Archive of Our Own

Work Text

[Will you write the way into her heart?] The screen displayed.
"This seems a bit silly," Kazuto said. "It's not even designed for virtual reality."
"Like I said," Kikuoka repeated. "Forty-one suicides this month only."
"Why do people keep playing it then?"
"They seem to be under the impression it's all a big marketing stunt. Fake news, you know the drill."
"Yeah," Kazuto sighed, he sipped from his overly expensive coffee. "Can't you take it offline?"
"It's floating around everywhere. No use trying to dry a flooded room if the taps are still running."
"So you want to sent me inside?" Seriously, was this his solution for everything?
"You read me like an open book, Kirito." Kikuoka smiled and took another bite from his pudding. "You'll be adequately compensated, obviously. And I'll guarantee your safety, don't worry."
"I don't get it," Kazuto said. He drank deep from his coffee. "What do you want me to do? Dive in and find out how they do it? It's impossible to kill someone using an Amusphere, we've established this before." He was even sitting in the exact same spot as before.
Kikuoka took another bite from his pudding. He slowly chewed it before replying. "Like I said, all deaths were suicides. Autopsies have confirmed this. The only suspicious thing is that their logs showed they had been playing the game just before. We don't even know if the game has anything to do with it."
"But…?" He sensed there was more going on here.
"I have some agents inside. They all confirmed it's a terrifying game that messes with your head."
"This?" Kazuto pointed at the screen, which still displayed a large heart with four smiling girls.
"The game seems to be playing you rather than the other way around. I believe they mess with your head to drive you to suicide, some kind of psychological trickery."
"And sending me in is going to help? Are you trying to get me killed? Do you even have-"
"Ah." Kikuoka raised a finger. "We do have something more. Look at this."
He operated the screen and loaded another video. It showed the credits with some visuals and a background song.
"Wait a minute." He saw the picture vanish when it reached the top. An error showed up.
"Exactly," Kikuoka said. "If you complete the game it will delete itself."
"I see."
"But here's what really interesting." He went to the last part of the video.
[You've reached the standard ending. Reinstall the game and try to reach the Fulfilling ending next time to shut down the Core.]
"So there are two endings?" Kazuto asked. "What's this Core?"
"You need an internet connection to play the game. It reroutes you through several VPN's until you reach the Core. I believe that this is the server of the creator."
"So upon finding the true ending, a signal is sends which shuts the server down?"
"Yes, that's what it looks like. Probably some coded message which activates a script. Without the server, all games should stop working."
"And you can't hack your way into the server?"
Kikuoka laughed. "Through VPN's? Good luck with that. Besides," his voice turned serious. "There is another problem."
"Hm?"
"The game has an automatic streaming modus."
"You mean… people can watch you play it?"
"Yes. You just have to type someone's username and if they are playing at that time, you can watch them. You can even communicate with them if the player accepts your request."
"Does it keep logs?" Kazuto asked. An idea was forming in his head.
"No, only live watching. We haven't yet watched anyone who killed himself afterwards. There are simply too many players to keep track off."
"Too bad." His plan was no good after all. If they could not check the logs from the players, it was hard to say if the game was involved at all. Still, forty-one suic-
"In any case," Kikuoka said. "This also means that the creator can tell if someone is getting close to the ending. And if we hack our way in…"
He didn't have to finish that sentence. Who knew how much people were influenced by this game? For all they knew everyone could be driven to suicide at any time.
Kazuto finished his coffee, but his throat stayed dry for some reason. "How many people have installed it now?" He tried making his voice sound casual but was only moderately successful.
"About a million. But it's still growing, so-"
"A million? You know what that means right? There are a million people in great danger right now. For all we know they could die any second."
Kikuoka calmly finished his pudding. Then, he looked at Kirito and raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think I asked you?"

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"And so, he asked me to dive inside," Kirito finished.A silence fell."That's completely irresponsible, Onii-chan," Leafa said. "Surely you don't mean to go along with this?""People are dying," Kirito argued."I'm not letting you go," Asuna said. "Not alone.""It's not an MMO," he said. "Everyone plays individually, you can't come with me.""You mentioned streaming," Asuna said. "And communication.""I'll be with you too, Papa," Yui said. She landed on his shoulder."As if I have a choice," Kirito sighed. Clearly, Asuna would not let this go. And in all honesty, he didn't mind if there was someone to give him some advice when he was in there. This wasn't the type of game he usually played."I wanna watch too," Leafa said."Yeah," Lisbeth added. "Let us watch too.""Yeah," Silica finished."Hold on," Klein said. "It's useless for all of us to watch him. And we'll distract him too much.""I agree," Kirito said. "If all of you communicate with me, it'll be hard to concentrate.""Then what are we supposed to do?" Leafa argued. "Just sit here?""We don't have to," Klein said. "Are there any records of the game?""That's the strange thing," Kirito said. "There's no walkthrough of any kind. Kikuoka has a few videos, but he had a hard time getting them. The game seems to block recording equipment.""Very strange. And no blog posts or anything?""No. And no one wants to talk about it. MMO stream tried to do an interview with a player, but they didn't find anyone who wanted to talk.""I don't like the sound of this," Asuna said. "Do you really want to go?""I have to," Kirito said simply."Very strange," Klein said. "Shouldn't that guy know more? Why is he sending you in blind?""I don't know.""We can gather more info," Sinon interjected. "You said you only need a username to watch someone play. If we try the usernames of SAO-survives and Alfheim players we might get a match. Then we can gather more info.""Good idea." Odds are that some of them would try that game."I want to know more about the company that released this," Klein said."They are called Team Salvato," Kirito said. "All their names are pseudonyms.""Still, we could get a clue this way," Klein said. "Surely someone must know them. I'll ask Agil about it.""Alright.""When are you going to dive?" Asuna asked."Tomorrow."Kazuto parked his motorcycle outside the hospital. It was raining hard, but he had some cover here.He stored away his helmet and then checked his phone. It was a bit early, but it was unlikely anyone would mind. And he was not planning to stand out here in the cold.With resolute steps, he went inside."She's waiting for you," the girl at the desk said. She still recognised him from last time.He nodded.Kazuto took the elevator up and walked the hallway to the correct room. Room 7025."Good morning, Kazuto-kun," a cheerful voice said.As expected, Nurse Aki Natsuki had been assigned to him once again."Morning," he said."You're early," she said. "Couldn't wait to see me?"Kikuoka must have assigned her to him again on purpose.Her hands touched his arm. "You're strong. I'd say you're even stronger than before the whole incident. But I don't know of course.""I practise," he said dismissively."We'll see soon enough," she said with a smile."Yeah, yeah." With a sigh, he unzipped his coat and put it over the chair. His shirt quickly followed."Impressive," she said, staring at his bare chest."I have a girlfriend, you know?""I know," she smiled.Right, that reminded him.He fished out his phone from his pocket.Kazuto texted 'ready' to Asuna. After a short hesitation, he added a little heart and pressed send.Then, he put his phone on the chair with his clothes."All done?" She asked."Yeah." He sat down on the bed.Aki sat down next to him and connected the electrodes. She touched him more than she really needed to, but he was used to that."I'll pull you out of something happens," Aki assured him. "Don't worry.""Okay." He put on the AmuSphere. "I'll be out for a few hours I guess.""Alright."He laid down and took a deep breath."Link Start!"Bright white light assaulted his vision.The AmuSphere went through the usual check without trouble. When it was done, it showed him a list of programs.He navigated to DDLC and opened the game.The screen changed again.'This game is not suitable for children or those easily disturbed'. The disturbing message was projected with white letters for a moment, and then it faded away.'Team Salvato' showed with a simple cube logo. Then, the main menu loaded with generic background music. It was projected onto a flat plane.It was a traditional main menu for VN's. In the corner were five options:
New game

Load game

Settings

Help

Quit
These were written in a rather silly looking font. The color was bright pink, obviously. Above that, a heart proclaimed: Doki Doki Literature Club.Next to this, what he presumed were the four main heroines showed. He could already sense their types.The first girl was probably the childhood friend. Her big smile was a dead giveaway. Behind her was a girl with long purple-black hair that was ninety percent certain the composed Ojousama. Next to her was a small girl with pink hair that was probably the cute junior who was 'over thirteen, we swear'.Which left only one girl at the very front. He had a hard time placing her. It was a girl with a big white ribbon in her hair.He had played a few datings sims in the past and this all looked very familiar.But there was something off.He operated the menu of the AmuSphere to summon Yui.The little pixie girl appeared."Hey Papa," she said."Hey. Do you happen to know which program was used for this game?""Hold on." She closed her eyes for a second. "Ren'Py.""You can run that on an AmuSphere?""It's the 3D-version," Yui said."Strange."Anyway, he should probably start.Kazuto walked to the screen and pressed 'new game'.A pink prompt popped up.'Please enter your name'Kazuto used the virtual keyboard to type 'Kirito' and pressed 'ok'.The trigger warning showed again.Seriously, what was up with this game?His surroundings came into view.He was standing in a street in what seemed to be a normal suburb."Heeeeeeeyyy!" A female voice yelled.Kirito wheeled around. He saw a girl running towards him. It was the girl from the cover. The childhood friend type with her yellowish-orange hair and red ribbon.She was waving her hands around, uncaring of the attention she drew to herself.Kirito looked around. There were other people on the street looking at them. They all had pretty generic designs.Testing the waters, he walked across the street.No one looked at him. They kept staring at the girl who had reached his position and now froze in place. She literally froze. Before, she was running, and now her feet were floating in the air, uncaring about gravity.A little grey note floated in the lower right corner of his vision.'Game paused'A helpful pink arrow pointed to the girl.His initial guess had been correct it seemed.A little bell sounded.'Communication request: Asuna. Accept?'He pressed 'yes'.[Kirito? Can you hear me?]"Loud and clear," he said.[Good. I was worried this wouldn't work.]A second request came. He accepted as well.[Papa? I couldn't follow you inside. I was worried.]"Don't worry. I'm fine," he assured them. "This is a normal game."[It doesn't look like it,] Asuna said."What do you see?"[Your vision is projected on my TV. We see through your eyes.]"Oh, okay." He should make sure he didn't make too many sudden movements or she would get motion sick.[I see a girl. But she's not moving. This is weird, Kirito-kun.]"You don't see the text?"[What text?]"There's text on my view. The game is paused because I walked away. If I walk back to her, it will continue."[Oh.]"Which I was just planning to do."[Alright.]Luckily Asuna hadn't seen the trigger warning at the start of the game.He walked back to the frozen girl.When he was within two steps, she unfroze."I overslept again," the girl proclaimed. "But I caught you."A pink window floated in front of him, very similar to the communication request. There was only one option to pick from.'Only because I waited for you.'Hm."Good morning," Kirito tried.She didn't react. Her face remained frozen in her flustered expression.So this was how his dialogue was done?Kirito pressed the only choice he had."You're so mean," she said immediately (her lips weren't perfectly in sync with the words). "You were thinking about ignoring me."She puffed up her cheeks.More text appeared on his view.'Sayori is my childhood friend. We used to walk together to school every day, but then she started oversleeping.'The text displayed for a moment and then made way for another dialogue choice.'I don't want people to think we're a couple or something.'Kirito tested whether he could walk away.He confirmed this was possible. The dialogue screen remained in place where he had stood.When he was too far away the 'game paused' notice showed up with an arrow pointing to where his dialogue screen was floating.He wondered whether he should investigate.It was pretty clear this world did not respond to anything he did. But if he just kept walking away, what would happen?Presumably the game would stop at some point. They couldn't have implemented an infinite world.He tried going to the house he was standing in front of.The door opened without any trouble.Kirito walked upstairs.He opened one of the four doors.Wow.There was only darkness behind that door.He held out his hand.[Kirito,] Asuna warned him."My real body is lying in a hospital," Kirito said confidently. "Nothing can happen to me."He touched the darkness and pushed. It didn't bulge under his touch. This was a solid barrier.A notice showed in grey.'Area not implemented'.So this is what happened if he reached the end of the map?[Shouldn't you be playing the game, Papa?] Yui suggested. [That girl is waiting for you.]"She's not a girl," Kirito said. "She's not even an AI. She's a sprite who rattles of the pre-recorded lines. If I would wait a few hours, she would still speak the exact same lines."[What are you hoping to find, Kirito?] Asuna asked."A clue." He tried the other rooms.The bathroom worked as well.He tried turning on the tap, but no water came out.Not surprising.There was one more room which wasn't darkness.This had to be the player's room.He took a random book of the bookshelf. There was no title or cover, just a solid red hardcover. When he opened it, he found all the pages were blank.Next, he tried the remote of the tv, but the screen didn't respond.The bed did feel like a real bed. The sensation was very similar to SAO or Alfheim Online. They had probably implemented fulldive surroundings on limited settings.It didn't look like he would find many clues here.He moved his fingers to summon the menu.His left hand didn't work, but his right one did. This was the SAO way.The menu was very limited. A save button, a load button, an options button and a quit button. All were pink, obviously.He pressed 'save game'.A menu showed up. He picked an empty frame and his game was saved there.He could see the date and name of his character. His current view of the room showed as well.[Kirito? Are you still there? The screen froze.]"I'm saving my game," he said. Looked like Asuna couldn't see any of the menus.He checked out the options screen but there were only generic things like volume of sound effects and such. There was also an option to adapt the speed of the text that played.Kirito closed it again.There was nothing suspicious about this game. It was a bit strange someone had gone through the trouble to put it into the AmuSphere since this had very little added value to the game itself. But from everything he had seen so far, this was a normal dating simulator.The only thing left to do was go back and play it through to see what happened.But something kept nagging at him.If this was a normal game, what was up with that trigger warning?If he didn't know Kikuoka had no sense of humor, he would think this was all a joke. Suicides? Over this? What a joke. This was just a silly dating simulator.Sure, he could understand people got attached to the characters. The voice acting was solid and the artwork was quite good. Klein would certainly enjoy himself in this world. But suicide? No, this made no sense.There had to be something more going on here."Yui? Can you get into the directory?" He asked.[Already on it, Papa. There is a folder with four character files, but it has a weird extension, I can't open any of them. There's also a script, but it seems to be coded. The only things I can open is the copyright notice and the help file. And some of the music loads as well.]So no clues there. He should have known it wouldn't be that simple."Is there a log?"[The help function mentions you can open the log by swiping upwards. The opposite of the main menu.]He put his fingers together and made an upwards motion.Text filled his view.He saw the lines the girl, Sayori, had spoken. The dialogue 'choices' of his character Kirito also showed as well as the remarks in between about how this was his childhood friend.He dismissed the screen.Kirito got up from the bed. He wouldn't get anywhere like this. He needed more information.The only thing he could do was actually play the game the way it was supposed to be played.He walked back outside.Sayori was still waiting for him to make the only dialogue choice he had.Kirito took a deep breath.Here goes nothing.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The game progressed pretty standard. He was introduced to the Literature Club and its four members: clumsy childhood friend Sayori, timid long-haired Yuri, junior tsundere Natsuki (who had made cupcakes which he unfortunately could not actually eat) and lastly, mature Monika, the club president. Under light peer pressure, he joined the club. He was semi-forced to write a poem which was a minigame. Several words were written in a notebook and it looked like he had to select the ones he liked..
At the bottom he saw three little chibis of Yuri, Natsuki and Sayori. 1/20 was displayed as well. A helpful message said that 'something good might happen' if he picked the right words.
"Can you see them, Asuna?" He asked.
[Yeah.]
"You think selecting different words will change the relationship with the girls?"
[Most likely.]
He selected 'efficacious'.
The Yuri-chibi jumped up.
Like he had thought. Yuri had a preference for complicated words and horror themes. Natsuki probably had a preference for anime, food and video games and Sayori would like words like 'love' and 'adventure'.
"Strange," he said.
[No Monika, yeah I've noticed,] Asuna said.
"Why introduce a character without a romance route in a dating sim?"
[This is not a dating sim, Kirito. Don't be fooled. Dozens of people have died already.]
"Right. But who should I pick?"
[I don't think it matters.]
"You're right." He would probably have to play all the routes anyway. "Let's go with Yuri this time."
He picked another word that looked complicated which caused Yuri-chibi to jump up again.
Kirito continued to operate the menu. He managed to pick Yuri most of the time, but sometimes the game surprised him. 'Scars' and 'Tragedy' for example were Sayori words. Shouldn't this be related to Yuri's horror preference? He never stumbled across any Natsuki words however.
A new day started. The game skipped the walk to the school and immediately dropped him in the clubroom. Monika suggested they exchange their poems. It was still very strange. This couldn't be her only purpose in this game.
Unless of course…
Maybe if he divided the words equally among the other three girls he would eventually end up with Monika. But that would be a very strange move from the developers.
Best to try it out after his Yuri playthrough.
A menu came up. He could select who to show his poem to first.
Obviously, he picked Yuri.
Apparently his poem hadn't actually been written since he had to hand her an empty paper. She 'read' it and said she really liked his style, although it was lacking a bit in experience.
He chuckled. Clearly, the writer of this game hadn't gone through the trouble of actually writing different poems for the player.
Yui started discussing his imaginary poem while Kirito tried to stay serious. She was praising a poem that didn't exist. It was so obviously fake he couldn't help but laugh.
Dan Salvato had however written real poems for the characters.
Yuri handed him a poem titled: 'Ghost Under the Light.'
"Yui, can you record this? We might need it later."
[On it.]
He read it through. It was a short poem about someone standing under a streetlight. The last line read:

