Sword Art Online - Volume 9 - Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1 - Underworld
(The Third Month of Human World Calendar 378)
Part 1
There were scents in the air.
My fragmented thought had sensed as such just before I woke up.
The air which was flowing into my nasal cavity contained large amounts of information. The sweet scent of flowers. The scent of bright green grasses. The refreshing scent of trees which felt like it could cleanse my chest. The scent of water which stimulated my thirsty throat.
As my consciousness leaned towards awareness, the flood of the sounds information surged into me. The sound of numerous leaves rubbing against each other. The sound of small birds cheerfully twittering away. Below them were the occasionally buzzing sounds from the insects. The faint murmuring sound of a small river from far away.
Where am I? At least it is obviously not my room. Usually, when I wake up, there is always a sunny-like scent of the dry sheet, the groan of the air-con, and the sound of the cars running on the Kawagoe bypass slightly further away, but all of these aren’t present. Furthermore —— the green light which irregularly brushes my closed eyelids until now isn’t the book light I forgot to turn off, but sunlight filtered through the foliage, isn’t it?
I pushed aside the desire to return to the deep sleep which still lingered, before finally opening my eyes.
I repeatedly blinked several times due to the sudden shot of numerous swaying beams of lights. As I rubbed my eyes, which were blurred with tears, with the back of my right hand, I slowly raised my upper body.
“……Where am I……?”
I unintentionally muttered.
What I saw next were green bushes. There were small white and yellow flowers at various places on them, the shiny light blue butterflies were flying back and forth between them. About five meters away, the carpet of grasses was cut off, from there on, was a stretch of deep forest, lined up with the huge gnarly trees which should have aged for tens of years.
As I focused my sight to the gloomy gap between the tree trunks, the grove of trees seemed to continue until the limit where light could reach. The rugged rippled tree bark and the ground were covered with thick moss, shining green and gold under the sun.
I glanced to the right, then turned around, I was greeted by old tree trunks from all directions. In other words, it seemed I was lying in a small circle of grasses in the opening of the forest. Lastly I looked upwards, and from the gap between the gnarled tree-tops stretching in all directions, it was the blue sky where the scattered clouds were drifting, like I had expected.
“Where is…… this place?”
I muttered again as I sighed. But there was no answer.
I searched every nook and corner of my head, but I couldn’t find the memory of how I came to take a nap in this place. Sleepwalking? Amnesia? As those dangerous words crossed my mind, no way, I quickly denied it.
I am…… my name is Kirigaya Kazuto. Seventeen years old and eight months. I live at Kawagoe, Saitama prefecture with my mother and little sister.
I felt somewhat calm as my related data came out smoothly, then I pulled out more memories.
Currently, I’m a second year high school student. But as I’d met the graduation requirement in the first semester of next year, I was thinking about entering a university in fall. Yes, I had consulted with someone about that. On the last Sunday of June, when it was raining. I went to Agil’s shop, «Dicey Café» in Okachimachi after school, and talked to my friend Sinon, Asada Shino about Gun Gale Online.
Then, Asuna —— Yuuki Asuna joined up, the three of us talked for a while before leaving the shop.
“Asuna……”
I have a lover, I softly uttered a name of the girl, who was the partner I could leave my back to with full confidence. I looked around my surroundings many times, tried to search for the figure of her, who existed clearly in my memory, however, I couldn’t find a single human’s figure on the grass floor or in the deep forest.
While fighting with a sudden strike of loneliness, I went to retrace my memories.
Asuna and I separated from Shino after we went out of the shop. After coming out of the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line in Shibuya, we switched to T?yoko line to go Setagaya, where Asuna’s house is.
The rain had already stopped when we exited the station. As we walked side by side on the brick tile footpath, we talked about entering the university. I spoke openly about my desire to go to the university in America, and made an unreasonable request for Asuna to come along, at that point, she gave her usual tenderly bright smile, and then——

My memories stopped at that point.

