asuna, who was patiently keeping her silence, then at Alice, who stood at the windowsill. With clear anguish, he explained, “I’m not going to school…because I’m bad at swords.”

For some strange reason, I didn’t immediately parse what he meant by “swords.” Asuna and Alice seemed momentarily confused, too, until Asuna brushed the rapier at her side—it was a GM-only weapon called Radiant Light—and asked, just to be sure, “You mean…like this sword? You use swords in juvenile school?”

Now it was Phercy’s turn to look surprised. “Of course we do. Swordsmanship is a very important part of our lessons. Any student who wants to attend the North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy must receive high marks in swordsmanship.”

“……!”

I sucked in a sharp breath and took a step closer to the boy.

“The Integrity Knights are gone, but Swordcraft Academy is still around?! In the forest in District Five?!”

The boy seemed alarmed by my intensity, but it was replaced by sheer surprise. “Did you say your name was…Kirito? My sister told me you were an otherworlder. You know about Swordcraft Academy?”

In the previous dive, I persistently told Stica and Laurannei that I was just a person from another world, not some stuffy Star King or whatever, and they had obliged by describing me as such to the boy. I was curious as to what Phercy made of the concept of another world, but I could ask about that later. For now, I said proudly, “Of course I do. I graduated from that school.”

I regretted it as soon as I said it. As a matter of fact, Eugeo and I had committed a violation of the Taboo Index in May, just after becoming elite disciples in our second year, and were kicked out of school. Fortunately, there wasn’t a single person here who could call me out on my—

“A-hem.”

Alice cleared her throat pointedly, and I hunched my shoulders. The very Integrity Knight who showed up to arrest us for our expulsion-worthy crime was none other than Alice Synthesis Thirty. But to issue a correction now would ruin my newfound esteem from young Phercy, so I pretended I didn’t hear her.

Fortunately, Phercy didn’t catch on to what had just happened. His face sparkling, he said, “Y-you graduated from there?! But how did you get in if you’re an otherworlder?!”

“I received a recommendation in Zakkaria and took the entrance test. I wasn’t very good at sacred arts, so my first year was rough, but in my second year, I was the sixth seat elite disciple.”

That part, at least, wasn’t a lie. If Swordcraft Academy was still an active school, then if you checked the school registry, there should still be a two-century-old entry that said I was the sixth seat, and Eugeo was the fifth seat.

Phercy clutched his tiny hands together with excitement. His body was positively trembling. “The sixth seat…?! Th-that’s incredible…No wonder they say you’re a follower of Lady Alice!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say I’m that specia—Wait, what?” I stammered, realizing what he actually said. Asuna and Alice burst into laughter.

Apparently, Laurannei had explained to her brother that Kirito the otherworlder was a follower of Alice the Integrity Knight. But I couldn’t really blame her for that. The girls grilled us, asking why we had returned if not to be the Star King and Queen again, so in a panic to get them off my back, I explained that we were Alice’s guards. Somewhere along the way, guard got turned into followers, but if it was anyone’s fault, it was mine, not Laurannei’s. So I accepted my new status as Alice’s servant.

“Yes, you do need sword talent to get into Swordcraft Academy,” I explained to Phercy, “but you’re only in the third grade of primary school, right? You won’t take the entrance test until graduating middle school, so you have at least six years left. You’ll grow plenty by then, so don’t start panicking like you’ve got to handle it all right now.”

With his hand on his dog’s head, Phercy gave me a smile that contained sadness well beyond his years. He slowly shook his head. “My sister and parents said the same thing to me. But…I’ve been abandoned by Terraria, Goddess of Sword and Earth.”

“…?”

Two things about that statement struck me. I shared a look with Alice. Two hundred years ago, Terraria was the goddess who managed the blessings of the earth, and she had no connection to swords. And what did he mean by “abandoned”?

Phercy gave us a glance, then let go of the dog to stare at his own palm.

“In the three years since I first held a sword, I have never once been able to activate an ultimate technique. I hold my wooden sword and assume the stance, just like my classmates, but I can’t even do the most basic Lightning Slash. My parents hired a private teacher for me out of concern, but that teacher threw in the towel after just a single week.”

He clutched that hand and expelled the words from his throat as if they caused him physical pain.

“With each pathetic excuse for a swordfighting lesson, I shame the Arabel family. I am personally smearing mud upon the name of my ancestor, who was named Integrity Knight at the age of seventeen for her great exploits during the Rebellion of the Four Empires: Ronie Arabel Thirty-Three.”

The moment I heard that name, I felt like lightning had just struck my brain, and I moaned.

Ronie…that sweet little girl who had worked as my page, an Integrity Knight? I had never heard the phrase Rebellion of the Four Empires, either. Had there been another terrible war here after the Otherworld War?

Once again, I felt frustrated that I had almost no memory after defeating Vecta. During the maximum acceleration phase, in which one second in the real world was five million seconds here, Asuna and I supposedly lived in the Underworld for nearly two centuries. But what happened here and what we did were completely absent from my memory.

My last memory, for some reason, was getting into a fistfight with Commander Iskahn from the Dark Army during a peace negotiation at the ruins of the Eastern Gate. I had a mental image of Iskahn, cheeks swollen, saying, I admit, you’re stronger than me, so I was sure the negotiation was successful, but my memory stopped right there.

Yes…thinking back on it, the time acceleration stopped just three minutes after Asuna and I logged out of the Underworld, so we were still present in this world until about thirty years ago. That wasn’t recent, but it wasn’t the far-flung past, either. The part about me being a king was probably some kind of mistake, but I doubted we were living in the distant mountains, so there should be some people still alive who’d had direct contact with us.

But finding them would be difficult. I couldn’t just walk around Centoria asking every older person I saw, “Do you know me?” And the purpose of this dive was to figure out who had infiltrated the Underworld and what they wanted. Making a big display of myself would be counterproductive, frankly.

So for now, I had to suppress my desire to learn more about Ronie and Tiese. I asked Phercy, “When you say that you can’t activate an ultimate technique, do you mean you can’t finish the full effect? Or does it not even produce the, uh…colored light?”

“The latter…No matter how many times I try, I can’t make any light or sound.”

“Hrmm…?”

Asuna and Alice were just as stumped as I was.

Yes, an ultimate technique—what we called sword skills—had a trick to it, but even a total beginner to VRMMOs could get the hang of it within twenty or thirty minutes. You just had to hold the sword at the right position and angle, and once you were used to it, you could even activate it while jumping or upside-down. Was it even possible to practice for three years and never once execute a proper sword skill?