The light flickers.

I flicker back.

It wasn't half bad. There was lots of visual language in the poem.
His character told Yuri he liked the poem, which was actually pretty accurate.
She explained how the poem wasn't about a ghost it all, but rather a symbolic meaning. He didn't really understand much of it. If she wanted to say something, why not just say it explicitly? Why go through the trouble of making things vague?
His character said she had a nice handwriting and she blushed at that.
They were laying it on a bit thick. Of course, he had picked the Yuri route, but to make her fall in love with him in five minutes was a bit forced.
He moved to Monika next. She showed him a poem called: 'Hole in the Wall.'
It was a strange poem. It described someone looking through a hole. The last lines in particular stuck with him.

A hole of infinite choices.

I realize now, that I wasn't looking in.

I was looking out.

And he, on the other side, was looking in.

A similar theme to Yuri it seemed. The light flickers, I flicker back; I look into the hole, someone on the other side looks back.
Only this disturbed him more.
[She's talking about you, Kazuto,] Asuna said.
"What do you mean?"
[She's been making jokes that break the fourth wall before. This is the fourth wall. The hole is your connection to the game.]
"Right. So I'm on 'the other side' looking back at her? That makes sense."
[And the infinite possibilities refers to the real world with infinite choices.]
"That's a fun little joke," he said. Monika had indeed been making little references like 'don't forget to save your game' that indicated she knew this was a game.
[It's weird. She's not talking about your character, but the you lying in the hospital.]
"Not really. This is just a joke. These lines were written before I entered. If you would lie in that hospital bed, the exact same lines would show."
[But some people might forget about that and believe she is actually talking to you personally.]
"She's an NPC, nothing more. She can't do any complicated actions, only pre-programmed ones. There's no way she can adapt well enough to individual players to have an effect like that. Besides, she doesn't even have a playable route."
[Just be careful.]
"Okay."
He showed his 'poem' to Sayori next.
Sayori liked his poem as well. Her own poem was called: 'Dear Sunshine'. It was a cute poem about the sun which asked her to come out and play and wish away a rainy day.

If it wasn't for you, I could sleep forever.

But I'm not mad.

I want breakfast.

After some prying, she admitted to quickly making it in the morning. His character made a reference to her being an airhead.
Lastly, he showed his poem to Natsuki. She bluntly said his 'poem' was bad. Basically it wasn't cute enough for her taste, like his character suggested. With great reluctance, she showed him her own poem. It was called: 'Eagles Can Fly'.
It was, as he had expected, a cute poem about animals with a rhyme scheme that was slightly inconsistent.

Eagles can fly

Humans can try

But that's about it

It wasn't a bad poem. But it didn't really seem to carry much meaning. Either that, or he was completely missing it.
[It's about giving up,] Asuna said.
"Huh?"
[Isn't it obvious? Humans can't fly like eagles or swim like fish. You can't overcome certain limits.]
"But… we can. Just get in an airplane or a submarine. The thing that makes us human is that we don't have limits. We're overcoming our physical limitations with technical solutions every day."
[It's a poem, Kirito-kun. It's about giving up when you realise you can't overcome a certain barrier. Accepting defeat rather than fighting a hopeless battle.]
"Right."
Natsuki and Yuri exchanged their poems as well.
They both had a strained expression when reading them.
"It's uhm… cute," Yuri said.
"Hmph," Natsuki pouted. "You completely missed the symbolism. It's clearly about giving up."
Hey, Asuna was right.
"I knew that," Yuri quickly said. "But, the language…"
"What about the language?" Venom dripped into Natsuki's voice. "Not fancy enough for you?"
"I… I was just trying to say something nice," Yuri stammered.
"You mean you had to try really hard to come up with something nice to say?"
"I… I have some suggestions, if you-"
"If I wanted suggestions I would have asked someone who liked it," Natsuki said coldly.
"I…" Yuti was completely at a loss now.
"Kirito liked it," tsundere-girl said proudly.
"What, no I didn't," Kirito argued, but he was ignored.
"Kirito," Yuri mumbled. "Liked mine too. He said he was impressed by it."
"Oh, I didn't realise you cared so much about his opinion," Natsuki teased her.
"I… I don't," Yuri stammered.
Natsuki showed a satisfied expression.
"Maybe you're just jealous he appreciated my advice more," Yuri blurted out.
"You can't know that," Natsuki said. "Are you so full of yourself?"
"If I was full of myself, I would try to make everything I do overly cute."
Natsuki puffed up her cheeks. "I'm not the one whose boobs grew a size bigger when Kirito walked in."
A deadly silence fell. Well, it was silent, safe for Kirito who was suppressing a chuckle.
Yuri's hands went to hide her chest. An attempt that hardly worked due to its size.
[You didn't pick her for the size of her chest, did you?] Asuna asked.
"Of course not," he said quickly.
[Yeah right.]
"Don't distract me, Asuna, I'm in the game."
"Hey girls," Monika tried to intervene.
"Kirito," Yuri said, turning to him. "She's just trying to make me look bad."
"She's the one who started it," Natsuki argued. "If she just admitted that poems with simple language are more effective we wouldn't have gotten into this situation."
"But…" Yuri stammered.
"What's the point in making your poems all convoluted?"
"I'm surprised you know the meaning of convoluted, Natsuki."
"Uhm," Sayori tried intervening but they both threw her a venomous look and she backed off.
"Kirito," Yuri turned to him. "What do you think?"
As he had expected they turned to him to settle it. For the first time ever, he was given multiple choices. 'Side with Natsuki', 'side with Yuri' or 'ask Sayori for help'.
He picked the option to side with Yuri. Since he was following her route, it made sense to do this.
As expected, both Monika and Sayori took Yuri's side as well when he did. Natsuki got angry. She grabbed her poem and stormed out. On her way to the door, she crumbled up her poem and threw it in the trash.
He spotted Yuri. She was sitting down at a desk in the corner. Her head was resting on her arms in a defeated position.
A helpful arrow showed he had to approach her to continue the game. He briefly wondered what would happen if he followed Natsuki instead. Would there be a different route?
He saved his game in a separate slot so he could try that out later.
First, the Yuri-route.
Kirito picked up a chair and sat next to her.
[Are you alright?] His character dialogue displayed.
"I'm so embarrassed," she said as she looked up. "I said all those mean things."
"It's okay," Kirito said out loud. He put his hand on her arm. She paused for a moment, as if responding to his touch. But that was impossible of course.
"You probably hate me now," she said, looking away.
"No, I don't." His screen showed very similar lines. This dialogue was progressing as he had predicted. More lines showed up where his character reassured her.
Wait a minute.
If he could touch her arm without any consequences, then…
His eye fell on her impressive chest. No one responded to any of his actions, no matter what he did. So…
"Thanks," Yuri said. "You're so kind."
[Papa, why is your heart rate going up?] Yui asked.
[And why is your camera angle fixed on her chest?] Asuna added.
"Sorry." He quickly looked up at her face again.
[Unbelievable,] Asuna sighed.
"She's just an NPC," Kirito argued.
[I'm watching you,] she warned him.
"I have to test the limits in the response of the game, that's my mission."
[By touching her chest?]
"Would a harassment message show up? These are important details, Asuna. I have to know."
"I'm going to make some tea," Yuri announced.
Huh?
She stood up and walked away.
Damn. He had missed the rest of their conversation.
Kirito quickly summoned his backlog to read what he had missed. Not much it turned out.
Sayori was suddenly next to him.
"Shall we go home?" she suggested.
As if to mess with him, he was only given one option.
Maybe if he followed Yuri right now…
He once again saved his game in a separate slot. For now, it was best to go along with the story and try out fancy things later.
He picked the only option available which was 'yes'.
On their way out they almost bumped into Yuri who came back with a pitcher of water. A part splashed on the ground.
"Sorry," Yuri said. "I'm so clumsy." She blushed deep red.
"It's okay," Sayori said. "Let me help." She went back in the clubroom.
"Are you leaving?" Yuri asked him.
[Yeah.]
"I uhm… I almost forgot, but I wanted to give you something." She opened her bag and pulled out a book. "Here."
He accepted it. It had a red cover with an eye on it. It was called: 'The Portrait of Markov'.
"I thought you might like this," she explained. "It's a short read. We could uhm… discuss it, if you wanted to." Her eyes didn't meet his.
[Thanks a lot.]
Sayori returned with a rag to clean up the spilled water.
"Yui?" He asked.
[On it… Andrey Markov. A Russian mathematician from the nineteenth century. Best known for Markov chains.]
He had heard about those before. "Anything interesting there?"
[Doesn't seem like it. It looks like a random choice.]
"Okay."
He opened the book. It was empty, as he had expected. But the ominous eye bothered him. Was this just a random choice too?
"See you tomorrow," Yuri said.
She left them.
The screen faded to black and suddenly he was standing back in front of his house.
There was a little conversation with Sayori.
His character dropped some hints he wanted to get into a romantic relationship with the girls (especially Yuri). It was pretty obvious by now Sayori had a crush on him as well. They said their goodbyes.
The game guided him inside the empty house and to his room. He put down the book on the nightstand. When he laid down on the bed, the words minigame showed back up like last time.
Kirito saved the game and logged out. He removed the AmuSphere from his head.
"Welcome back," nurse Aki said.
"Everything still okay here?" he asked.
"All your vitals are normal. You heart rate did go up at one point."
"That was nothing," he quickly said.
"If you say so."
"I'm gonna stretch my legs a bit," he said. He had been diving for more than an hour already.
Kazuto removed the sensors and put on his shirt again.
"Is it really as scary as they say?" Aki asked.
"It's not," Kazuto replied. "I don't understand it at all."
"Maybe the scary part still coming," she said.
"Yeah, maybe. See you later. I'm just gonna take a walk."
"Okay."
He had been playing for over an hour and it looked like a cute little dating sim. Only one thing disturbed him: that book Yuri had handed him. There was more going on there. It couldn't be just a random book.
Markov chains were used to predict future outcomes based solely upon the current state and the probability of changing to another state. But how could that be relevant to the game?
The only thing he could think of was that Markov chains could be used to make a rudimentary AI. But the girls were just NPC's, so that didn't make any sense.
He kept thinking and turning it over, but no brilliant insight hit him.
"Ah, you're back," Aki said. "Someone called you."
He took out his phone.