I couldn’t recall it. How did Asuna reply? How did I say farewell and return to the station? What time did I come back home, what time did I go to bed? I couldn’t recall any of those.
As I was slightly amazed, I desperately tried to pull out more memories.
However, Asuna’s smile just faded away like it was blurred in the water, the scene after that didn’t come out no matter how hard I tried to recall it. I frowned as I closed my eyes, and hastily dug up the gloomy grey vacuum.
I was suffocating as if I was going mad.
Those were just two images that came to mind, like small bubbles. Unintentionally, I inhaled the sweet air deeply into my chest. And I strongly sensed my dry throat, which I had forgotten about until now.
There is no doubt about it, yesterday evening I was definitely at Miyasaka town in Setagaya ward. Then how did I end up sleeping in the middle of a forest I don’t know?
No, was it really yesterday? The breeze which is brushing against my skin feels cool and pleasant. This forest doesn’t have the slightest bit of the humidity at the end of June. This time, a genuine fear ran through my back.
The «Yesterday’s memory», which I’m desperately clinging onto as if it were a small float floating in the middle of a stormy sea, did it really happen? Am I… really who I think I am……?
After caressing my face and pulling at my hair several times, I lowered my hands and looked at its details. I calmed down slightly as they looked just like what I had in my memories, there was a mole at the base of the right thumb, the back of the left middle finger had a scar which I got during childhood.
At that point, I finally noticed my strange appearance.
Replacing my usual pajamas wasn’t a T-shirt nor a school uniform, no, it wasn’t even anything I owned. On the contrary, no matter how I looked at it, I didn’t think it was ready-made clothes available in the market.
The tunic was dyed in a pale blue, it was either a rough cotton or flax short sleeved shirt. Its texture was irregular, which gave a coarse feeling. The thread sewed on the cuffs seemed to be hand-sewn rather than machine sewed. There was no collar, the V shape cut on the chest was tied with a light brown cord. As I looked at the cord held by my fingers, I could see that it wasn’t made of braided fiber, but seemed to be of finely cut leather.
The trousers also used the same material, but they were in beige as they seemed to be unbleached. There was no pocket, the leather belt which tied my waist wasn’t fastened with a metal buckle, but a long and narrow wooden button. The shoes were also hand-sewn leather, several tacks were struck to the cleats of thick leather shoe sole.
I had never seen such clothes and shoes before. ——In the real world, that was.
“……What.”
I relaxed my shoulders, as I muttered with a light sigh.
Even though they were completely different, at the same time, they were the garments that looked familiar. From Europe during the Middle Ages, or it could be said from fantasy, these were what were the so-called tunic, cotton pants, and leather shoes. This place wasn’t reality but a fantasy world, or a virtual world I was familiar with.
“What……”
I said again as I tilted my head.
This means I was sleeping while FullDiving? But when and what game did I log in to? Why can’t I remember anything?
Anyway, I’ll know after I logged out, as I thought that, I waved my right hand.
After a several seconds, the window wouldn’t open, so this time I waved my left hand. The result was the same.
As I listened to the uninterrupted sound of little birds twittering and leaves rubbing against each other, I recklessly tried to shake off a discomforting feeling which was creeping up from my waist.
This place is a virtual world. It should be. But —— at least it isn’t Alfheim I’m familiar with. Before that, it isn’t even the standard VR world which is created by The Seed.
But didn’t I just confirm the mole and scar I have in the real world? A VR game which could precisely reproduce such things, as far as I know, doesn’t exist.
“Command. ……Log out.”
I pronounced it along with a faint glimmer of hope, but there was no response. As I sat cross-legged, I looked at my hand again.
There were swirled fingerprints on the tip of my fingers. There were wrinkles at the joints. The fine soft hairs grew thinly. The beads of cold sweat had been perspiring for a while now.
I wiped them off using my tunic, and checked the details of the fabric again. The rough threads were knit into the cloth using an old method. The fluffy and very fine fiber was clearly visible on the surface.