“…Ummm, Phercy? I won’t force you if you don’t want to, but do you think you could try it out for me, just once?”

The skinny boy tensed and stared at the floor. A few moments later, he rasped, “I’m…sorry…I know it’s a great honor to be observed by Lady Alice and her follower, but my wooden sword is in the farthest box at the back of the toolshed. I can’t easily retrieve it…”

That didn’t seem like a lie, but it was clearly an excuse. If he didn’t take this chance, all the feelings of futility and self-doubt that had built up in the boy would only be amplified.

I thought about lending him a sword but decided against it. The Blue Rose Sword and Night-Sky Blade were both Divine Objects with a priority level over forty. The same was true of Alice’s Osmanthus Blade and Asuna’s Radiant Light. A nine-year-old boy wouldn’t even be able to lift them. I started to wonder what I had in my inventory—and then remembered there was no virtual storage in the Underworld. The only belongings I had right now were my two swords and whatever small articles were in my belt pouch and pockets.

In that case…

I looked around the spacious parlor, and my eyes landed upon a silver candlestand on the table. It seemed to be a simple piece of interior decoration, because there wasn’t a single candle in it.

I walked over and picked it up. Asuna was befuddled, and Alice had a suspicious look in her eyes, but before they could say anything, I focused my attention. Beru sensed something and barked, “Wuff!” but a caress from Phercy kept the dog calm.

Suddenly, the candlestand flashed and began to change shape. The three arms fused into one—a short blade. The wide base shortened into a delicate handle.

Within five seconds, the stand had turned into a short sword that was just the right size for a child. I swung it up and down to test the balance as Alice strode over to me.

“You fool! How many times must I tell you that you cannot simply use Incarnation to solve every little problem?!”

I grimaced and hunched my shoulders, looking to Asuna for help. But the Goddess of Creation just shrugged. I had to argue my own case.

“W-well, there’s no better option…and that was just a simple shape change. I didn’t alter its material…”

“That’s not the problem!!”

I figured she would say that. To be honest, I also wanted to test if I could use Incarnation the same way I did when fighting Vecta. My power hadn’t waned, it seemed, but if I got too used to it, I was going to be very frustrated when I had to go back to Unital Ring without it.

“Sorry, sorry, I’ll take it easy. But look—it’s pretty good, huh?” I said, showing Alice the little sword. As for Phercy, the boy’s blue-gray eyes were bulging so wide they might pop out of his head, and his mouth hung open. Eventually, he found the strength to speak.

“K…Kirito…was that…Incarnation?” he stammered. “The secret art that the ancient Integrity Knights developed and that, even now, only the very highest of pilots can use…? Even though you’re just a follower…”

“I-is that true about Incarnation?”

Two hundred years ago, it wasn’t just the Integrity Knights. Even students at the academy could use it…but then again, maybe changing the actual material makeup of objects was something that only knights like Alice could do. Best to play it off, then.

“Well, anyway, among her followers, I’m closer to an actual knight.”

“I suppose you must be. You have two swords, after all…”

“Yeah, exactly. Anyway, take this,” I said, pinching the tip of the silver sword and offering the little weapon to Phercy.

The boy hesitated, but he steeled his courage and grabbed the handle. As I had done, he swung it up and down a few times, then looked up with great surprise.

“It feels…very easy to use. It’s much heavier than the wooden sword, so why…?”

“I concentrated the weight into the hand. It’s more powerful if the weight is greater toward the tip, but that makes it harder to use.”

“Oh, I see…”

Phercy stared at the sword in his hand, then took a deep breath.

“In that case…I’ll try Lightning Slash.”

“Really? Here?”

The skill—which I knew as Vertical—had a surprisingly long range, so I was afraid it might damage furniture inside the house, but Phercy just nodded.

“If it starts to activate, I’ll simply stop there.”

“Ah.”

I was concerned about the note of resignation in the boy’s voice, but I said nothing more than that and stepped back to the window. Asuna moved from near the door to stand next to Alice.

Phercy put some distance between himself and Beru, with his back toward the wall with the door, and made a stance.

First he held the short sword at medium height, pulled his right foot back a bit, then moved the sword higher. His wrist was only slightly inclined, holding the blade at a forty-five-degree angle. Vertical Arc was nearly level, and the four-part Vertical Square was much deeper, at about minus-forty-five degrees. But for a simple Vertical, this was right.

“He’s got it,” said Asuna.

“Very impressive,” whispered Alice.

As they said, Phercy’s form was perfect. The sword’s position and angle and the wielder’s posture could not be improved. But there was no blue light and no high-pitched vibration.

“Why not…?” I murmured and drew the Night-Sky Blade from my left side without thinking about what I was doing.

With that familiar weight in hand, I raised it above my right shoulder. I went into the Vertical motion, a gesture I’d made thousands, if not tens of thousands, of times since the SAO days. A familiar whine filled my ears, and blue light infused the sword’s blade.

Phercy glanced my way, and resignation and despair filled his features. He lowered the sword helplessly. I quickly canceled my sword skill and returned the sword to its sheath. Asuna and Alice glared at me.

“I—I was just making sure it still worked,” I protested weakly. Phercy hung his head, so I crouched down to catch his eye. “Your stance was perfect. But I suppose that’s not much consolation…”

“No…it’s good to hear you say that, Kirito,” the boy said, smiling awkwardly. He looked at the sword in his right hand. “Then…you’re saying it’s not my fault that I can’t use these techniques?”

“No, I don’t think it is. There must be some external factor at work. Although, I couldn’t say right away what it might be…”

In truth, I could’ve worked with Phercy for the next few hours to pin down what this external factor was, but that wasn’t possible. Dr. Koujiro had given us only two, and we’d already used forty minutes of it.

The boy, who was mature beyond his years, visibly suppressed his emotions to put on a brave smile. “I’m just happy to learn it’s not my fault. At least this way…I can lament my poor fortune that the gods have forsaken me.”

“……”

I couldn’t agree with that. I bit my lip.

The Underworld did not actually have gods. The three goddesses—Stacia, Solus, and Terraria—were simple stories using the names of Rath’s super-accounts in order to prop up the authority of Administrator’s Axiom Church. It wasn’t some godly whim that was preventing Phercy from using a sword skill—it had to be something more concrete.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any other answer at the moment that would satisfy the boy.

“Here…thank you,” said Phercy, holding out the silver sword with both hands.

“No, you keep it,” I said.