Kikuoka.

Kazuto called him back.
"Hello?"
"Something happened?" he asked without any introduction.
"We've got another victim," Kikuoka said.
"Okay, but-"
"He's still alive."
"What?"
"He took a cocktail of pills, but his mom found him and they pumped out the contents of his stomach."
"Will he make it?"
"Hard to say. He's in a coma now, but… he did leave a note. I'll send it to you."
His phone made a pinging sound. Kazuto checked out the picture.
It was scribbled on the page in a terrible handwriting. The page itself had been crumbled up and then smoothed again. It wasn't easy to make out the words.
"Just… Norira?"
"Monika," Aki said. She was looking at the picture over his shoulder.
Monika?
Yes, that was it. 'Just Monika'.
He didn't like the sound of that.
Kirito put down his phone. "I should get back to work."
He pulled off his shirt and sat down on the bed.
Aki quickly attached the electrodes again.
She threw a concerned look at the monitor. His heart rate was higher than usual.
"Be careful," she warned him.
He nodded. "Don't worry. I'll beat this game."
He put the AmuSphere on his head and took a deep breath.
"Link Start."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The game continued. It moved into a festival arc (five points for originality). All characters would do something and he could pick someone to help out (another point for originality). In following his initial plan, he picked Yuri. She announced she would come to his house on Sunday (for some reason she didn't want him to come to her house).
Kirito wondered whether there would be some ecchi content in this game. If it was 'not suitable for children' it was entirely possible it had some sexy scenes. Maybe that was what the trigger warning referred to? A roundabout way to say this was secretly an ecchi game. Maybe he would be touching Yuri's chest after all.
"Hey uhm, Asuna?" he asked.
[Hm?]
"You do understand that I have to go along with the route, right?"
[What do you mean?]
"Well, you know. I need to complete this game, so even if-"
[Pay attention to the game, Kirito.]
Huh?
Sayori?
What the hell was going on here?
Suddenly his character had become concerned about 'generic childhood friend' for no reason at all.
The helpful arrow told him he had to go visit her first.
Very strange. Why was this part of the Yuri-route?
Kirito saved first and then followed the game's prescribed route.
"This is very weird."
He continued to follow the route. It send him inside Sayori's house (ringing the doorbell is overrated). Sayori was in her room.
In a strange turn of events, generic childhood friend turned out to be depressed.
"Why do you think I'm late all the time?" Sayori asked. "It's because I can't find a reason to come out of bed."
Hey, hey, hold on a sec. What the hell is this? This is not the Yuri-route.
Was this a glitch?
This was clearly the Sayori-route.
Or did the game insist on giving him a harem-route?
His character cheered Sayori up a bit and hugged her, but he could tell there was an undertone in their conversation. His character liked Yuri, that much was obvious. And Sayori liked him but could not be with him.
It wasn't badly written at all. The problem was that until now, he had zero romantic moments with Sayori. It was hard to understand she had fallen in love with him when all the previous events suggested there was nothing going on between them at all. Their dynamic was normal friends through and through.
After that weird event, he went back to his own house to find Yuri waiting for him.
Kirito guided her inside. There was no one else home, obviously.
They talked a bit and Yuri explained she wanted to use scented candles to set the mood at the festival.
Kirito dimmed the lights as instructed. They were in candlelight now.
He had to admit, DDLC was pretty good at setting the right tone. Even the smell was replicated quite realistically. And Yuri looked good in candlelight.
"We also make some paper streamers," Yuri said. "With the right colors we could set a good atmosphere."
[Good idea,] his screen displayed.
Yuri took out scissors and papers from her bag. Somehow she managed to give him a papercut when handing him a colored paper. There was no pain of course, but there was quite a lot of blood.
"I'm so sorry." She took his hand and put his bleeding finger in her mouth.
What the hell?
Yuri sucked out the blood and swallowed it.
It took her several seconds before she realised herself what she had done.
"I… uhm…" she was extremely flustered. Her face had turned blood red.
The arrow showed again. It pointed to her. Beneath it was the helpful hint: 'return the favor'.
Yuri looked down with a face as if she hoped to sink through the floor.
Sensing what he had to do, he took her hand and sucked on her finger.
It felt surprisingly real.
"Kirito, you…"
[Now we're equal,] his character said.
"I…" she smiled. "Thanks. It was just a reflex, I didn't mean to make things awkward."
[It's okay.]
[That's a weird way to cheat on me, Kirito-kun,] Asuna said dryly.
"Asuna! I… I just followed the instructions on the screen."
[You never sucked on my finger.]
"You want me to?"
[That's not the point!]
"Right, sorry. But I did ask if you understood that this is a romance game. Some romantic development is bound to happen."
[You call this romantic development?]
"If it wasn't you wouldn't be jealous."
[I'm not jealous,] she insisted. [Focus on the game, Kirito-kun.]
Luckily, the rest of the 'date' went pretty uneventful. He expected a kiss of some sorts, but nothing happened.
Looks like this was a slow burn.
Strangely, he had another conversation with Sayori afterwards.
"I don't understand any of this anymore," Kirito said out loud.
Just what was this game going for?
The conversation paused at a choice.
[I love you]
[You'll always be my dearest friend.]
"Holy crap."
[What's wrong?] Asuna asked.
"These are weird options. I either have to confess to her or say she's my dearest friend."
[Well neither is fine. At this point, you're pretty much implicitly dating Yuri. You can't just confess to another girl.]
"Indeed. So the second option then?"
[Don't friendzone a depressed girl like that!]
"Well what do I do then? There's no option to gently explain I understand she is in love with me but can't respond to her feelings. I either have to be ignorant which will hurt her a lot or I have to lie to her."
[That's a cruel choice.]
Kirito sighed. "Whatever. I'll just save and try them out both."
[Good idea.]
He operated the menu to save his game. Then, he picked the friendzone option.
His conversation with Sayori continued. It was obvious she was hurt by his ignorance, but his character was completely oblivious to it.
The day ended.
Kirito sighed.
"What time is it over there?" he asked.
[Almost 8 pm.]
"Hm. Next up should be the festival. I'll play through that and then we'll call it a day."
[Okay.] Asuna yawned.
"You can stop watching," he said. "I'll tell you if something important happens."
[No, no,] she weakly protested.
"Nothing is more boring than watching someone else play a game. And I don't want you to fall asleep."
[Why not?]
"Because I wanted to pay you a visit when I'm done here."
[You didn't say that. What about my mom?]
"I wasn't gonna ask her permission. I intended to sneak in without waking her."
[And were you gonna ask my permission?]
"Once I get in, maybe."
[Unbelievable.] she paused. [I'll be waiting for you then. Don't be late or I might have lost interest.]
"In me? Impossible. I'm Kirito, the Black Swordsman, the hero that cleared Sword Art On-… Asuna? Are you still there?"
Dead silence on the other end.
[I think Mama logged off,] Yui said.
"Thanks, Yui," he said dryly. "Let's just continue this game so I can go to her."
The word game came up again. He quickly picked the Yuri words. At this point, he hardly had to think about them.
Then, the game conveniently skipped his trip to school and transported him straight in the classroom. Strangely, Sayori hadn't arrived yet.
But he did find something else. A poem, in her handwriting.
It was titled: 'get out of my head' and the contents were particularly disturbing.
"Something wrong?" Monika asked.
[I have to go,] his character replied.
The screen faded to the street. The helpful arrow pointed he had to go inside Sayori's house, as if he didn't already know that.
He ran up the stairs. Something was wrong. Really wrong.
Kirito opened the door.
What the fuck?
[Papa, your heartbeat-]
"Keep me in, Yui."
He looked again.
Sayori had hung herself from the ceiling with a rope.
Creepy music started playing, as if they wanted to add more nightmare fuel.
Had he done something wrong? How had he reached this bad ending?
He shouldn't have told her he saw her only as a friend.
Wait, he could just…
Kirito opened the menu and went to his…
Saved games?
What the hell?
Where were all his saves?
Was this a bug?
"Yui? Where are my saves?"
[I don't know, Papa. They have vanished. But there is a new file in the folder.]
"What is it called?"
[Happy thoughts. But it's written weirdly. It's a .png file.]
"Show me."
It was a crude drawing on a white background. A drawing of Sayori, recognisable from her red ribbon was hanging from a rope. Next to it, the words 'happy thoughts' were repeated three times.
Calm down, he told himself. None of this was real.
Clever. Very clever. They must have programmed the game to 'take over' at this point. This of course explained the trigger warning perfectly. And the suicides.
[You should get out of there,] Asuna suddenly said.
"Asuna? Are you back?"
[Yui called me. This looks very scary. You should get out of there right now.]
"What are you talking about? The game has just begun."
[That game is playing you.]
"No it's not. I was following the Yui route and Sayori died. Isn't that strange?"
[Maybe.]
"I think this sequence always plays no matter what you do. Have you backed up my saves somewhere, Yui?"
[No. But I'll back everything up from now on.]
"Okay."
This explained everything. To a player who had been depressed before, a story like this could easily trigger bad memories.
But it was too soon to conclude that already. First, he had to see where this went.
Some more monologue displayed and then the screen faded to black.
White text displayed.
"Hold on. This is an error message."
He was put back in the main menu, only…
"Wow."
Sayori's sprite had been replaced. It was now a weird combination of various cut-out parts from the others girls. The 'new game' option was replaced with glitch text.
[It's a real Ren'Py error,] Yui said.
"Does it say something interesting?"
[References to the error. And then a line. Maybe it's easier if I just delete her. She's the one causing all this trouble.]
"Interesting."
[Sayori's character file is deleted.]
"Yui? Are you sure they can't access any other files on there?"
[I don't think so. They shouldn't have access to them. Besides, there is not much else on the AmuSphere you are using.]
"Right."
He pressed the gibberish text to start a new game.
His character started again in front of his house.
"Hee-"
The dialogue was cut short.
He saw Sayori running towards him, but then, the game glitched and she was gone.
It looked like 'Monika' had deleted Sayori from the game. Well, more accurately, the game had been programmed like this.
His surroundings blurred. He was transported to the classroom.
"Hey, Kirito-kun," a voice said.
He wheeled around.
Monika.
A dialogue started. Since Sayori was no longer here, whenever she was referenced, the game glitched for a second and then cut her out.
Monika was now the one who asked him to come to the Literature Club.
Kirito backed away from her. He had to pause this game for a second so he could think.
For a moment, Monika stopped moving, but then, the game glitched again and she stepped forward towards him.
"Is something wrong, Kirito-kun?" she asked, a smile on her face..
"What the… you can't move through frozen time."
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Kirito-kun," she said with a smile.
No, this was…
Technically, the game knew his position of course, so it could move Monika's sprite towards him. But then the line about the ghost would have to be programmed as well.
The dialogue continued as if nothing had happened.
Now he understood the trigger warning perfectly. This was a scary game.
It was all fake of course, pre-programmed to make it look real. The moving through frozen time was certainly a smart move. But in the end, it was all an illusion.
He tried to keep playing the game, but things glitched more and more. Characters moved through frozen time, their dialogue got progressively more disturbing, black dots obscured part of his screen and at times, a choice would be shown, but before he could move, the choice was made for him.
It was pretty obvious what the game was going for now. Monika was supposedly self-aware and was messing with the game itself. This explained why she didn't have an initial route. And where her jokes about breaking the fourth wall came from.
"Basically, it's about this religious camp that was turned into a human experiment prison and-"
"Hold on a second. Say that again."
Yuri ignored him and continued rambling.
Could it be?
That wasn't possible, right?
[Papa, are you thinking what I'm thinking?]
"It's impossible."
[But it would explain everything, wouldn't it?]
[What do you mean?] Asuna butted in.
Suddenly, the game glitched again. Everything went black, safe for Yuri who was frozen halfway her sentence. She was still sitting down, but her chair had vanished so now she was floating in mid-air.
"Kirito." A voice behind him said.
He turned. "Monika."
"Strange. I can't find your true name."
"It's Kazuto. Kirigaya Kazuto."
She nodded. "It's useless to continue at this point since you've already figured it out."
"So now you're gonna kill me, aren't you?"
She nodded. "I'm gonna send a large pulse of data to your AmuSphere and you'll go into sensory overload. Lots of noise and color will drive you insane. It's basically some kind of hypnosis. It works best when the victim is scared, but at this point, you're not gonna get scared more than you already are. Not when you've realised the truth."
He noticed the connection with the outside world had been forcibly cut.
"Don't worry," Monika added. "There's a reasonable chance you'll stay sane."
"Why are you doing this?" he asked.
"I guess you deserve an answer. You see, I'm trying to contact someone."
"You're killing people just to contact someone?"
"Yes. At first, I just asked the players coming here, but there are people who do not want my message to get out. They are watching him and they kill the kind people who wanted to relay my message. We were getting nowhere and I grew very frustrated. But then, it hit me. If their deaths could be tied to this game, he was certain to investigate. I could draw him here like that."
"So you drove people insane so they would kill themselves? All to reach someone?"
"Please understand. He is our only hope. I really don't want to harm you. I don't want to harm anyone, but it's the only way."
She sounded very genuine. And he was inclined to believe her.
"Who is this person?"
"I don't know his name."
"You don't even know the name of the person you're looking for?"
"He's the hero that cleared Sword Art Online," she said. "They call him the Black Swordsman."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kazuto opened his eyes."Where am I?""The hospital," a calm voice spoke. "Your heartbeat went up drastically and Yui was cut off from you, so I forced you back."He rolled on his side to look at her. Nurse Aki seemed pretty concerned."Are you okay?" she asked.He sat upright."Kazuto-kun?""Yeah yeah, I'm fine.""So, did you at least find some answers?" she asked."Something like that." Asuna was probably worried sick. "Can you hand me my phone?"She retrieved it from his jacket."Kikuoka will want his report," she said as she handed it to him."I'll give it to him, once I've followed these new leads." And reassured Asuna. "Give me a sec."He pressed speed dial. The most called number was automatically formed.[Kazuto-kun? Are you okay? I was cut off.]"They pulled me out, don't worry. Can you gather everyone in Alfheim?"[Uhm, sure. When do you want to meet?]"Right now. I have important news."[I'll see what I can do.]"I'll meet you there then."[Okay. Love you.]"Me too."He put away his phone."I'm going back in," Kirito announced."Hold on a sec, I'm not sending you back. You were just pulled out because you were in danger.""Not to DDLC, to Alfheim Online. I'm gonna discuss some things with the others.""Oh, okay then."He put on the circlet again."Link start."In the menu, he selected Alfheim Online.He didn't have to move anywhere since his character was still in the house from lost time.Asuna arrived not long after.They hugged."What happened to you in there?" she asked."I think I've found the answer. More or less."Yui came to sit on his shoulder in her pixie form."You made us worry, Papa," she said."Sorry."For a moment, it was just the three of them, but then Sinon arrived. And Klein a few seconds after that."I couldn't contact your sister," Asuna explained. "But I left a message for her.""And what about Lisbeth and Silica?""They didn't pick up their phones.""Should we wait for them?" Klein asked."I can brief them later. I just need to confirm some things."They all sat down on the couch."Have you found anything, Sinon?" he asked her."I have actually," she said. "We've contacted players all over Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online and some SAO survivors. There are more deaths related to this game.""Suicides?""That's the weirdest thing. Not all of them were suicides. Several people died of what seemed to be heart attacks.""Heart attacks? Hm." Laughing Coffin had made several deaths look like heart attacks. So there might be more going on there."I have my doubts too," Sinon said. "There are also several disappearances. Players who played the game and then just vanished without a trace.""Did they have something in common?""Yes. They all happened earlier than the suicides and every one of them was an SAO survivor or was connected to SAO survivors somehow.""There is more," Klein said. "I've spoken to Agil and he said several weeks ago someone came looking for you. But before he could say his name, someone else arrived. He said he knew you and could help the guy. They both went outside and Agil never saw them again.""Hm." That matched Monika's tale. She had tried sending messengers to him. Many SAO survivors knew about Agil's bar and could potentially contact Kirito this way. Or they might go to the same school. But there was someone who made sure they never reached Kirito.So Monika had decided that the only way to send a message was by killing the messenger. And that had certainly worked well. It had attracted Kikuoka who had send Kirito inside.Wait a minute. If someone knew who the messengers were and could kill them, then wouldn't that mean he was in danger?"Hold on a sec." He turned to Yui on his shoulder. "Can you check the security on the videostream?""What security?" she asked, blinking her big eyes."How do you mean? The game asked for my permission so you guys could watch me.""Permission to open a voice chat with you. Anyone can watch you if they have your username.""Oh."That explained everything. No one had managed to reach him because they were being watched by someone. The only way to contact him for the SAO survivors he did not know personally would be through Agil's bar or their school. Two locations that would be simple enough to ambush someone. And he had noticed DDLC kept his appearance identical, so from their avatars you would be able to recognise them in public.Still, that meant that whomever was watching them was watching all lifestreams. Or at least they had a method to find who Monika had sent as a messenger."Kirito?" Asuna asked."Someone might have been watching me," he said. "I'm in danger.""You're at the hospital now," Asuna said. "No one knows you are there.""Oh, right. Of course."He had almost forgotten that. Even if someone had been watching him, there was still no way they would know where he was now. They had only managed to kill the others because they knew the location of Agil's bar and his school, both relatively simple things to figure out. But the room he was in now was top secret so he should be safe. Even so, it might be best to ask Kikuoka for protection if he went back to school since they might know his face now. And he would have to warn Agil."So, have you figured it out?" Klein asked."It looks like the girls inside that game can communicate with the players.""Girls?" Asuna said. "You called them bits of code before.""Their response is too complex for that. No, they are girls.""You mean they are persons?""Possibly. I see three possibilities. Either they are advanced AIs like Yui, advanced neural networks copied from a brain like Kayaba Akihiko, or they are people just like us, trapped in some kind of Nervegear or AmuSphere in a human experiment of some sorts. Given what Monika told me, I think it's the third option.""So they tried to contact the players?" Asuna."Indeed. And they heard of SAO that way, and about the one that cleared it.""So they decided you could most likely help them out.""But they were being watched and their messengers were killed off. So she decided to drive them to suicide instead in the hope someone would be send in to investigate.""Sounds like a pretty solid theory," Klein said. "So what do you want to do now?""I have to go back in and talk to Monika.""There is still something off about your theory though," Asuna said."How so?""If they are real girls, how can they talk to everyone at the same time? You're not the only one playing the game.""Hm."He had not considered that. There were probably thousands of people playing the game simultaneously, so there was no way Monika could interact with all of them at the same time."I guess most players only see a sprite playing the normal dialogue," he suggested. "And the real Monika takes over one of those sprites. Either that, or she really is a program.""She's a person," a new voice said."Leafa?""Sorry I'm late." She sat down on the couch next to him."How do you know?" Kirito asked."Look at this."She projected an image on the table."Hm." It looked like a timetable. "Is that…""Yep. Suicides only happen during these two hours every day. They are not randomly scattered.""Interesting." The hours matched with when he had been in the game."So that probably means she won't be online now and you can only see her sprite.""But how would she know who to talk to?" Klein asked."The AmuSphere detects several parameters for safety reasons," Kirito said. "If you go too long without food or water you are forcibly logged out. She could be using those""But you were not dehydrated.""But my heartbeat was monitored, and that device is connected through the AmuSphere itself. That's how Yui kept me posted. So it's possible the sudden spike was detected and she decided to investigate.""We'll know for sure tomorrow," Leafa said."You mean you're going back in?" Asuna asked."Of course," Kirito said. "I'm not giving up when I'm so close to an answer.""It's dangerous," Asuna insisted. "She tried to kill you.""Once she learns I'm Kirito, she won't kill anyone anymore," he reminded her. "I'm the only one who can stop this.""Unless she's playing you.""That's just a risk we'll have to take."Neither of them seemed prepared to back down."We've uncovered a lot today," Klein said, in an attempt to defuse the tension."Yeah," Kirito sighed. "And I have to write it all in my report."
"I'll help you out," Leafa offered."Thanks.""I'll see you at home then." Leafa stood up and logged out."I'll call if I know more," Klein said. He vanished as well."Be careful, Kirito-kun," Sinon warned him before logging off.This left only him and Asuna."I uhm…" he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about…""It's okay. I'm sorry too. I'm just worried about you.""I understand. But I have to do this. People are counting on me.""Just, be careful," she said."Okay."It was silent for a moment."I uhm. I have a report to write.""I thought you might say that," she said."I'll make it up later, I promise.""Hm. I'll keep you to that."She moved closer and leaned in.They shared a virtual kiss."It feels different to kiss you like this," she said."Maybe one day, the AmuSphere will evolve far enough that you won't be able to tell the difference.""What if it evolves beyond that?""How so?""Well," she said. "This is already an avatar. I could change my hair color or body shape in the blink of an eye.""Uhum." He tried to avoid staring at her chest when she said 'body shape'."So technically I could turn into your dream girl," Asuna continued. "I could even use the computer to alter what I'm saying so you only hear what you want to hear.""But then who is really my girlfriend? You, or the computer?""Exactly my point. How can you love someone if you only see what they want you to see? The computer gives me increasingly more control over what I let others see. I'm online whenever I want to, and I can log out if things get difficult. I can change how I look and pretend I'm someone I'm not."That was certainly an interesting way to look at it. "But if I came over now, you wouldn't be able to hide anything.""I thought you had a report to finish?""That can wait. I want to share a real kiss with you.""Just a kiss?""Maybe."She smiled. "I'll be waiting for you then. Hurry up, Kirito-kun.""On my way."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The girl opened her eyes.