If this was a virtual world, the machine which created it would have a fearfully high performance. As I set my gaze on the grove of trees up ahead, I quickly tore a blade of grass with my right arm and held it in front of my eyes.
The Seed’s standard VR world, which used «Detail Focusing» technique, wouldn’t be able to keep up with my sudden movement, a slight time lag would occur before I could see the fine detailed texture of the grass. However, from the thin running vein and the jagged edge, until the water droplet dripped off the slit, all were presented in ultra-fine detail the moment I stared at it.
It means the objects which entered my vision is generated in real-time with a precision of millimeters. Then the capacity needed to store this single grass would be in several tens of megabytes. Is something like that really possible?
I don’t want to pursue this anymore, I suppressed such thoughts within my mind as I pushed the grass between my feet aside and started digging the ground using my right hand in place of a shovel.
The damp black soil was surprisingly soft, the entangled small grassroots entered my eyes immediately. I saw a wriggling movement between the tangle of roots and gently picked it up with my fingertips.
It was a small earthworm, about three centimeters long. The lustrous green creature, which was pulled out from its safe haven, was struggling recklessly. Is this a new species? right as I thought that, it raised one end of the tip, which apparently was its head, and made a small Kyu— kyu— cry. While I was feeling dizzy, I returned it to the top of the dug up soil. I then looked at my right hand, my palm was covered in black dirt, the gaps of my fingernails were full of the fine soil.
I was absentminded for several tens of seconds, then, while being reluctant, I came up with three hypotheses which could sufficiently explain the current situation.
First, it is possible that this place is a virtual world created by an extension of the current FullDive technology. The situation in which I woke up in the middle of the forest, is a standard fantasy RPG starting scene.
However, in that case, no matter what kind of supercomputer I know, none of them had enough capability to generate these ultra-fine detailed 3D objects. It could be said that I have lost part of my memories and the time in reality had already passed by several years, or several tens of years.
Next, the possibility that this place could be somewhere in the real world. It means I am the subject of a crime, an illegal experiment, or a terrible prank, someone dressed me up in these clothes and threw me out in the forest somewhere —— from this weather it could be Hokkaid?, or perhaps somewhere on the southern hemisphere. However, I don’t think Japan has a species of metallic green earthworms which could cry ‘kyu kyu’, or even any country in the whole world.
Then the last hypothesis, this place could possibly be a real different dimension, a different world, or perhaps an afterlife world. It is a familiar event which occurs in manga, novels, and anime. According to the dramaturgy of those, after this I would save a girl from monster’s attack, listen to village chief’s request to become the savior hero, and fight against the devil king. But there is no «Steel sword» at my waist.
I held my belly as I was attacked by a sudden desire to burst out laughing, after I somehow managed to let it pass, I decided to exclude the third possibility as out of the question as well. As I lost sight of the border between the reality and non-reality, I felt as if I was starting to lose my sanity as well.
After all —— is this a virtual world? Or is it the real world?
If it’s the former, no matter how super real the world is, it’s not difficult to confirm. I just have to climb to the top of a nearby tree and jump down head-first. If I was logged out, or resurrected at a save point in a temple somewhere, then it would be a virtual world.
But if this is a real world, the worst result will come out from that experiment. In a novel I read long ago, a certain criminal organization, in order to film a real death game, abducted about ten people and left them to kill each other in an uninhabited wilderness. Even though such thing would be unthinkable to happen in reality, the same abnormal event that was the SAO incident had occurred. If this is really a game set up on a stage in the real world, I don’t think committing suicide right at the start is a good choice.
“……If it’s something like that, they still haven’t done that yet……”
I unconsciously said that out. At least Kayaba Akihito still carried out his minimal duty, explaining fine details at the start of the game.
I looked up into sky through the treetops before speaking again,

“Oi, GM-san! If you’re listening then reply to me!!”