“Um…but…”

“It feels good in your hand, doesn’t it? You don’t have to practice with it. Just hold it and swing it around regularly when you have nothing else to do.”

“…”

Phercy still seemed reluctant to accept it. From over my shoulder, Alice said, “Keep it, and maybe something will change. That was originally an item of the Arabel family anyway.”

Yeah, that’s true, I thought. I couldn’t very well take it.

“Kirito, why don’t you make him a sheath?” Asuna suggested.

I straightened. “What? But I don’t have the material to…”

“Then use this, please,” said Phercy, offering the thick leather mat that was underneath the candlestand on the table. If I kept going at this rate, the parlor would run out of items to transform, but the mat did look unnatural just sitting there without the stand resting atop it. Plus, I couldn’t resist when the boy’s eyes were sparkling with delight in a way they weren’t just moments ago.

“W-well, if you insist…”

I took the mat, glanced at the sword in Phercy’s hand, and focused on the image in my head. The rectangular mat shone white and began to change shape, moving as though alive. It rolled itself up, then squashed flat, and one end tapered. When the light vanished, I was holding a reddish-brown leather sheath.

“There,” I said, holding it out.

Phercy took it with wonder in his eyes. He fit the short sword inside it.

“…Amazing. It fits perfectly!”

“I made it that way.”

“I can’t believe you can do this with Incarnation…”

“But remember, I’m only a follower. Lady Alice’s Incarnation is even more incredible,” I claimed. Alice jabbed me in the small of my back, and I just barely managed not to yelp.

Asuna simply watched me with disbelief. She put her hands on her knees. “Say, Phercy, do you think you could show us around the city?”

“Huh…?” said the boy with surprise—and he wasn’t the only one. My brows knitted with concern, but then I realized it was actually a good idea.

To investigate the infiltrator, we would have to venture out into Centoria. But things had surely changed in two centuries, and it would be much better for us to have a guide than for the three of us to just wander around blindly.

Phercy hung the short sword from his belt and thought over the request. He quickly agreed to it. “All right. My parents have forbidden me from leaving on my own, but I think it will be fine if I am with you. However…”

He looked at Asuna and Alice, narrowing his eyes as though staring at something blinding, and added, “I think your clothes might stand out, Lady Alice and Asuna. Even the palace guards do not wear full plate armor anymore.”

“Oh…hmm, what should we do?” Asuna murmured. She began whispering with Alice, but I was distracted by something else he said.

“Uh…palace? Meaning, the emperor’s castle?”

Now it was Phercy’s turn to look confused. “Emperor…? No, the imperial families were disbanded after the Rebellion of the Four Empires two hundred years ago. The castle in District One is now the home of the North Centorian government. When I say ‘palace,’ I mean Central Cathedral.”

“Oh…but isn’t the Stellar Unification Council in charge of the human realm now? Is there a king above them, too?”

“There was many years ago. Someone called the Star King, who ruled not just our realm but both twin stars, Cardina and Admina…”

Here we go with the Star King again, I thought, looking at Alice and Asuna. They both appeared suspicious of what they were hearing, and I must have looked the same way.

I didn’t know why Laurannei and Stica had assumed the two of us were the Star King and Queen, but the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed that I could have filled such a role. On the other hand, the last scene I remembered was facing off with Commander Iskahn of the Dark Territory, as the representative of the human realm. Presumably, I had been looking for the right moment to hand off that role to an Integrity Knight. Had that never happened, and I’d got stuck in the role, then become king at the end by default? And that had made Asuna the queen…?

“No, no, no way…,” I mumbled. Then I asked the boy, “What was the Star King’s name?”

Phercy hadn’t reacted when he heard my name, so it couldn’t have been “Kirito.” But what if it was a name that could be connected to mine? I fretted, awaiting the answer.

“It is not mentioned,” Phercy replied.

“Huh?”

“The names of the Star King and Star Queen have been removed from every official record and story of them. It is claimed that this is to prevent any relations or descendants from coming forth after their deaths, thus throwing governance into chaos…but…”

“……”

I shared another look with the girls. It couldn’t be possible to completely erase the name of a head of state from history. Perhaps there were kings from Ancient Egypt or Babylon whose names were unknown, but that was thousands of years ago. The Star King of the Underworld was in control just a few decades before now.

But it would be cruel to grill the nine-year-old any further on this topic. I put aside the matter of the Star King for now and got back to the topic at hand.

“All right…so I guess we’ll have to leave their armor here at this house?”

“…I do not mind taking off the armor,” said Alice, brushing the Osmanthus Blade with her hand, “but what about my sword…? I do not wish to let it go.”

“Actually, I agree on that front,” I grunted, scowling.

But Phercy just grinned. “Swords will be fine. It’s not uncommon for nobles to carry around swords. Even some commoners do it.”

“Ahhh…”

According to Laurannei and Stica, the six-rank system of nobility had been abolished but not the concept of nobility itself. I wasn’t able to determine if that was a good or bad thing for the Underworld.

But for now, we decided to take advantage of it, and the two of us kept our swords on. It seemed unbalanced to me that people were still using swords rather than guns in a place where airplanes were traveling out into space, but I supposed the existence of sacred arts meant that guns were never necessary to develop.

Asuna’s and Alice’s armor went into the cabinet in the corner of the guest parlor on Phercy’s suggestion. He also gave them discreet brown cloaks that would cover them up, and by the time we were ready to head out, the clock on the wall was approaching four o’clock. To my relief, the moment the minute hand hit the twelve at the top, a familiar melody came in through the window. Even in an age of clocks, the Bells of Time-Tolling were still playing those hourly melodies every single day.

When the bells stopped, we had one hour left before the time limit. First, we’d have him guide us to the busiest area in North Centoria, then we’d walk around and eat—er, gather information for as long as time allowed.

We followed Phercy out of the parlor into a long hallway that stretched in both directions. On our earlier visit, it was too chaotic for me to notice that the Arabel mansion was much larger than I expected. Ronie the page said that her and Tiese’s fathers were sixth-rank nobles and that their life was quite humble. Perhaps they had rebuilt or moved their home in the last two hundred years.

The boy and dog led us out into an enormous entrance hall. We could probably fit our entire log cabin in this hall! I thought.

“…You could put four whole Ping-Pong tables in here,” I whispered to Asuna, who gave me a suspicious look.

“Since when did you like Ping-Pong?”

“Never, really.”

“Then why did you compare it to Ping-Pong tables…?”

“Well, a tennis court didn’t seem like an accurate comparison, so…”

While we bickered pointlessly, Phercy took a wool coat off a heavy hanger and put it on over his short sword. He said something to Beru, who replied, “Waffuh!” and trotted back down the hallway.