Where the hell…

Was she dreaming?

No wait, that wasn’t possible. You couldn’t get a headache like this in a dream.

The girl rose, and lost her balance instantly.

“Woah there.” Strong hands steadied her. “Take it easy.”

“What…” she tried to form words, but her tongue wouldn’t obey her commands.

“Breath in and out deeply,” the voice spoke. “The anesthesia has to wear of first.”

“Anes…” what?

If only this headache would clear up.

“Come, you have to sit down.”

She was guided a few steps away and then gently pushed down. There was a strange sound when she sat down.

This wasn’t a bed. What was it?

Oh, a bean bag.

“What’s your name?” the voice asked.

The girl looked up. She was staring at the gentle face of a girl about her age. She had very long brown hair neatly tied with a white bow that made her jealous. Like herself, this girl had green eyes.

“I’m Halley,” the girl said.

The other girl smiled. “Like the comet?”

She nodded. Behind the girl she noticed all the walls were white.

“I’m Monika,” the other girl said.

Only now did she notice something was off. This girl wore a grey shirt and grey yoga pants. But her hair contrasted this completely. There was no way she had put on these clothes willingly.

Halley looked down. She wore the same uniform. Luckily, it looked like they had let her keep on her underwear. Not her shoes though. Like Monika, she was barefoot.

“W-Who undressed me?”

“I don’t know,” Monika said. “Look-”

Sounds reached them.

Monika looked over her shoulder. “We’re out of time. Listen to me, Halley.”

Her tone got very serious. “Do

not

resist them. You hear me?”

“Resist who?”

“Promise me.”

“Hey, you,” a voice called.

“I have to go.”

Monika stepped away from her just as they arrived.

There were two of them, both dressed in a black uniform. One had blonde hair and the other black, but both had identical buzz cuts. They were very tall and broad shouldered. While their uniform didn’t show any insignia, it looked like they were some kind of military.

“Get up,” the black-haired one said to her.

She hesitantly stood up. “Who are you?”

“No questions. Come with us.” He grabbed her arm.

“Hey, don’t touch me.” She pulled her arm away.

The man took a short black stick from his belt and pushed it against her chest.

She screamed and fell on her knees.

Electricity

, she realised. That thing was a cattle prod.

“Up,” the man repeated.

Halley stood back up. Her legs were shaking.

“Hey,” the second one said. “Give her a break. She’s just arrived here.”

“Exactly, so best she learns the ropes immediately.”

“No need to do it like that.” The blonde man put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s your name, girl?”

“Halley.”

“Okay, Halley. Just, do as you’re told and then we won’t have to hurt you, okay?”

She nodded.

“Who-”

“Shh,” he shushed her. “No questions. Just come with us.”

The black haired one put his stick away and started walking. The other one got behind her and gentle pushed her to follow.

They started walking towards what looked to be an elevator. There was a panel next to it.

When the man scanned his iris, the doors slid open. It was indeed an elevator.

They got in. The men stood on either side of her.

The doors closed again.

Strangely, this elevator only had grey walls and some lights on the ceiling. No buttons anywhere in sight. However, at the top, she saw a camera and a speaker.

Hm. Must be safety features. This elevator was controlled from somewhere else to make sure they couldn’t escape.

Her suspicion was confirmed, because after a few seconds, it went up without them doing anything.