However, no matter how long I waited, a huge face or a hooded human figure didn’t appear. At that point, I started checking the surrounding bushes again before searching through my clothes for something that could be a rule book, but I couldn’t find anything.
Apparently, whoever threw me out in this place has no intention to respond to my call for help. This situation, if it’s not accidental then… but…
As I listened to the birds’ carefree twittering, I recklessly thought about what to do after this point.
If this is an accident in reality, I have a hunch that moving around carelessly isn’t a good idea. It could be possible that currently, a rescue team is already on its way.
But, what is the reason that this kind of accident happened in the first place?
If forcibly straining to get one, it could possibly be, trouble happened to the vehicle I was boarding during traveling —— be it a plane or a car, and I fell unconscious in this forest, the shock made me lose memories of the events that occurred before and after it. But that can’t explain these strange clothes, and there are no scratches on my body either.
Or, an accident happened during my Dive in a virtual world, something like that is also possible. An obstacle occurred along the communication route and caused me to log into a world which was not originally connected. But in this case, there is no explanation for these high-detail objects.
Also, if assuming that it is a situation designed by someones intention. Then it would be better to think that as long as I didn’t take any action, the situation wouldn’t change.
“Just which one is it……”
Is this reality? Or is it VR world? There must be a method to identify it, I thought that as I muttered.
There must be a way. A virtual world which approaches perfection until one couldn’t be able to distinguish it from reality, although it is a commonly used phrase, I don’t think it is possible to recreate everything in the real world with a hundred percent precision.
It was close to five minutes that I sat on the short grass thinking about various things. However, I couldn’t find any feasible ideas for the current situation. If I had a microscope, I could search for the existence of microorganism on the ground, or if I had a plane, I could be able to fly to the edge of the surface. However, sadly, with only the hands and feet that I had, digging the ground was the best I could do.
At a time like this, if it’s Asuna, she’s sure to have a way to identify this world which I didn’t think of, I let out a short sigh as I thought that. Or if it was her, she wouldn’t be sitting worrying like this, but quickly taking action.
I bit my lips as hopelessness struck me again.
I was surprised that I was at this much of a loss just because it wasn’t possible to contact Asuna, but I also accepted this fact. As during this past two years, I discussed almost all my decisions with her. Now, without Asuna’s thinking circuit, my brain was like a CPU with half of its core disabled.
It feels like only yesterday that I enjoyed talking with her at Agil’s shop for several hours. If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t talk about RATH or STL, but about how to distinguish reality from the ultra-precise virtual wor——……
“Ah……”
I inadvertently raised my body. The ambient sound rapidly receded.
So that is it, and I didn’t realize it until now.
Didn’t I already know about it? The existence of something far beyond the FullDive machine, a technology that could be said to be able to create a VR world with a super-real quality. It means this world is……
“Inside of Soul Translator……? Is this place… Underworld……?”
There was no response to what I muttered as I unconsciously looked around my surroundings in confusion.
The forest of gnarled old trees I could only think of as the real thing. The swaying grasses. The flying butterflies.
“These are…… a man-made dream written directly into my Fluctlight……?”
On the first day I started the part-time job at the venture company, «RATH»; the researcher and operator, Higa Takeru-shi, proudly explained to me the rough structure of STL and how real the world it could create was.
And I realized by the Test Dive soon after, that his words weren’t an exaggeration at all —— however, what I saw at that time was just one room. Although the table, chair and various small things placed there were hard to distinguish from the real thing, the room itself couldn’t be called a «World».
However, the size of the forest which surrounds me now, perhaps it would be several kilometers in reality. No, if the ridge of the mountain range that faintly floated beyond the trees was the real thing, then the size of this space would be at a level of several tens or several hundreds of kilometers.
Trying to create this using the existing technology, even using all the storage available on the internet wouldn’t be enough to fit all the data required. Only a totally new technology…… such as the «Mnemonic Visual» of STL, would allow not only a scene that was impossible in reality, but permit this large amount of objects, I totally didn’t imagine it.