“Let’s go, then,” he said, pressing on the large double doors. A chilly breeze snuck in and rustled the girls’ long hair. This wasn’t the dusty breeze of Tokyo in the winter, however. It was the air of North Centoria, full of moisture from Lake Norkia—the air of the Underworld.

I’m back, I thought, following the three of them out the door.

The Arabel mansion had a spacious front lawn in addition to its interior. Neatly trimmed short trees lined the stone walkway leading away from the door, with a black cast-iron gate beyond them. On the right side of the yard was a long building with shutters on the front. Perhaps it was a garage for the mechamobile, or whatever they called it. Of course, I wasn’t going to admit that I wanted to try driving it.

Turning back to get a full view of the mansion, I could see that the main building was far grander than I’d imagined; it was two stories tall with a symmetrical design. By my judgment, it was a first- or second-ranked noble home. The Arabels must have been very successful in the last two centuries…but what did it mean that the house was so huge, and yet I didn’t see a single servant?

I faced forward again. Beyond the gate, there were more stone mansions, not as fine as the Arabel’s but very impressive in their own right. Behind them, Central Cathedral split the sky. Its height hadn’t changed in two hundred years, and I could see an observatory-like dome on the roof. That had once been the bedchamber of Administrator, but most likely, no one lived there now.

“Let’s go, Kirito.”

That summons brought my gaze back down to where Asuna, Alice, and Phercy stood, waiting for me.

“Oh, sorry.”

I trotted to catch up and tried to prepare myself mentally for my first visit into Centoria in two centuries.

But then I noticed something strange off in the distance, like a massive woodwind instrument playing the same note incessantly. Fwaum, fwaum, it went, getting slightly louder each time. It wasn’t that the volume was increasing but that the source of the sound was getting closer.

Suddenly, Phercy shot around as if struck, and he pointed to the right of the stone path. “Hide behind those shrubs now!”

The sound of his voice and look in his eyes left no room for argument. On pure instinct, I grabbed Asuna’s and Alice’s arms and ran, pulling them with me, and leaped into the three-foot-tall plants around the garage. Fortunately, it was a soft landing; I pushed them in first, then hid beside them.

Through the leaves, I could see a large moving object appear just beyond the front gate.

It was a simple box-shaped vehicle with large wheels on each corner. That had to be the mechamobile Phercy mentioned. On the previous dive, we’d ridden one of them from the airport to this mansion, but this one was definitely larger than the other. The body was painted a light shade of gray, and there were kanji and katakana on the side—here, they just called that the common tongue—although I couldn’t make them out because of the bars of the gate. I could see sirens on the roof, which had to be the source of the strange sound, so perhaps this was equivalent to an ambulance or police car.

The sirens stopped, and a door on the side swung open violently, issuing a number of people from the inside. They pushed open the large gate from the outside and raced into the mansion grounds. They were six in total…all wearing gray uniforms and caps, with short swords on their belts.

“Where are those uniforms from?” Asuna whispered. Both Alice and I shook our heads.

“I have no idea.”

“I do not recognize them.”

If even Alice didn’t know them, it had to be the uniform of some group that did not exist two hundred years ago. The youngest of the six was in his twenties, and the oldest was fiftysomething, so they weren’t students.

I held my breath as a young man took out something like a bento box from his shoulder bag and started pointing it around. The eldest man, who had a long beard, approached him and asked tensely, “Is the Incarnameter still picking up readings?”

“Nothing new, but the traces are clear. Two battle-art Incarnate weapons were activated in short order within this mansion very recently, Captain.”

“Hrmm…”

The bearded captain surveyed the spacious front yard and finally seemed to notice Phercy standing right there in the center of the walk.

“Hey! You!” he shouted more forcefully than was necessary, causing Phercy to flinch. I could sense Asuna and Alice tensing next to me, so I discreetly grabbed the bottom of their cloaks to keep them from leaping right out of our hiding spot.

Three of the men, including the captain, rushed over to Phercy, shouting loudly enough that we could hear every word, despite being at least twenty yards away.

“Do you live in this mansion?!”

Phercy backed away, intimidated by their manner, but bravely recovered and stood his ground. “Yes, I am Phercy Arabel.”

“But why are you home at this hour…? No, never mind that. Are nobleman Nogran Arabel, former pilot Rochelinn Arabel, or pilot Laurannei Arabel home?!”

“No…my father, mother, and sister are still at work.”

“I see…”

The captain peered around the grounds. My heart leaped into my throat when his sharp gaze passed over our direction, but it seemed he overlooked our hiding spot, and he turned back to Phercy.

“Did anything happen here about thirty minutes ago? Did you hear any strange noises or see any strange people about?”

Phercy may not have heard any strange noises, but he definitely saw some strange people. He shook his head.

“I didn’t notice anything, sir.”

“Hmm…very odd. We detected battle-art Incarnate weapons at this mansion earlier…,” the captain grumbled, folding his arms.

One of his men said, “Captain, do you think it could be the same mistaken signal we got last month?”

“But in both instances, all the Incarnameters in the office went off at once. They are precision instruments, to be sure, but they could not all break at the same time, in the same way.”

Upon hearing the conversation, Alice wondered, “What are…Incarnate weapons?”

“I dunno…”

“And that Incarnameter tool…is it capable of detecting the use of Incarnation?”

“I dunno…”

I couldn’t say anything else, but it didn’t stop Alice from glaring at me for my unhelpfulness. She returned to spying.

The six men were still staring around the front yard of the mansion, but not one of them was stepping off the path to investigate further; perhaps there was some rule against it. Eventually, they seemed to settle on the answer of “device error,” huddled together to discuss something, and the five aside from the captain returned to the gate.

The captain stayed with Phercy, and he crouched to look him in the eye so he could apologize. “I’m sorry for startling you like this, Phercy. It seems we were mistaken. But I can see that you do your famous family proud—you’re very brave for being so young. Are you planning to be a pilot like your sister?”

Quit chatting and get back to your job! I hissed, knowing how difficult this topic must be for Phercy.

But the boy was very bold. “No, I want to be a scholar,” he said. “Most of the Arabel family pilots have been women.”

“Aha. Well, you shouldn’t close off future possibilities when you’re so young,” the man said, rather insensitively, I thought.

Just as the captain was about to leave, one of his subordinates—the youngest, with the Incarnameter—came rushing back to him.

“We’ve got a new but very faint Incarnate signal!”