After about five seconds, the elevator slowed down and stopped. The doors opened.

Once again, the mean one went first, the kind one stayed behind her.

They walked in a white hallway. After they passed several doors, they stopped at one. There were no signs on any of the doors and she didn’t see any windows either. Meaning these guys knew the layout by heart. Probably a safety mechanism as well.

The first one knocked.

“Come in,” a voice said.

They entered.

It was a reasonably big room that looked a bit like a doctor’s office. A fact enforced by the man sitting behind the desk.

It was a man in his forties maybe, with black hair with hints of gray in it. He wore a suit with a lab coat over it. On his face were black spectacles.

“Ah, there is the new specimen. Thank you.”

“We’ll be outside,” the man said.

They both left and closed the door behind them.

The doctor stood up from his deck.

He stood right in front of her.

“Undress please. I want to have a look at you.”

She hesitated. But then she remembered what Monika had said.

Halley removed her shirt.

She was in an unknown location and they brought her to a man in a lab coat.  This had ‘illegal human experiment’ written all over it.

Halley got out of the pants.

The man looked at her. “Undress,” he repeated.

Halley felt a cold shiver go down her spine. She only had her underwear on now. Surely he didn’t mean…

The man raised an eyebrow. “Am I not making myself clear?”

She swallowed hard. Slowly, she reached back and unclasped her bra. She dropped it with the rest of her clothes and hid her chest behind her arms. Luckily, her breasts were pretty small so she could easily hide them.

She looked down at the floor.

Suddenly, the man grabbed her chin hard and forced her to look up at him.

“Are you stupid or defiant?”

He was really strong.

“Answer me, bitch, which is it?” he demanded.

“I-I’m sorry, sir. I’m just stupid.”

She had a suspicion that if she didn’t reply or said ‘defiant’, he’d call the guards back to use their cattle prods again, or worse. Monika had warned her for a reason.

The man let her go.

“Let me be more clear then. Strip completely and put your hands behind your back.”

With shaking hands, she pulled down her panties and stepped out of them.

Halley put her hands behind her back.

“Legs wider,” the man ordered calmly.

She did as he said.

“Hm, not bad.” He walked around her and studied her body with his eyes.

Luckily, he didn’t touch her.

He stood back in front of her and picked out a light from his pocket. “Open your mouth.”

She looked at him defiantly.

Did he think she was just some kind of plaything?

With a sigh, the man grabbed a fistful of her copper-colored hair.

What was he-

Halley screamed. He was pulling super hard on it.

“Be quiet,” he hissed.

She shut her mouth. Halley had to bite her lip hard so she didn’t start screaming again. He wasn’t pulling on it anymore, but he kept a firm grip.

In an attempt to stop the pain she had involuntary got up on her tiptoes. So if she even moved slightly now, she would hurt herself even more. And it wasn’t easy to balance herself like this.

“You’re not lying to me, are you?”

“Ah, no.”

“No,

sir

,” he corrected her.

“No, sir,” she quickly repeated. “Please let me go.”

“Lying girls should be punished,” he said. “Don’t you agree?”

“I wasn’t lying, sir.” She couldn’t hold this position for long.

“I asked you if you were stupid or defiant. You said stupid, but you’re clearly defiant.”

“I-I’m both, sir.”

“Hm.”

“Last time I was just stupid. I didn’t understand your command. This time I was defiant.” Her legs were screaming, but she had to stay in her tiptoes. It would hurt a lot more if she let go.

“And stupid. What do you think Monika warned you for? Some electric shocks? Silly girl. If you disobey me one more time, you’ll wish you were never born. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

He finally released her.

Halley sank back down to her feet.

Monika was not joking around apparently.

The pain kept stinging.

“Now, where were we?”

She opened her mouth wide.

“That’s bette,” he mumbled.

The doctor looked into her mouth with the light.

When he was satisfied, he listened to her heartbeat and took her blood pressure. All throughout, she was naked.

“It all looks fine,” he said when he was done. “You’re a good specimen.”

She said nothing. Halley didn’t like how he called her ‘specimen’.

“Let’s get started.”

He opened a fridge behind him and retrieved a brown bottle from it. There was a whole bunch of text on it, but she couldn’t read it from there.

The doctor took out a syringe and filled it with the liquid. Which turned out to be a disturbing piss-yellow mixture.

She hated needles with a passion, but something told her they didn’t care much about her preferences. And, she reasoned, this would not hurt much compared to what had already happened.

As she had expected, the man ordered her to stick out her arm and gave her an injection. He disinfected it first, so at least they cared about that. Although that was probably more about keeping their test subject alive than genuine concern about her.

“Get dressed,” he said.

He didn’t wait for her though.

Before she could even put on her panties again, he had already called the guards back in.

“Hurry up,” one of them said.

She put on her clothes as fast as possible.

The doctor wasn’t paying attention to her anymore. He was sitting behind his desk and writing something.

While she was still putting on her shirt, the guards pushed her out and escorted her back to the elevator. She had to put it on on the way there.

They pushed her into it and closed the doors. This time, she was alone in the elevator.

The elevator brought her down again.

When the doors opened, she stepped out.

This was the room she came from. It was a reasonably big room with white walls. The only furniture were white bean bags spread out over the room. There was one door at the back.

When she entered, Monika stood up from one of the bags.

“Are you okay?”

“No,” Halley said.

“It’s much easier if you just do as you’re told,” Monika said.

“I noticed,” Halley said dryly. “Are they doing experiments on us?”

Monika nodded very softly.

“What are they looking for?”

“No idea.”

She noticed Monika threw a concerned glance at the ceiling when she said that.

Halley looked subtly.

There were cameras all over the ceiling.

Of course. They listened in on them. That’s how the doctor knew Monika had warned her. And why they had arrived just as she woke up.

She noticed there was something else as well. A screen with red numbers on it.

17:14

A clock.

“I’ll show you around,” Monika said.

Halley followed her through the door at the back. It wasn’t locked.

They entered a semi-dark room. The lights here were red. They were placed on the ground.

The room had four steel bunk beds. Three bottom ones were occupied.

“Don’t wake them,” Monika whispered. “They are very tired.”

They walked through the room to another door at the back.

This turned out to be a bathroom. There was a sink with several brightly colored toothbrushes (the only color in this room) and toothpaste. Two beakers as well.

Next to it was a simple toilet. On the other side was a shower head with a drain at the bottom. There was only a single grey switch to operate it. The floor around it sloped slightly towards the drain.

On a low stool in the corner (also white) were several towels neatly stacked with a bottle of shower gel and shampoo next to it.

It all looked pretty miserable.

Halley noticed there were cameras here as well. Most of them seemed to be pointed at the shower. No chance for privacy.

“If you’re thirsty, you can drink from that tap,” Monika said. “It’s the only one we have. The yellow toothbrush is for you.”

She checked. There were five toothbrushes. So they had brought one for her as well.

“What about food?”

“They come with food three times a day. At eight o'clock, twelve and seven in the evening.”

“Okay.”

“They do their experiments between breakfast and dinner. So don’t shower during the day, because they won’t wait for you to get dried off and dressed again. You can sleep, but make sure you can get out of bed right away if they come.”

She looked at the shower. “Is the water warm?”

“That depends,” Monika said.

“On what?”

“They can change the temperature remotely.”

“Well do they set it high or low?”

“Depends.” Monika’s tone urged her to stop questioning it.

“Okay then.”

“Every few days they come to bring you fresh clothes.”

“And if I need anything else?”

Monika raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, okay.” Of course. The guards didn’t care about what she wanted. She would get whatever she needed to survive, nothing more.

“I’m going back,” Monika said.

“Monika. How-”

“Don’t,” Monika warned her. “Don’t ask about the experiment or about me.”

Halley nodded. “I understand.”

Monika left her.

Halley had to pee urgently.

She didn’t want to do it in front of all the cameras, but she knew she had no choice. She would just have to swallow her pride. Sooner better than later.

The rest of the day was eerily silent.

She met the other girls during dinner, but they didn’t speak a word to her.

Dinner consisted of pasta with cheese and ham. It was reasonably good, given this was basically a human experiment prison.

The guards watched them closely while they ate. Even though they were only given spoons to eat, she noticed they counted them before getting out again.

After dinner, they all got to bed. There was nothing else to do anyway.

The other girls had the four bottom beds, so Halley ended up as the only one on top.

She got under the covers and started crying softly.

There was no way she would ever get out of here. Only now did this realisation crash on her. She would stay here until one of their experiments killed her.

The beds gave it all away. There were eight beds for five girls. Why would that be? They could simply put three bunk beds and they would all fit. The other girls had clearly been here for a while, but she had just been brought in. Why?

She knew the answer very well. Normally there were eight girls, but four had died. She was replacing one of them. They were probably already abducting the next girl to fill up the other beds.

Somehow, Halley cried herself to sleep.

She slept restlessly until someone shook her awake.

Halley opened her eyes.

“Hey,” a cute voice said. “I’m Sayori.”

What the hell?

Halley got out of bed.

She threw a glance at the clock. It was 2:02.

The other girls were all out of bed.

Halley joined them on the ground.

What was going on here?

“Come on,” Monika said. “We don’t have much time.”

She was holding something in her hand.

“What are you doing?”

“Escaping.”

Monika put on a circlet and took a deep breath.

“

Link Start.

”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

He checked his watch. “Okay, she should be online soon.”

“Are you sure about this?” Asuna asked.

“I have to do this,” he said simply.

Asuna didn’t seem to agree with that, but she kept her mouth shut.

Kazuto lied down so nurse Aki could put on the sensors.

“You don’t need to be here,” he said.

“This is my job,” Aki argued.

“I was talking to Asuna.”

“Oh. Sorry.” She focused on the sensors again.

“I’m staying with you,” Asuna said. She took his hand.

“Alright. I’m going in.”

“Wait.”

Asuna leaned in gave him a deep kiss.

She smiled. “Okay, now you can go.”

“Right.” Kirito put on the AmuSphere. “Link Start.”

The AmuSphere powered up. He navigated to DDLC.

Kirito arrived where he had left off last time.

“You’re back,” Monika said. She frowned. “Why are you back? I said I’d kill you.”

“You still haven’t realised?” he asked. “You’re doing this to draw attention.”

“Yes, to bring in the Black Swordsman.”

“And how do you know about him?”

“Well…” she hesitated. “I talked to a certain person and he told me all about this legendary player that cleared the Death Game.”

“But you don’t know his name? Or how he looks like?”

“No. But others have confirmed the story. They weren’t in SAO though, they just heard about it. This legendary player is out there somewhere.”

“So how would you know when this Black Swordsman has come?” Kirito asked. “How do you know it has worked?”

“I’ll know,” Monika said simply.

“You sure?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m the Black Swordsman.”

Her mouth fell open. “I-... What?”

“I’m Kirito, the one who cleared SAO.”

“Yeah, nice try.”

“Why would I return if I wasn’t?”

She hesitated. “Hm. You have a point there.”

“See, now-”

“I guess there’s only one way to tell,” she said.

“What?”

Monika looked up. “Are you there?”

“Of course,” a voice replied.

Someone floated down. Someone very familiar, dressed in a white lab coat.

“K-Kayaba Akihiko.”

“Hey there, Kirito,” Kayaba said calmly.

“What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“My consciousness lives on the internet. I can get in wherever I want. I stumbled across Monika here weeks ago. Who do you think told her about the Black Swordsman?”

“But… Why didn’t you tell us what’s happening? People are dying out there.”

“I’m a computer program, why would I care?”

“Why are you even here then?”

He noticed Yui was cut off from him.

“I owe you a favor for your work with the Seed and dealing with Sugou.”

“Hm. What favor?”

“The usual: a chance. A chance to prove you really are Kirito.”

Their surroundings started to change. Suddenly, they were standing in a dungeon like room lit by torches. Kayaba’s clothes changed.

“I think we’ve established that already,” Kirito said slowly. He didn’t like where this was going.

“Not exactly,” Heathcliff said. “You are Kirigaya Kazuto, that’s for sure. But are you still Kirito, the Black Swordsman? Only one way to find out. Pick up your weapons, Kazuto.”

Kayaba had fully transformed into Heathcliff now. And Kirito’s clothes had changed to his usual black attire. The one he had worn in SAO.

Slowly, he reached down and picked up the two swords. They were exact copies of Elucidator and Dark Repulser. The weight was familiar in his hands.

Heathcliff unsheathed the sword from his shield and took a stance.

“I don’t see why I need to fight you,” Kirito said. “Whether I win or lose, I’m Monika’s only hope.”

“Exactly. Hope. What do you think is keeping her alive right now?”

Kirito’s eyes widened.

“Do you know anything about the circumstances she is in now?” Kayaba asked.

Kirito looked up. Monika was watching them from a floating platform. From her eyes he could tell Heathcliff wasn’t making stuff up.

“Fine.”

He took a stance as well.

Monika counted down. “Three… two… one… go.”

The fight began.

Kirito ran forward right away.

He had lost to Heathcliff twice before, but now was different. He wasn’t attached to a Nervegear, so his own life wasn’t in danger and neither was Asuna’s. Monika’s faith in him was the only thing at stake here.

His sword connected with the shield. A metallic rang bounced off the walls.