Then, if my guess that this place was Underworld, the virtual world created by STL, was correct, it would be impossible to verify it no matter what action was used inside.
That was because every object existed here, no, every ‘thing’ here were at the same level as the real thing in my consciousness. No matter how many grass I tore, the same information as if I did it in the real world would be given to my consciousness —— my Fluctlight, so it was not theoretically possible to verify that it was a virtual existence, absolutely.
So, if STL is going for commercial use, a marker to help in identifying that it’s a virtual world is absolutely needed…… I stood up as I thought that.
Although I still haven’t obtained solid proof, it’s better to think that this place is the Underworld. It means currently in the real world, I’m lying inside the STL experimental machine in RATH’s Roppongi development office, doing a two thousand yen per hour part-time job.
“But…… isn’t it strange……?”
After a brief moment of relief, I tilted my head again.
The operator, Higa certainly said that in order to prevent the contamination to the test data, the real world memories of Kirigaya Kazuto would have to be blocked. But currently, what I can’t recall is just one day, from sending Asuna off until I go into STL at RATH the next day, it’s far from saying blocked.
Also —— yes, since the final test is approaching, didn’t I decide to quit this part-time job to have time for studying? I don’t think I’m a person who easily breaks my promise with Asuna after one day because of a good hourly wage.
Moreover, from this situation, even though this is STL’s test Dive, it’s no doubt that some problem had occurred. I looked into the blue sky between the gaps in the treetops and shouted in a loud voice,
“Higa-san, if you’re monitoring, stop the Dive for a moment! Looks like a problem has occurred!”
I stood like that, waiting for more than ten seconds.
However, the countless leaves continued swaying under the serene sunlight, the butterflies continued flapping their wings drowsily, there was no change to the scenery.
“……Uu……perhaps, this is……”
I groaned in a low voice to a certain possibility I suddenly realized.
Perhaps I have agreed to this experiment —— is that the case?
In other words, in order to obtain data about the action I would take if I was in a place where I couldn’t be sure if I was in reality or a virtual world, they blocked my memory right before the Dive and threw me into a super real different world created by STL.
If that was the case, I felt like slapping my head who had easily agreed to that evil experiment. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it was shallow to think that I could effortlessly come up with an accurate and swift way to escape from this situation.
I counted the percentage of possibilities which could sufficiently explain the current situation as I folded the fingers on my right hand.
“Hmm…… the possibility of this being reality is… 3 percent. The present VR world… 7 percent. My agreement to test Dive in STL… 20 percent. A sudden accident during the Dive… 69.9999 percent……”
In my mind, I added the final 0.0001 percent possibility that I had lost into a real different world. And that was the limit I could squeeze out of my little wisdom. In order to obtain more information, I would have to brave the dangers and try to contact other humans or game players or test Divers.
So it was time to take action.
First, I want to moisten my dry throat which has protested up until now. I turned my body around on the center of the grass covered ground I was standing on. The direction where a faint streaming sound came from, judging by the sun’s location, would probably be the east.
Before I started moving, my right hand searched my back again, of course there was not a single stick there, let alone a sword. I kicked the hopelessness away as I put my right foot out, it was just in ten steps that I reached the end of the grass covered ground. I passed through the two old trees which rose as if they were natural gateposts, and stepped into the gloomy forest.
The forest floor was covered in a velvet-like thick moss, the space felt suspiciously strange. The leaves of overgrown trees obstructed almost all sunlight, it was just narrow beams of golden light that managed to reach the ground. The butterflies dancing over the grass were replaced with strange beetles which looked like dragonflies or moths, they glided soundlessly in the air. Occasionally, a sound of something from somewhere reached my ears. It was a scene I didn’t think could be earth in the real world.