“What?!” exclaimed the captain, standing up straight and peering at the box. It was humorous the way they pointed the box all over the garden, however, the situation was anything but. I almost wondered if my silent outrage earlier had involved the accidental use of Incarnate, and I did my best to keep my feelings still.

“Ah…” Alice gasped yet again.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Do you suppose that Incarnameter is reacting to the sword you gave to Phercy?”

“Huh…? But it’s been over thirty minutes since I transformed it.”

“The former pontifex once said that it takes time for an item transformed through Incarnation to settle into its new form. I did not know what she meant at the time, but perhaps the item retains traces of its Incarnate power, like the way newly cast metal still keeps its heat…”

“……”

It seemed crazy, but I couldn’t rule it out. After all the usage I’d made of it, I really didn’t understand the exact workings of the Underworld’s unique Incarnation system.

But now that I thought on it, I remembered that when I’d used Incarnation to revive the zephilia flowers my classmates at Swordcraft Academy had torn up, there was a faint glow that had remained around them. To borrow Alice’s metaphor, if the Incarnameter was picking up that residual “heat,” then the men were going to realize Phercy’s sword was the source very quickly. We couldn’t expect the nine-year-old boy to both hide us and talk his way out of trouble at the same time. We had to solve this right away, or else the situation might further damage the boy’s spirit at a time when he was already struggling.

“Asuna, Alice,” I whispered, releasing the bottom of their cloaks, “once I go out there, wait for your chance to get back inside the mansion, put on your armor, and log out.”

The answers I expected came back at once.

“What are you talking about? I’m going, too!”

“Who cares about armor? I’m going!”

“If we don’t recover them now, we might not get the chance again. Besides, we have to avoid conflict here at all costs, don’t we, Alice?” I said, pointing at the leather pouch on Alice’s belt.

The knight bit her lip. I knew the pouch contained something incredibly important to her: two eggs for Amayori and Takiguri, the dragons who’d given up their lives to protect Alice and whom I’d rewound to their pre-hatched forms. If the guards were rough with her and cracked the eggs, even I couldn’t fix that.

She clutched her pouch gingerly, protecting the contents, so I turned to Asuna and said, “I’ll be fine. I’ll use this to escape if I need to. Just tell Dr. Koujiro to wait until five o’clock, like we discussed.”

I lifted my left hand, stopping Asuna from saying whatever protest had been about to come forth. Because the Underworld did not have any user interface aside from Stacia Window, Dr. Koujiro and Chief Higa implemented a special gesture command we could use to voluntarily log out. You had to extend the fingers of the left hand, and if the STL detected that you folded up the pinkie, middle finger, thumb, ring finger, and pointer finger, in that order, it would immediately log you out. When I tried it in the real world, my hand muscles screamed at me, but I could perform it within two seconds in the Underworld. And unlike the world of Unital Ring, I was leaving no soulless body behind here, so it worked as an emergency escape.

“…All right. But be careful, okay?” Asuna whispered, the concern clear on her face.

I smiled and said, “Of course,” then nodded to Alice and removed the swords from my waist. “Will you hold on to these?”

I gave the Night-Sky Blade to Asuna, and the Blue Rose Sword to Alice—simply because each one was so heavy—and snuck out of the shrubbery.

The captain and his men were still busy pointing the Incarnameter all over the center of the front lawn. Phercy was carefully, subtly avoiding the device, sensing it was his sword that was setting it off. But that wasn’t going to last for long.

There was no time to find a quiet way out of this.

I crouched and moved behind the garage, then generated twenty wind elements silently, placing ten beneath each foot. Then I released their wind energy, using them like rocket engines to shoot straight upward with tremendous speed. I could use Incarnate Arms—i.e., psychokinesis—to move myself, but elements were quicker when speed was of the essence.

After shooting upward about three hundred feet, I switched to free-falling. Neither the men nor Phercy had noticed me yet. I spread my arms to fine-tune my route, falling feetfirst. Before I hit the ground, I shot off the last few wind elements remaining to control my fall. With a deafening bang! I landed just six feet in front of the captain.

“Aaah!!” he screamed, springing backward in surprise. The young member holding the Incarnameter fell right onto his bottom. I pointedly glared at young Phercy, sending him a silent signal to play dumb. Of course, I didn’t have telepathic powers, but the boy blinked and took some distance anyway.

“Wh-who are you?!” bellowed the bearded captain, drawing his sword. It was not just a simple blade; it had some kind of mechanical contraption on the grip. I was just wondering what it might do when the captain hit a round button with his thumb. Zzzap! Yellow sparks ran up and down the entire blade.

“Whoa…is that electricity? How are you causing that?” I asked, unable to resist my curiosity. There were no electrical elements in the Underworld.

But he did not answer my question. “Speak! State your name and address!”

“Ummm…my name is Kirito, but I don’t have an address…”

“No address?! Then where do you sleep?!”

“Ummm, I don’t remember. Or should I say, the first thing I knew, I was in this mansion…”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you expect me to believe you’re a lost child of Vecta in this day and age?” the captain said, prompting a wave of nostalgia in my brain. But his next statement was less familiar to me. “State your civilian number, then!”

“Huh? I…don’t have a number…”

“That can’t be possible! It’s written in your Stacia Window!”

“O-oh, right…”

I traced an S in midair with my right hand, then tapped my left arm. An old, familiar bell chime heralded the appearance of a window that contained a string at the top reading, UNIT ID: NND7-6355.

“Ummm, it’s NND7-6355.”

“NND7? That’s all the way to the north…Wait a moment. In the six thousands?! Now that’s just nonsense!” fumed the captain, inching closer with his electric sword to peer at my purple window. Then his whiskered chin plummeted.

“What…?! Even my grandmother was in the eight thousands. How can this mere boy be so low…?”

That jogged my memory. The unit ID listed in the Stacia Window was the serial number for all people born in that particular area. I was “born” in Rulid in 370 HE. So two hundred years later, it stood to reason that the numbers would have gotten much higher since then. So how should I explain this?

“C-Captain!” yelped the member with the Incarnameter, still sitting on the ground. “He’s the one setting off the Incarnameter! I assume he’s in possession of some kind of Incarnate weapon!”

“Whaaat?!”

The captain shot backward and held up his electric sword. The other four men rushed closer from the gate. But most importantly of all, I was successfully pulling suspicion away from Phercy. I cleared my throat and spoke in as fierce a voice as I could manage.

“That’s right. I’m the one who just used Incarnation. It was less than an hour ago.”