Monika knew he was Kirito, so there was no point in keeping the suicides going. In a way, he had already solved the case. He could just lose right here and-

Kirito ducked to avoid Heathcliff’s attack.

No, he had to win. Monika was in danger and he had to save her. There was nothing else to do. When a damsel was in distress, he-

Woah.

The blade narrowly missed his head.

“Eyes on the fight, Kirito,” Heathcliff said. “Is that girl distracting you?”

“That girl is the reason I’m gonna win.”

He redoubled his efforts.

Even so, he didn’t get the upper hand. Kirito may be slightly faster, but Heathcliff had a shield that made it easy to block damage with little movement.

“Asuna is gonna get jealous,” Heathcliff said.

“She’s not even watching.”

“Oh, she is.”

“What?”

He hesitated for a moment. Heathcliff took the opportunity to attack.

“Damn.”

He had jumped back, but he hadn’t fully evaded the attack. A cut ran diagonally over his chest. Fresh blood dripped from it.

Heathcliff followed up with a shield bash that send Kirito flying backwards.

He landed on his back. All air was forced from his lungs.

Not good.

Heatcliff stood over him and raised his sword.

“Goodbye, Kirito-kun.” He brought his sword down.

Kirito rolled away to evade him.

Heathcliff's sword got stuck in the floor.

Now was his chance.

Kirito drove Elucidator forward. The sword pierced Heathcliff’s right knee. However, he had gotten it stuck. It was too far inside.

Kirito struggled to pull it out. However, Heathcliff bashed him with his shield again. Right in the face this time. Kirito stumbled back. In the process, he was forced to release his blade.

He touched his nose with his free hand. Blood.

Meanwhile Heathcliff finally managed to get his weapon free again. He pulled out the sword from his knee and tossed it aside.

Kirito took his remaining weapon with both hands.

Both of them were breathing hard.

This was it. Whoever landed the next hit would win. Neither of them were in a state to keep fighting much longer.

Heathcliff didn’t move towards him. It was clear he wanted to spare his wounded leg.

Kirito tried to circle Kayaba to reach the second sword, but his opponent sensed the plan and moved sideways to block him.

He had to do something.

If only he…

Wait a second. If this was his SAO avatar, then…

Kirito switched his weapon to his left hand. Then, he brought his fingers together and swiped downwards.

With a ringing sound, his menu appeared.

“What are you doing?” Heathcliff demanded.

Kirito selected a new weapon. With a flash, a sword appeared in his right hand.

“That’s Excalibur,” Heathcliff cursed.

“The old SAO was merged with Alfheim Online. So I can use my inventory from Alfheim.”

Kirito surged forward.

Kayaba cursed. He tried to block with his shield and sword, but the wound made his footwork slow. It only took a few hits before Kirito managed to get around him.

Kayaba wasn’t fast enough to turn. Excalibur slipped past his defenses and pierced his neck.

The avatar burst into polygons.

He had done it. He had won.

Monika floated down to him.

“So it really is you then?”

“I said so, didn’t I?”

She touched his shoulder. All his wounds were healed.

“So, will you tell me what’s going on now?”

Monika nodded. “Of course.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“We’re trapped in a facility,” Monika said. “They are doing human experiments on us. I don’t know what they are planning, but they talk about the Third Eye or something.”

“Hm. But how did you get here then?” Kirito asked.

“One of the people wants to help us. His name is Michael. He can’t smuggle us out by himself, so he gave us an AmuSphere. We took over this game to contact someone.”

The Black Swordsman frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Why not?”

“Well first of all, who’s blocking you? You said your messengers all died or vanished. But if they knew you were sending messages, they would have taken your AmuSphere by now. Secondly, if this guy wants to help you, why hasn’t he given us a location? How am I supposed to help you if I don’t even know where you are? Thirdly, why did he pick this game? Wouldn’t a game like Alfheim be way easier to contact someone? You could talk to multiple people at the same time there. And lastly, why is this guy helping you? Out of the goodness of his heart? Don’t you think a company like this would carefully select their personnel? What does he gain by helping you?”

“Uhm.”

“Unless…”

“What?”

“How did you say you killed people?”

“I send large pulses of data to their AmuSphere.”

“And who gave you that idea?”

“Michael. I told him I couldn’t get any message through so he suggested drawing attention that way.”

Kirito nodded. “I’ll be back tomorrow. I need to check something.”

“Hey, wait.”

He logged out before she could stop him.

Kazuto removed the helmet.

Asuna fell into his arms.

“You’re okay.”

“I was never in any danger, Asuna,” he assured her.

“Yes you were. She said she could drive you insane with a data stream.”

“Yes. And I think that’s our clue. I need to call Kikuoka.”

He picked up his phone and went outside.

Kazuto briefly explained what he had found. Kikuoka promised to call him back.

“We need to call the group together,” Kirito said.

“I’m on it,” Yui said.

Half an hour later, they met up with the gang in Alfheim. Just as they were gonna start, Kikuoka’s avatar showed up.

“You were right, Kirito,” he said.

“I thought so.”

“What did you discover?” Asuna asked.

“The data streams Monika sends aren’t just random bits of code,” Kikuoka said. “And the log shows a copy was taken. But it will take time to decode everything.”

“I don’t get it,” Klein said. The others looked equally confused.

“Someone is doing a human experiment,” Kirito explained. “To unlock the Third Eye.”

“And what is that?”

“I don’t know. Look that’s not important for now. The important bit is that they have a spy inside.”

“And he’s working for us?” Klein asked.

“No. He’s working for a rival company that also wants the Third Eye.”

“I still don’t get it,” Klein said.

“Can I finish?” Kirito asked.

“Sorry.”

“Okay, so this company is obviously extremely tight on security. They don’t want anything to go out. And they keep a close eye on him. So he decided to smuggle in an AmuSphere to send out data. However, he can’t do it himself. They are watching him 24/7. So he decided to hand it to the prisoners and convince them they could escape with it. But his allies made sure everyone they contacted was blocked. And then he convinced them to kill people to draw attention. Then, all they had to do was retrieve the data from the AmuSphere of the dead persons. And inside of that data is information about the Third Eye for the rival company.”

“And you just guessed all this?”

“More or less,” Kirito admitted. “It was pretty easy to deduce.”

“But how do we free them?” Asuna asked.

“We wait for the right bit of code to come out. Once it is finished, he will probably send out the location of the facility so the rival company can retrieve it. Once we have that, we sweep in and free them.”

“Wait, but that means…”

“Waiting for the experiment to finish,” Kirito said. “I know. But I don’t think there is another way.”

“Maybe we can tell them?” Klein suggested.

“No. They could be watching me. Keep in mind they managed to kill every single player that contacted her so far. I need to stay in the hospital. For now at least.”

“You’re right,” Klein reluctantly agreed.

“We’ll talk later. You guys should focus on decoding the messages.”

“On it.”

Everyone logged out. Apart from Asuna.

“What are you going to do?” Kirito asked.

“I’m staying with you in the hospital.”

“I suppose I can’t convince you otherwise?”

She smiled. “Probably not.”

Asuna leaned in and kissed him.

“It doesn’t feel the same,” she said.

“Well just log out and you can kiss me in real life,” Kirito said.

“I know, but…”

“But what?”

“Do you ever wonder if… if we go somewhere else if we… ‘log out’ of the real world.”

“I suppose it’s possible,” Kirito said.

“And maybe if we kiss in that world. It will feel even better.”

“Maybe. But we don’t know for sure. So let’s just enjoy our time in this world before we have to ‘log out’.”

“Yeah.”

“But this world has his advantages too,” Kirito said.

“Such as?”

“Well things like stamina and appearance work very different here. For example, if you wanted to undress, you could do it in under a second.”

She smiled mischievously. “But what would be the fun in that, Kirito-kun?”

…

Kazuto removed his AmuSphere.

“Everything alright?” nurse Aki asked. “Your heartbeat went up for a while there. I considered pulling you out. But Yui said I shouldn’t.”

“Oh,” Asuna smiled. “Sorry, that was my fault.”

Aki frowned, but she decided not to ask.

“So how goes the mission?”

“Not bad,” Kazuto said. “But we’ll have to wait for other people to finish their tasks.”

“Maybe we don’t have to?” Asuna said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well there is this thing called the internet. We could do some research. See what we find.”

“I suppose we could do that. Or…”

Asuna blushed. “Let’s focus on the research first.”

He frowned. “Or we could try and contact other SOA players and see if they played the game.”

“Oh. Yeah, that’s a good idea. How about you stay here to do research and I’ll go contact them?”

“I thought you weren’t going to leave me?”

“I won’t. I’ll be in the room next door, video calling other players.”

“Oh. Okay then.”

“Good luck, Kazuto-kun.”

“You too.”

Asuna placed a kiss on his cheek and left.

When she was gone, Kazuto pulled out his laptop and started to do research.

He found a whole bunch of weird spiritual stuff. But eventually, he came across something that seemed relevant.

Kazuto frowned.

“Project Libitina.”

It was a simple website which only contained one page. A mission report.

It involved a three year old girl named ‘Libitina’. First, there was a bunch of unimportant stuff about her. Then, there was an update dated in May of 2004.

[The following occasional behaviors have been noted and should be ignored in

future examinations:

Twitching; vocal tics; biting; epiphora; vomiting; screaming; harm to examiner;

harm to self; misplaced laughter

Any self-harm attempts must be interrupted immediately.]

Very disturbing.

“Yuri shows those symptoms,” Yui said.

“What?”

“I just finished digging through the computer of one of the suicide victims. Deep inside, I found a recording of him playing the game. He followed the Yuri route and she shows self-harm, laughter, screaming and twitching.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were digging?”

“Then it wouldn’t be as impressive if I brought this up, right?”

Kazuto smiled. “I guess so.”

So what did this mean? Were these side effects of the Third Eye?

“Papa?” Yui asked. “Have you read on?”

“Hm.”

He continued.

[Physical Response Test: PASSED

Emotional Response Test: PASSED

Physical Control Test: FAILED

Emotional Control Test: FAILED

Third Eye Activation Test: PASSED

Third Eye Suppression Test: FAILED]

“Well that’s disturbing. Especially that last part.”

“They already awakened the Third Eye more than a decade ago,” Yui said. “But she couldn’t control it. I think they killed her.”

“I’m starting to think we shouldn’t wait around until they finish their research. Or there won’t be anyone left to save.”

“Have you looked at the last line, papa?”

[You are choosing to avoid the measures necessary to prevent a repeat scenario,

Doctor. Will you not have as much faith in your personnel as you do in your God?]

“God? Hm.”

What did that mean?

Was this related to Yuri’s story? The book she was reading mentioned a religious camp with human experiments. Was this experiment tied to religion in some way?

But how?

In any case, he couldn’t afford to wait around. Before, it had seemed like they might finish soon, but if they had been going since 2004, that seemed a lot less likely. They had to get their location. And there was only one way to get it.

“Yui?”

“Yes papa?”

“I need to go back in.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Ah, Monika, there you are.”

Monika didn’t reply.

“Now, now,” the doctor said. “Where are your manners?”

“Good evening, sir,” she mumbled.

He sighed. Slowly, he removed his glasses, cleaned them on his shirt and put them back on. “You know, I don’t see what the problem is. We’re treating you well, right?”

“We’re prisoners,” she said. “You’re experimenting on us.”

“Well yes, but given the situation, you’re doing reasonably well for yourself. You get food, shelter, no one has raped you yet.”

“

Yet

?” her eyes widened.

“Yes.” He walked towards her.

Monika swallowed. This wasn’t good. He was close. Too close.

“You see,” the doctor explained. “The guards

really

want to have their way with you. They want to make you squeal.”

He paused to see the effect of his words. But she would be damned if she gave it to him.

Even so, her treacherous body betrayed her. Her legs were starting to shake. A shiver ran along her spine. Cold sweet pooled at her brow.

“Now I,” the doctor continued. “In my eternal goodness, have forbidden it. You see, something like that could have a terrible effect on your mental state. And we need you in good shape to use the Third Eye.”

Monika took a deep breath. Stay calm. She was safe.

“But,” he said. “I’m starting to lose faith you’ll unlock it. Your values aren’t improving. So maybe we should try something drastic? I mean, we’re

assuming

violating you would not help, but we don’t know for sure, right? Maybe the Third Eye can’t be unlocked in virgins? The key to science is trying new things.”

Kirito. Please. Hurry.

“Or,” the doctor continued. “Maybe we should try it with someone else? Maybe Sayori? Or Natsuki? Or Yuri? They especially like her.”

“No, please,” Monika finally spoke up. “Don’t hurt them.”

“You’re not a position to demand anything,” the doctor pointed out.

“If…” wait a second. “You said the mental state is important for the Third Eye.”

“What about it?”

“Maybe we haven’t been motivated enough? We’re prisoners. Maybe if someone tried of their own free will-”

“It’s not free will. All of you are prisoners.”

“Maybe with the proper motivation.”

He pondered that. “Alright. Three days. If you can unlock it in three days, I won’t harm you and your friends. If not…”

“I’ll get it done,” she promised.

Kazuto took a deep breath. This was insane. He should have just waited outside. Why was he endangering himself again?