I walked for about fifteen minutes while praying that a hostile large animal or monster would not venture out. I felt greatly relieved when the path that had a deluge of sunlight came into view. As the sound of water became clear, I was certain that up ahead would be a river. I naturally quickened my feet while suppressing my dry throat.
The moment I rushed out of the dense forest, separated by a three meter wide area of grass, was the surface of water, in which the silver light of the sun bounced off and entered my eyes.
“W-Water—”
With a miserable groan, I unsteadily walked along the final distance, before throwing my body down onto the soft undergrowth riverside.
“Uo……”
I unintentionally raised a sound once I laid on my stomach.
What a beautiful stream. The river wasn’t wide, as I slowly crawled, I could see the stunning transparency of the water current. Like a drop of blue paint hanging on pure lack of color, I could clearly see white sands of the riverbed through the extremely clear mountain stream.
Up until several seconds ago, with the remaining small possibility that this place was the real world, I would have to consider the dangers of drinking unboiled water. However, watching the stream which looked as if it was from melted crystals, unable to resist the temptation, my right hand plunged into the river’s surface. With a high-pitched sound as if it was cutting the cold water, my right hand poured the liquid into my mouth.
Could this be called sweet? I couldn’t feel any impurities at all, the faint sweet and fresh taste of water made me no longer want to buy mineral water from convenience stores ever again. After using both hands to dip in the water in rapid succession, I finally put my mouth into the water surface.
While thinking that this was exactly the taste of the water of life, in the corner of my mind, the possibility that this place was a virtual world created from the current FullDive machine was completely eliminated.
That was because, for the most recent machine now —— namely, the AmuSphere, it was impossible to recreate liquid to this perfection. A polygon was an infinite number of coordinates forming a leveled surface before connecting to each other to create an object, it wasn’t suitable to reproduce the randomness and complicated shape of water. However, the state of water swaying in my hands, spilling, and flowing down had no trace of artificiality in it at all.
I also want to drop the possibility that this is the real world—— while thinking so, I raised my body and looked around again. Such a clean river, the fantastic forest that continues along the opposite bank, and those vividly colored small animals, I don’t think exist anywhere on earth. In general, isn’t nature the thing that if touched by human hands will become a harsh environment? Also, is there any reason that I have yet to be bitten by an insect, even though I wandered around for a while dressed lightly like this?
——As I thought this, I had a feeling that the STL would summon a large horde of poisonous insects, I stood up while shaking that thought off. After I readjusted the possibility of this place being the real world down to one percent, Now, I looked to my left and right.
The flow of the river drew a gradual curve from the north to the south. The end of both directions were swallowed by groups of big trees. However, from its cleanliness, coolness, and width, I thought the source of the river should be quite close. If that was the case, the possibility of houses or towns existing downstream should be high.
It’d be easy if I had a boat… I thought as I started to walk downstream —— at that time,
The breeze that changed direction slightly carried an odd sound into my ears.
Something hard, either a big tree or something similar was struck, that kind of sound. It wasn’t just once. I listened to the regular paced sound that had about a four second interval.
It isn’t from an animal nor a natural source. It’s almost certainly a man-made sound. It should be the sound of someone cutting a tree in this forest. But trying to approach might be dangerous, I made a bitter smile after thinking for a moment. This isn’t an MMORPG world where fighting and killing is recommended anyway. Getting into contact with other people and obtaining information is currently the option at top priority.
I made a half circle turn toward the upstream of the river, where the dry echoes came from.
Suddenly, I had a feeling that I saw a strange scene.
On the right was a rippling surface of a river. A dense and deep forest on the left. In front was a green path extending to somewhere.
There, three children were walking side by side. Between a black haired boy and a light brown haired boy, a girl wearing a straw hat had her long golden hair swaying dazzlingly. Under the full mid summer sunlight, the gold radiance scattered freely.
Is this —— memory……?
Far away, the days which wouldn’t return. The eternal trust they vowed to do everything to protect, but like ice dropped into sunlight, abruptly vanishing——
Those nostalgic days.