“So you admit it?! Unauthorized use of Incarnate weapons is a violation of Basic Human Law!!”

“Um, it wasn’t really a weapon…”

“Then what was it? Are you trying to say it was your own Incarnation?!”

I didn’t even have time to say, Yes, it was, before the captain issued commands to his subordinates.

“Apprehend this man! If he resists, do not hesitate to use your electroblades!”

Oh, darn. I thought they were “electric swords,” I pondered, holding out my hands together. One of the men pulled out a simple pair of cuffs and clicked them over my wrists.

The feeling of the cold steel on my skin was strangely familiar, and I wondered why it was hitting me that way until I remembered that this was the second time I’d been arrested in this world. After violating the Taboo Index at Swordcraft Academy, Eugeo and I had been taken to Central Cathedral by the very same Alice who was now hiding in the bushes nearby, and we were chained up in the underground cells there.

Back then, we’d crossed the chains that held us prisoner against each other and pulled as hard as we could to wear down their life until they snapped. But I couldn’t manage that on my own.

When the chains snapped, we lost our balance, and you complained when you bonked your head on the wall, I thought, speaking to my long-lost partner. I glanced at Phercy one more time. The boy seemed to understand exactly what I was doing, and he nodded very slightly.

I might never see him again. I sent him a look that said, Good luck, kid, and turned to march toward the front gate.

Despite being stuffed through the door, the inside of the mechamobile was surprisingly nice.

The wheels were covered with a shock-resistant substance like black rubber, and it even had plate-spring suspension. The road was cobblestone, so there was some amount of vibration, but it wasn’t like I had to hold my tongue lest I bite it.

Of course, I didn’t say a word on the road—I was too busy staring out the window with my mouth half-open.

North Centoria in stellar year 582 was still using the building design that I remembered from two centuries ago, but everything else was completely different. The expanded roads featured vehicles in all sizes, the streetlights were bright and everywhere, and most surprising of all, about a third of the people on the sidewalks were demi-humans, like goblins, orcs, and ogres. I even saw ten-foot-tall giants.

Initially, I assumed they were tourists from the Dark Territory, but the way they spoke at street corners with other races and enjoyed tea at open-air cafés made them look utterly at home here. There were similarities in their clothing, too, so I had to assume the majority of the nonhumans were residents of Centoria.

When I had lived here, the demi-humans from the Dark Territory were treated like wicked monsters by the humans in the four empires. They were truly separate worlds. The rulers over the generations must have worked very hard to make this sight a reality. Although, according to Stica and Laurannei, it was the Star King and Star Queen who had taken the reins of the Underworld for two hundred years—and that was supposedly me and Asuna.

“Nah…it just can’t be,” I murmured to myself.

The young uniformed man next to me jabbed my side and snapped, “Be quiet!”

“Yes, sir.”

I clammed up and sank into the shallow seat cushion.

The mechamobile headed straight down the main road and entered North Centoria’s District One—the place where the Imperial Palace once existed. From what I could see through the front windshield, the castle itself was still there, but I could no longer see any of the flags bearing the insignia of Norlangarth Empire or the Axiom Church. Instead, there were banners of pure white with an unfamiliar blue symbol upon them. It was a circle accompanied by three points…a design that did not exist two hundred years ago.

“…What does that symbol signify?” I whispered to the young man next to me. His disbelief seemed to win out over his anger this time, so he gave me a very unsavory glance and said, “Are you telling me you don’t recognize the Stellar Unification Council’s logo?”

“Ohhh, that’s what it is…”

“Everyone learns that in their first year of primary school. The big circle is the orbit of the twin stars. The dot in the upper right is Cardina, the dot in the lower left is its companion star, Admina, and the point in the middle is Solus.”

“Ahhh, I see now…,” I murmured, focusing on the tapestries again. On the tapered ends was a different insignia, I realized. It was smaller and hard to make out, but it looked like two vertical swords wrapped up by some kind of flower. “What’s that one at the bottom…?”

“Are you truly asking me these things? That’s obviously the symbol of the Star King…,” whispered the young man.

The mechamobile turned left at that point, jolting heavily. We were crossing the sidewalk to enter Norlangarth Castle—or more accurately, the government building on its grounds. The black writing on the gray vehicle mentioned the North Centoria Imperial Guard, so this had to be their headquarters.

The parking lot, which was not especially large, contained two similar vehicles already. If three vehicles were all they had to cover North Centoria, it wasn’t much, but then I remembered that Underworlders essentially never broke the law. That couldn’t have changed much in two hundred years, and since the threat of the Dark Territory was presumably gone, too, they would need only a minimum of forces to maintain order.

The vehicle stopped in the parking spot farthest in, and the members quickly hopped out, lining up in front of the door on the right side, where I sat. The captain opened it and barked, “Out!” I was feeling the need for a proper stretch anyway, so I happily obliged—but not before glancing at the small analog clock installed in front of the driver’s seat. It was 4:40, meaning I had twenty minutes left until the time I promised Dr. Koujiro—and thirty until I was forcefully yanked out of the simulation.

“Make it quick!” the captain barked again, so I quickly did, thinking, Yeah, yeah, I hear you. The men promptly surrounded me on all sides.

The headquarters of the Imperial Guard, to the west of the parking lot, was a tremendous four-story building, but in the presence of the government building looming just to the north, and the mind-boggling scale of Central Cathedral farther beyond that, it was hard to be all that impressed. We crossed the tiled lot and went inside, the guards maintaining formation around me.

Facing the door of the lobby was a large reception counter, with both men and women at work. They all stared at me—it was probably quite rare to catch an actual criminal—so I wanted to give them a wave, but the cuffs prevented that.

They took me to a barren little room in the back of the second floor. The only things inside were a desk, two chairs, and a round clock on the wall. It was such a pitch-perfect take on an interrogation room that I almost laughed out loud when I saw it. I took the chair farther away from the door, looked up at the captain standing across from me, and asked, “Aren’t you supposed to tempt me with a steaming bowl of katsudon?”

“Wh-what?”

“Erm, nothing.”

“Just sit there and behave yourself! The director will be here to question you in person!” the captain announced before marching out of the room. The guards shut the door, but I didn’t hear a lock clicking, and they didn’t even perform a body search on me. I was a bit worried about the North Centoria Imperial Guard’s work standards.

Leaning against the hard-backed chair, I considered that getting arrested was not something I expected to experience, but it was, in a sense, rather convenient. Whatever this Imperial Guard director was like, they would certainly be in a position to understand the events happening in North Centoria better than anyone else. If I could ask the right questions, I might gain some kind of clue about the Underworld’s infiltrator.