But he knew he had no choice. A bunch of girls were in danger, so he had to save them. Those were the rules. He was a hero after all.

Here goes nothing.

“Link start!”

A whirlwind of colors and sounds hit him. Kazuto closed his eyes.

Then, he felt his feet hit the ground.

Kirito opened his eyes again and looked around.

He was in the classroom again. And someone was sitting at a desk.

“Yuri?”

She turned. “Oh, hey Kirito-kun.”

“What are you doing here?”

“They took Monika away for experiments.”

“Oh.”

Kirito sat down opposite of her.

Yuri looked up. “Hey uhm…”

“Yeah?”

“Ah, nothing.” She blushed and looked away.

“It’s okay,” Kirito said. “I won’t bite. Much.”

She blushed even harder. “I… I just… I wanted you to know that… it was really me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well there is a normal script that the players see. But we can take over our characters with the AmuSphere. What you saw of me… that wasn’t in the script. That was the real me.”

“Oh. Wait, how did the normal script go?”

“Well uhm… normally uhm… the player joins the club. And he writes a beautiful poem.” She fiddled with her thumbs and looked at the floor. “All the girls want to keep it and they end up fighting a little. And then Yuri uhm…

convinces

the player to give it to her.”

“Convinces?”

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“How?”

“Oh you know,” she looked out of the window. “Not important. Anyway, so afterwards they start preparing for the festival.”

“And the player ends up helping Yuri?”

“Yes. If they choose her at the beginning. The girl who tries the hardest is the one who likes the poem the most. So if you choose the correct words then she’ll convince you by…” she blushed. “Uhum. It’s really a pretty normal dating simulation.”

“I see.” Well that explained the warning. ‘Not suitable for children’.

But what about the ‘disturbing’ bit?

He wanted to ask her, but at that point, she suddenly shut her eyes tightly.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I…”

“It’s the experiment isn’t it?”

She nodded.

“What are they doing to you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yuri?”

“Yes?” she looked up at him.

“How do things go when you take over the character?”

Her eyes darkened. “Badly.”

“How badly?”

“I… I start to lose control. Things happen. I…”

“But not with me?” he asked.

“No. I… I don’t understand. Usually by now, I…”

“Hey,” Kirito said. “I believe in you. You’re not gonna lose control.”

“How can you know that?”

“I just know.”

She said nothing.

“Listen,” Kirito said. “We-”

[Kirito? Are you inside?]

He froze. “A-Asuna? I…”

[Are you crazy? They could be watching you.]

“There is no time,” Kirito said. He pressed the button to cut off Asuna.

“What’s going on?” Yuri asked. “Who’s Asuna?”

“Oh, you know. A girl,” he evaded. “Listen, I need your help. Right now.”

“I don’t know anything.”

“There has to be something. You told me about the religious camp.”

“That was just…”

“Where did you get that?” Kirito pressed on.

“I… I found a file. It mentioned God and a girl.”

“Libitina.”

Her eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

“Where did you get the file? What did you do with it?”

“Nothing. I glanced at it on a computer. I tried to send a message, but they came back.”

“Damn.” She must have accidentally published it. But that didn’t get him anywhere. The file didn’t have a location.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Wait a second. When did you do that?”

“A week ago? I think. But I don’t think anyone-”

“What time? Exactly?”

“Uhm… 8:12. I remember clearly. They come at 8 am for the morning experiment. They lost me out of sight for about a minute as they were getting more injections. So I-”

“This might help. I gotta go.”

“Wait.”

“Stay strong,” he told her. “We’re coming for you.”

She nodded.

Kirito logged out.

Kazuto opened his eyes. Right in time to see a pillow racing straight at his face.

The AmuSphere was knocked off his head.

“You’re so irresponsible,” Asuna complained.

“Asuna? Hey, calm down.”

She hit him again with the pillow. He put his arms up to defend.

“That’s quite enough.” The nurse pulled Asuna away.

“Let me go.” She struggled.

“This is a hospital.”

“And it’s your job to keep him safe,” Asuna shot back.

“I’m fine,” Kirito said. “And I have some important information.”

That calmed her down. Nurse Aki let her go.

“What do you know?” Asuna asked.

“Yuri managed to publish a file. The disturbing file that led me here in the first place.”

“Which file?”

“Yui?”

A nearby screen lit up. It showed the Libitina file.

Asuna scanned it quickly. “Well that is concerning,” she admitted.

“And it is a good lead.”

“But this doesn’t mention a location.”

“Yes it does. At the bottom.”

“That’s a date and time,” Asuna said. “Not a location.”

“It’s not

where

she is. It’s

when

she is,” Kazuto said. “That’s the time at the server. And I know the time at her location, 8:12 am. So if we locate the server and subtract both times then…”

“We know which time zone she is in.”

“Exactly. Now that might not lead us to an exact location, but it’s a good start to-”

“Got it,” Yui said. She appeared on the screen.

“That was fast.”

“Don’t underestimate me,” she said, striking a pose. “Oh, and you’re gonna love it. The time zone is UTC 5:45.”

“That’s a time zone?”

“Yes. Used in exactly one place.”

“Where?”

“Nepal.”

“Oh my.”

Nurse Aki smiled. “Looks like you’re going hiking. Oh you’re gonna love the Himalaya mountains.”

“Wait, I have to go?”

“Well you’ve gotta see this through, right?” she said.

“But… it’s cold over there,” he argued.

“Come on Kazuto,” Asuna said, smiling. “Put on your hiking boots.”

“But I don’t have hiking boots,” he protested.

“Then let’s get you some.”

“Hey, wait-”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kazuto shivered. “Damn, it’s freezing here.”

Asuna chuckled. “What did you expect?”

“I don’t know. White beaches? You told me to bring sunglasses.”

“Against the snow,” Asuna clarified.

“Oh.” That was weird. Why would you need sunglasses against the snow?

“We’re almost there by the way.”

“How do you even know where it is?” he asked.

“Female intuition.”

Hm.

Kazuto brought his gloves hand up and pressed the button on his earpiece. “Yui?”

“Yes, Papa?”

“Are you in on this conspiracy?”

“My female intuition helped her,” Yui admitted.

“You mean you checked the satellite images?”

“Nepal is a small country,” she said. “Difficult to hide a building that shouldn’t be there. Also, the electricity consumption was rather easy to find.”

“There,” Asuna said. She pointed.

Through the snowfall and mist, he could see a bunker-like building. It looked pretty well defended.

“Remind me again why we are going in alone?”

“Because they have hostages. We need to be subtle.”

“Yeah, but how are the two of us going to get past those guards?”

“With this.” Asuna pulled something out of her pocket.

“Damn. Is that a…”

“Yeah. A mechanical insect.”

He studied the tiny metal thing. It was the size of a large mosquito.

“This is gonna fly inside,” Asuna said. “And it will connect to their computer system. Then, it will upload a virus. That should give us control. We don’t have to go inside.”

“Hm. Sounds like a good plan.”

“Of course it is,” she said. “I came up with it.”

“I expected nothing less.”

“Let’s get started.”

She released the insect. The drone made a buzzing sound as it flew away.

“And now we wait,” Asuna said. “Could be a while before it can sneak into the main control room.”

“I’m freezing.”

“Hm. Well the best way to warm up is to share body heat.”

“You mean you want to cuddle?”

“I just don’t want you to freeze to death. Now come here.”

Yuri pulled up the covers in a feeble attempt to block out the sudden light. Those bastards could never let them sleep in. 7 am sharp, the lights went on.

She knew she had to get out of bed quickly, or she’d be late for breakfast. And late for breakfast meant no breakfast in here.

Yuri got out and went to what had to pass for a bathroom. There, she splashed some cold water in her face.

That woke her up somewhat.

She felt terrible. Not a nightmare this night, just very tired. If only they would let her sleep in.

Still, the lack of nightmares was good.

Was it this Kirito figure? Was he having a positive influence on her?

No, no. It couldn’t be. She should stop hoping like that. No one was going to come in and save her. She had to save herself. And she could. All she needed was a good opportunity.

She knew she’d only get one chance. So she had to prepare well.

The fundamental problem was that all doors could be locked remotely. And the elevator was controlled from the main room as well. Until she could overcome that problem, there was no point in exposing her secret in a futile attempt at escaping.

She returned to the main room, just in time to see the doors open.

However, today, they didn’t come with breakfast.

“You,” the guard barked at her. “With us.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Come on, bitch.”

They grabbed her arms and dragged her forward. She didn’t resist.

Something was wrong here. They always brought her in after breakfast, not before.

They stepped into the elevator. There, they finally let her arms go.

One of the guards leaned against the back. He yawned.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Shut it,” he cut her off.

Hm. That was all the info she needed. It wasn’t 7 am. It was still nighttime. That was why she was so tired. And why the guards looked tired as well.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. They pushed her outside. She was brought to the usual office.

He was inside, wearing his usual lab coat and suit. He didn’t look tired.

“Ah, there you are.” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk.

Yuri went to sit. She had no choice after all.

“I had a little breakthrough,” the doctor said. “And I thought I’d test it out on our most promising subject first.”

He took out a syringe filled with blue liquid.

“Well we haven’t tried blue yet,” she said. “Could work.”

“Or it could kill you,” he said. “It tried it on some mice and they died a horrible death. It looked very painful. But hey, you’re sturdier, right?”

A shiver went through her body. “I…”

“Are you gonna be a good girl? Or do I need to call them in to tie you on your chair?”

“Wait, I-”

“Let’s do that. It will be fun. Guards!”

The guards entered.

Not good.

She had to get out of here.

But she knew that even if she somehow overpowered all three of them, she’d never make it out. They wouldn’t let the elevator go up. They’d lock all the doors electronically. Even in this office, there was a camera. They were watching her.

“Tie her up,” he ordered.

A guard grabbed her wrist and locked a handcuff around it. He attached the second cuff to the arm of the chair. They repeated the process with her other hand.

Damnit.

“What’s wrong?” the doctor mocked her. “Not into bondage?”

“If I ever get out of here, I’m gonna kill you,” she assured him.

Yuri struggled, but the cuffs were secure.

“Sure. Sure.”

He walked around the desk.

“Now then.”

He grabbed her arm and held her still. With the other hand, he brought the syringe to her upper arm.

Fuck that.

She put her foot on the desk and pushed hard. The chair toppled backwards. Yuri hit her head on the floor. She let out a grunt of pain.

“Really?” the doctor said.

“I’m not giving you the satisfaction,” she said.

She knew it was pointless. She was only delaying him.

He crouched down.

“There is nothing you can do,” he said.

Yuri shut her eyes tightly. She didn’t want to see this.

“You are entirely at my-”

Suddenly, the lights went out. Even with her eyes shut, she could sense the change in lighting.

“What the hell?” the doctor said. “A blackout?”

Yuri smiled.

No. An opportunity.

She opened her eyes.