I waited impatiently, but the door did not open after one minute, or two. After three, I hit the limit on my patience and decided I might as well figure out how their clocks worked. I stood up and moved the chair over to the wall. Giving the chair a silent apology, I stood on the seat with my boots and listened closely to the device hanging on the wall.

There was no mechanical ticking to be heard. Instead, it was emitting mysterious, faint vibrations that sounded like the chirping of crickets. There was no way to guess how it worked based only on the sound. I pulled my ear away and checked the wooden face for the name of a manufacturer or crafter, but there was nothing on it except for the twelve numbers…

Hold on.

Above the numeral 6, there was a tiny symbol carved into the surface, barely a fraction of an inch in size. It was so fine that it was difficult to make out the detail by the naked eye, but it seemed to be two lines over a diamond shape, rather similar to the symbol at the bottom of the banners hanging from the government building.

I looked around the room, hoping for a magnifying glass, but of course, there wasn’t one. So I raised my hand with the intent of creating a crystal lens instead, when I heard several footsteps approaching the door. I quickly hopped off the chair, moved it back to its original position, and sat down.

The door flew open without a knock. The bearded captain entered first.

“On your feet! His Eminence, the noble Director Boharsson, will see you now!”

When titled “eminence,” it was hard not to form some opinions before seeing the guy. Even with the noble ranks abolished and demi-humans living in Centoria now, it seemed the class consciousness carved into the souls of Underworlders was alive and well.

I rose to my feet obediently, while the captain stepped inside and waited beside the door. Boot heels clicked heavily through the doorway, revealing a short, wide man who seemed to be around sixty years old.

His uniform’s basic design was the same as the captain’s, but there were brilliant golden epaulets on his shoulders, various colorful service awards on his chest, and the sword on his left hip was not the practical design of the electroblades but a highly decorative saber. He even had a fanciful mustache that he curled upward at the ends. Even two hundred years ago, I had never seen such a stereotypical puffed-up nobleman as this guy, I felt.

His Eminence sat down and made himself comfortable in the seat across from me, then heavily cleared his throat in preparation to speak.

But he did not get the chance.

“Stop right there!” cried a sharp voice, causing the nobleman’s barrel-like torso to jiggle with surprise. The captain started to barge out of the doorway but was promptly pushed back inside.

Stomping into the cramped questioning room was a pair of people wearing matching deep-blue cloaks. Both were short but possessed commanding auras that overwhelmed the bearded captain and mustached director. They wore sailor-style caps with folded-back brims low over their brows, so I couldn’t make out their faces very well.

“Wh-what is the meaning of this?!” spluttered nobleman Boharsson at last.

One of the blue cloaks snapped, “This case is under the purview of the Integrity Pilots. Effective immediately. Hand over the suspect at once.”

“Hrrg…,” the portly man grumbled as they thrust the hat’s insignia under his nose. The combination of crossed arrows and circle belonged once to the Integrity Knights—and the Axiom Church.

The church no longer existed, but Boharsson backed down as though the genetic memory of that fear still lurked in his fluctlight.

“Fine! Do your worst with him! Let’s go, Torev!”

“Yes, sir!” said the bearded captain, who was named Torev, I was finally learning. He rushed out after the fuming director, sparing not a single glance for me.

Only the two blue cloaks and I were left, and I had to wonder what was going to happen next—when they closed the door, doffed their hats, and spoke my name in remarkably friendly tones.

“Lord Kirito, you’ve finally returned to us!”

“We’re so happy to see you again, despite the circumstances, Lord Kirito!”

“……Ah.”

At last, I realized that the two cloaked people were none other than the young pilots I’d met in my last dive, Laurannei Arabel and Stica Schtrinen.

With fresh eyes, it was clear to me how much of Ronie I could still see in Laurannei—and Tiese in Stica. I blinked several times before I was able to return their greeting.

“N-nice to see you again. I’m pretty sure I said before that you don’t need to call me Lord.”

Both of them promptly shook their heads.

“We can’t do that, Lord Kirito.”

“The truth is, we would rather call you Your Majesty the Star King.”

“…Absolutely not,” I said, feeling a shiver run down my spine. “So…why are you here?”

“Phercy told me,” said black-haired Laurannei. That initially seemed to answer my question, but I caught myself before I took it at face value.

“Wait, but…the mechamobile took me straight here. And the pilots’ base is outside the city, right? There’s no way Phercy could have run to get you in time.”

Redheaded Stica said worriedly, “I suppose you haven’t regained your memory yet, Lord Kirito…As the Star King, you invented the vocal transmitter.”

“V-vocal transmitter? What is that?”

“Just as the name says, it is a Designed Object that transmits one’s voice.”

“D-Designed Object?”

That doesn’t answer my question! I thought. Perhaps it was short for human-designed Divine Object? If it transmitted the human voice, it was presumably a telephone of some kind, then? So the Underworld had not only automobiles and airplanes but phones, too…?

“Hmm, I really think this Star King was someone else, not me…I have absolutely no memory of this vocal transmitter thing…”

“We can discuss that later. First, we should leave,” said Laurannei, putting her cap back on.

“Sounds like a great plan…but are we going back to your house?”

“I’d like to do that, certainly, but the guards might intrude again…I’ll explain where we’re going once we’ve left the building.”

Laurannei opened the door and checked both ways, then looked back and gave a signal, so I followed Stica out of the interrogation room.

I couldn’t see any of the guards in the hallway. We quickly proceeded down to the first floor, crossed the lobby, and went outside. There was a new mechamobile at the entrance to the lot.

If the official city guard vehicles were simple box-type cars, this was a more stylish sedan. The front bumper had a heavy grill above it, then a long engine compartment and a low-ceiling cabin. The vehicle was a shiny black color with no words that I could see on the sides, only a proud silver insignia of the combined circle and cross on the nose of the car.

Laurannei circled around to the driver’s seat—the wheel was on the right-hand side, like in Japan—while Stica opened the rear left door and gave me a look. I didn’t want to be a child and proclaim, I wanna sit in the front! so I took the seat that was offered to me. Stica shut the door, which had the heavy, thick sound of luxury.

The seat was soft and cushioned, making the difference in comfort from the Imperial Guard’s vehicle even more stark. I sank into it, exhaled, and glanced to my right.

There was someone already sitting there, and I flinched and leaned away.

This person was dressed in a cloak the same color as the girls’ and wore the same hat. Based on the build, I guessed it was a man, but the large brim of the hat was pulled low, and the collar was popped high, so I couldn’t see any facial features. The person’s legs were crossed, stuffed into polished boots, and their hands rested atop their legs, fingers folded together but utterly still. I stared at the mystery person, then leaned toward the driver’s seat and said quietly, “Um, Laurannei…who is this?”

“The commander of the Integrity Pilots.”

“Commander…?!” I squawked as the passenger side door closed.

Laurannei stepped on the accelerator, and heat elements under the hood growled softly, moving the huge vehicle smoothly forward. I didn’t think the previous mechamobile was all that uncomfortable, but this sedan was clearly superior. The Underworld’s level of technology didn’t even have inflated tires yet, so how were they absorbing all of the vibrations so well?

But in this situation, the automotive technology didn’t matter. I was more curious about the person to my right.

I presumed that “Commander” was the highest rank of the Integrity Pilots. From what the girls told me earlier, the Integrity Pilots were part of the Underworld Space Force, which had a supreme commander of its own, but in practical terms, the space force and ground force were both under the Integrity Pilothood’s lead. The Human Guardian Army during the Otherworld War two centuries ago had a similar relationship with the Integrity Knighthood of the time. So that meant the person sitting next to me was in control of the entire military might of the Underworld.

So why was this ultra-VIP riding in the car that had come to get me? And why were they staying silent and refusing to even look at me, much less speak?

I kept sneaking glances to the right, trying to figure out how I should respond to the situation. Mostly, I couldn’t tell why Stica and Laurannei weren’t saying anything, either. You’d think they would provide an introduction or explanation.

Without anything better to do, I decided I would mimic the commander’s pose, leaning back, crossing one leg over the other, and folding my fingers together. I glanced to the right to see if it prompted any reaction.

Just then, the car turned left at an intersection, and the sunlight came through the window, alighting on the commander’s shoulder.

Between the brim of the hat and the folded collar of the jacket, the sun shone on gentle, wavy hair. It was not blond but a darker golden brown.

In a word: flaxen.

Suddenly, my heart began racing without reason. My breathing quickened and became shallower; my fingertips went cold and numb.

Awkwardly, I craned my neck to the right, capturing the entirety of the commander in my sight.

If he was a man, he was neither skinny nor bulky. If either, he was on the slender side, similar to my figure. But even through the thick coat, I could tell his muscles were well honed.

I wanted to reach out and feel his shoulder to see how hardy it was. In fact, I wanted to rip off his mask, pull those collars apart, and stare at him full in the face. The sooner I could tell who he wasn’t, the sooner I could set my heart at ease.

This pressing desire turned to unconscious Incarnation, reaching for the commander, trying to touch his shoulder.

There was a sudden jolt that smacked me back; my eyes went wide with surprise. The commander had forcefully brushed back my Incarnate Arms with his own powerful Incarnation.

“Er…no, I didn’t mean…,” I stammered.

The words, “Very interesting,” cut me short. The commander finally moved, pulling his left hand slowly from his pocket. “So this is the Incarnation of the man who called himself the Star King. I can see why the Imperial Guard mistook it for an Incarnate weapon.”

His voice.

There was nothing grating about it. The tone was as smooth as velvet, with a bit of an effeminate treble, but containing a strong, firm core.

The commander lifted his hand, pinched the brim of his hat, and gently lifted it. The wavy flaxen hair spilled out, gleaming beautifully in the setting sun.

Stica spun around in the passenger seat, clearly bursting with something she’d been keeping to herself all this time.

“There, you see, Commander? Isn’t it really him?!”

“I did not say that yet. There are several in the Integrity Pilothood who can use Incarnation at this level.”

“No, this is different!” protested Stica, clutching her hands to her chest. “Kirito used a technique I’ve never seen before against the Abyssal Horror, that mythic spacebeast…He did it with nothing more than sword arts! No one but the legendary Star King himself could do such a thing!”

“Let’s not rush into judgment,” said the man, who was probably the most powerful person in the Underworld today along with the head of the Stellar Unification Council. He wasn’t putting on airs, however. He cleared his throat and added, “Ah, Laurannei. If you don’t mind, could we swing by East Third Street in District Six?”

“No, we can’t. There are leftover honey pies from the Jumping Deer back at the base.”

“But they taste the best when they’re freshly made.”

“So does everything else.”

All I could do was stare at the profile of the commander’s face.

I couldn’t identify his facial features. Not just because of the sunlight coming through the window behind him but because of the white leather mask that covered the upper half of his face. Even then, the exposed mouth looked just like him. Or maybe it was just my hope that was making me think that way.

“Fine, fine. Then just head straight back to base,” the commander said with a disappointed sigh. He turned to me casually. Behind his soft, flowing bangs, the white mask covered from his hairline to his nose, but behind the eyeholes, shielded by thin lenses of glass, his emerald-green eyes were sharp.

“……Eu……”

He frowned slightly at the sound that escaped my lips, but it turned promptly into a little smile.

However, it was not the warm, gentle little grin I’d seen so many times. This man had the same eyes and voice as my partner, who died two hundred years ago, but his smile was sly, sarcastic, closed off from anyone else. He held out his hand to me.

“You’ll have to pardon my mask. The skin around my eyes is very sensitive to the light of Solus. I am E…Pardon me. I am Integrity Pilot Commander Eolyne Herlentz. It’s nice to meet you, Kirito.”

“Eolyne…,” I repeated hollowly, pondering the unfamiliar name.

Could it just be a case of total coincidence? A freak similarity within the bounds of the physical parameters that determined the appearances of Underworlders? Or were the eyes and voice the only things that resembled his, and beneath the mask, the rest of his face would be unrecognizable?

It took all of my self-control not to rip off his mask. Even without seeing his face, if I could touch him, I might learn something meaningful, anything.

I took a deep breath, let it out, and moved to grab the hand of Commander Eolyne, who was patiently waiting for me.

But just inches away, I found myself overtaken by a strange, paralyzing sensation. It was a feeling that I was being stripped away from my body, that the bond of flesh and consciousness was coming undone. It felt like…

Logging out.

Automatically, I glanced at the driver’s seat. The clock set into the dashboard was pointing to a time for 5:11. I didn’t exit at five o’clock, so as Dr. Koujiro warned me, she was beginning the log-out process, with a merciful extra minute, to boot.

“No…wait!” I cried, speaking to the scientist in the real world, then tried to grab the hand of the stunned Commander Eolyne. But just as our fingers made contact, the world was surrounded by rainbow light and vanished.