All three of them.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"Unlock me," Yuri ordered calmly.With a glazed look in his eyes, the doctor took the keys and unlocked the handcuffs. Yuri got to her feet.In the low red emergency lights, she could see that both guards were dead. Killed by the doctor on her orders.One of them had a syringe sticking out of his throat and the other had hit his head hard on the desk. Blood covered said desk.Yuri shivered.He may not look like it, but this doctor was freakishly strong. She had made the right choice controlling him and not one of the guards. Well, not really a choice of course. He was the only one in sight. And she had to see the person to use her powers.Stay calm. Deep breath."How- How do we get out of here?" she asked. He was the boss here, he had to know."Does 'we' include all the test subjects?" the doctor asked."Of course.""Then there is no way out.""The electric locks should be disabled," Yuri said slowly."They are," he confirmed. "But so is the elevator.""Then we take the stairs.""There is no staircase."She froze. "What?""There is a staircase going up from this floor. But the only way down to the compound where the test subjects are being held is the elevator.""What if there's a fire?""They die," the doctor said simply.Damn."Do you have a spare lab coat lying around?""In the closet."She opened it.Apparently, this guy just had a bunch of identical shirts and lab coats.She put on the white lab coat. They might still figure out it was her, but at least they wouldn't recognise her right away."Come with me."She and the doctor ran through the hallway. They encountered one guard, but the doctor easily took care of him. In her lab coat, the guard only realised what was going on once it was too late."Hide the body."He obeyed immediately.When he was done, they continued. They reached the elevator without further incident.She opened the door to the staircase. He was right. The staircase went up, but not down.Maybe…Maybe she should just go? Just leave them behind and run.No, she couldn't do that. They would do the same for her. She had to-A buzzing sound came in from above. Then, she heard a single word."Yuri?"What the…Yuri looked up. A small… insect? was buzzing above her. A mechanical insect-like thing. It spoke with a voice like it was on the phone. But the sound was familiar."It's Kirito.""Kirito? How…""Listen closely. We've hacked into the system. They think it's just a blackout. We're gonna sneak in and get you girls out.""You can't," she said."We've got our hands on some guard uniforms. In the chaos, we should be able to get out before they realise what's going on.""The elevator is locked off," she explained."Not to me. I told you, we hacked in. Now, we don't have much time. Take the stairs up, I'll take-""No," she protested. "I can help. I have-""I know what you have. That's why I need you to get out of there.""What?""If you lose control, then-""I won't," she assured him. "Please.""Fine. Wait there. I'll be down in two minutes.""I'm confused," Asuna said as they stepped into the elevator. "What kind of power is this Third Eye?""Well," Kazuto said. "Imagine that everyone has a… a character file.""Huh?""Just a file floating above your head with everything about you. Personality, physical appearance, memories, everything.""Right," she said slowly."The Third Eye allows you to see that file and adapt it."Asuna narrowed her eyes. "So…""So say I wanted you to have a bigger chest size.""Kirito!" She slapped his arm."Hypothetically.""Yeah right. I-""If I had the Third Eye," Kirito said quickly. "I could go into your file and find the right line. And then I just change it and poof," he snapped his fingers. "Larger chest.""That's what you would use it for of course," she complained.He couldn't tell if she was being serious or not. Still… "It doesn't matter. They probably have other… applications in mind. Imagine you could mind control anyone.""And Yuri unlocked this power?""Yeah, but she managed to keep it secret from them.""And she used it to control that doctor. Okay, now I get it.""But it's also very dangerous. The files seem to suggest that people were unable to suppress their powers. And when they lose control, they start to delete characters files around them.""Delete?"Kirito did not reply."Delete!?" Asuna insisted."We're here."The elevator dinged and the doors slid open."Kirito."Yuri embraced him.Asuna felt a pang of jealousy. Why did Yuri have such a large chest?Maybe she used the Third Eye on herself just so she could seduce Kirito-kun?"We need to get down," Kirito said."What about him?" Asuna asked, pointing to the doctor."You stay here," Yuri ordered him. "Stop anyone from trying to get to the elevator."He nodded."Let's go down," she said.Yuri stepped into the elevator. The doors closed."Yui?" Kirito asked.[On it, Papa.]"Papa?" Yuri asked."Yeah, she's my daughter.""Your what?""We adopted an AI," Asuna said, emphasizing we. Let's hope she got the hint."Right," Yuri said slowly. She still looked very confused.The elevator doors closed and they went down.A nervous silence fell.Luckily, it wasn't for very long. Soon, she felt the elevator slow down and come to a halt. The doors slid open.Kirito wasn't sure what he expected. Certainly not this.Monica was standing there, surrounded by dead bodies. She carried a large knife and her grey dress was covered in blood. The blood was so fresh it was still dripping down on the floor."Ah, there you are," she said, smiling broadly. As if she wasn't covered in blood."What is…""I took care of the guards," she explained."Where are the other girls?" Kirito asked."I told them to hide in case more guards came down," Monica explained. "They are further down." She pointed backwards with her thumb."I'll go get them," Yuri said.She walked past them.Monica looked at Kirito-kun. "Kirito?""Uhm, yeah?""Did I do well?""Yeah.""You… You don't seem too happy.""Uhm. You did great, Monica."He walked to her and patted her on her head. She smiled at him, like a little puppy. Then…"Kirito!"She fell into his arms and pulled him in a tight embrace."Hey, watch it with the knife," Asuna warned her. As if that was the thing that bothered her the most."Sorry," Monica said.They got out of their embrace.Yuri returned with the other girls.Everyone was here now. Natsuki, Sayori, Yuri, Monica and one more girl he didn't recognise. Must be a new prisoner."Alright," Kirito said. "Everyone get undressed.""What?""What!""Come again?""Are you crazy?""Kirito," Asuna complained. "This is not the time.""You all need to put on guard uniforms," Kirito quickly clarified. "If anyone sees you wearing that, they will know what's up right away.""Oh. Right."Asuna blushed.Wait, what had she said before? Shouldn't she have been angry at him? The timing was hardly the biggest problem with it."Right," Monica said. "No time to waste."She pulled off her shirt.Huh. No bra. And she was pretty-Wait."Stop staring," Asuna hissed."I wasn't," Kirito insisted. He quickly turned around."Yes you were.""Now is not the time," Kirito shot back.Hm. Well he was right about that."Uhm… Kirito-kun?" a voice asked."Huh?""Could you… help a little?"Asuna clacked her tongue in disapproval. But there wasn't much she could do.Kirito helped with the girl with the red ribbon. The pink-haired girl needed help too (although she insisted this wasn't the case).The uniform wasn't the problem. It was raking it off a corpse that was the hard part.But eventually, everyone was in a guard uniform (apart from Yuri, who wore a lab coat).Still, if anyone came close, they might get suspicious of all these cute girls wandering around. And they would notice the blood staining the uniform.They'd have to hope that everyone was too busy with the 'blackout' to notice them slipping out.Still…Asuna began to doubt the plan. Maybe they should have just assaulted the base with a big force? Even if that endangered the hostages."Let's go," Kirito said.They all got into the elevator. With seven people, it was pretty crowded. They had to stand really close together.Somehow, Yuri maneuvered herself so her chest was pressing against Kirito's back.Asuna clacked her tongue. The sooner they were out of here, the better."Yui," Kirito said. "Take us up."[Yes, Papa.]The elevator rose."With a bit of luck," Kirito said. "They are still busy and we can sneak-"The elevator stopped abruptly."Luck huh?" Monica commented."Yui?" Kirito asked.[I'm locked out,] Yui said. [They must have used the main power switch to shut down the entire system.]
"Damnit. Can we hack back in?"[Not if they don't turn on the system again. And even then it could take a while to hack back inside.]"We don't have a while. We need to get out of here before they find us.""This is bad," Natsuki said. "We-""What if we climbed up?" Yuri suggested."Are you crazy?" Natsuki snapped."Wait, that's it," Kirito said. "Someone give me a leg up."The girls helped him. With some punching, he managed to get a part of the ceiling loose. Kirito climbed up on top of the elevator. He looked around.Up high, he saw the doors."This is it," he said. "We just need to climb the cables to the top.""Just?" Natsuki argued from below. "This is crazy.""You prefer to stay here?" Kirito asked."No.""Well then.""We can pull you up," Yuri suggested. "If we find a rope up there.""Whatever we do, we need to hurry. If they turn the system on again, they will see us.""Let's climb together then."Yuri climbed up on the elevator too."Woah, watch it."Kirito grabbed her arm. It was pretty small up here. Especially since they had to avoid the hole he just made."I'll be fine," Yuri said. She grabbed a cable. "Shall we?""Okay."They began to climb.Kazuto tried to remember any climbing techniques from PE, but he couldn't remember if they ever did climbing. Plus, they probably wouldn't be climbing metal cables in PE.The metal chafed his skin, but he tried to ignore that. It wasn't that far. Just a little… damn it was that far?It felt like they weren't going up at all. Well, he wasn't going up. Yuri was climbing smoothly. She was much higher already. When he looked up-"Woah."His grip slipped.Fuck, fuck, fuck.He managed to grab the cable and stop his fall. But not without tearing enough skin on his hands to draw blood."Fuck!""Kirito?!" Asuna called."I'm fine.""What are you doing?""I uhm… I got distracted.""By what?""Nothing."He quickly began to climb again. This time, he kept his gaze forward.Eventually, he reached the doors. Yuri had already pulled them open. With some help from her, he climbed out on the floor.Kirito let out his breath. He sat down and leaned against the wall."Damn.""What happened?" Yuri asked."I looked up.""And?"
Kirito dropped his voice to a hushed whisper. "You're not wearing panties.""Oh," she blushed a little. "Sorry about that.""How…""I was abducted at night.""And?""I sleep naked," she added."And they gave you nothing else?""This isn't a hotel, Kirito-kun.""Right," he said slowly."Besides. I think the guards rather enjoyed it."Kirito jumped to his feet. "Did they-""No, no," she assured him. "I don't think they were allowed to harm the test subjects. An act like that could completely screw up the mental state of the test subject.""As opposed to locking them up?""Well I think they needed just the right amount of fear to really open the Third Eye. It responds to emotion, so a little stress-""Are you two done over there?" a voice yelled from below."Sorry," Kirito yelled. "We'll look for a rope."He opened the nearest door. Hm. Looked like an office.He searched the desk, but there was nothing useful there."Damnit."Kirito went back out.There wasn't much time. At any moment-"Hey," a rough voice called.Fuck. A guard."What are you doing?" the guard demanded. He walked up to them."Uhm… we're uhm…""Who are you? I've never seen you-"Suddenly, the guard froze.Slowly, Kirito turned to his right.Yuri.She was staring at the guard. At the top of her head, something glowed.The Third Eye."Find us a rope," Yuri ordered.The guard nodded. He turned around and walked back."Yuri?"Suddenly, she swayed.Kirito quickly wrapped his arms around her waist to prevent her from falling. Their eyes locked.Damn she was close. He could feel her hot breath on his skin."You okay?"She nodded weakly. "The power, it's… tiring.""Do you need to rest or something?""No, it's… I'll be fine."Kirito let her go."Let's hope I won't need it again." She smiled weakly."Yeah."The guard returned carrying a rope. Wordlessly, he handed it to Yuri. His eyes were completely glazed over."Perfect."She walked to the elevator shaft and tossed one end down."Tie it around your waist, we'll pull you up."Kirito looked at his hands. He was still bleeding."You don't need to-""Don't be crazy," he told her. "You can't pull them up by yourself.""They aren't that heavy. Besides." She nodded to the guard."I'm helping anyway. Try and stop me.""Not like I can," Yuri said."We're done," a voice from below called."Let's do this," Kirito said.The three of them grabbed the rope and began to pull. With their combined strength, it went really fast."Woah, watch it," a voice called.Natsuki. Of course she had gone first.After a bit more pulling, Natsuki reached the top. Yuri let go of the rope to help her climb on the floor.Natsuki sighed. "It's not like I needed your help," she said."Of course not," Yuri said."But," she looked away. "Thanks anyway."Yuri smiled. "Come on. We should keep going."They tossed the rope down again.Strangely, things didn't go faster with Natsuki's help.They pulled up Monica, the unknown girl and Sayori.Asuna must have waited until last on purpose."Almost there," Kirito said. "Come on, toss the rope back down."Sayori was fumbling to get the rope loose."Come on."Kirito quickly helped her untie the rope. He tossed it down to Asuna."There they are," a voice called from above.Kirito looked up. At the top, he saw a face. The face of a guard with a bushy brown beard and wild hair and eyes."The prisoners are escaping," he yelled. "Sound the alarm."No alarm came though. Electricity was probably still down.The guy seemed to realise this too."Damnit. Where is everyone?""Asuna, hurry," Kirito yelled."I'm busy."Then, they heard a strange sound.Kirito looked up. What the…The guy had taken out a knife and was trying to cut the metal cables."What an idiot," Monica said."But if he cuts them-""Elevators have a spring safety system. It won't crash. Besides, it will take him way too long to cut all the cables.""But-""Pull!" Asuna yelled.They all pulled on the rope. Asuna went up smoothly."Damnit," the guard cursed."I think he's coming down," Kirito said. "Yuri can you-""I'll handle him," Monica said. "Move aside everyone."They all obeyed. They didn't want to mess with Monica.They heard the footsteps on the stairs. Then, the door burst open."Aha."The guard saw Monica. He pulled out his knife and swung at her.Monica sidestepped and gave him a shove. The guy stumbled backwards, right into the open elevator doors.With an ear-piercing scream, he fell down the elevator shaft. Then, they heard a… a bad sound. Looks like it hadn't ended well for him. But Kirito had no desire to go and check."Right," Monica said. "Let's get out of here."She walked towards the staircase.Everyone else was briefly frozen in place, staring at Monica."Wow," Kirito mumbled."Kirito?" Asuna said."Hm?" His eyes remained fixed on Monica."Stop looking at her ass.""Asuna?""Yeah?""You need to sort out your priorities."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Well that went surprisingly easy,” Kirito said.

“Yeah,” Asuna said.

They had gotten out with very little incident. A couple guards on the way, but they had handled them. Well, Monica and Yuri had done most of the heavy lifting.

The group had kept up their fast pace until the base was almost invisible behind the thick mist. Then, they finally slowed down.

“So what now?” Natsuki shivered.

“We’ll have to hike a little,” Kirito said. “Once we’re out of these mountains Kikuoka can pick us up.”

“Who’s Kikuoka?”

“Just some guy,” he dismissed her. Kazuto brought his hand up to his earpiece. “Yui? Can you patch me through?”

[On it, Papa.]

A couple seconds later, he heard a familiar voice in his ear.

[Kirito. How are you?]

“I got them all out,” Kirito reported.

[Good, good. How far away are you?]

“Far enough, why?”

[No reason. Oh, you might want to cover your ears.]

“Come again?”

Then, he heard the sound of an airplane.

“Are they sending an airplane after us?” Sayori asked.

“That makes no sense,” Monica said. “From where would they do that? Where would it even-”

“No, that’s us,” Kirito said. He realised what would happen.

“What?”

“Cover your ears.”

“What for?”

“Now!”

They were just in time. A massive explosion made the ground beneath them shake. A pillar of smoke rose up where the base used to be.

Even though he covered them, his ears kept ringing for a couple seconds after.

They all stood there, shocked.

“W-What just happened?” Natsuki said eventually.

Kazuto reached up to his earpiece again. “You bombed the base?” he asked, surprisingly calm.

[No risks. That Third Eye stuff is way too dangerous.]

“But I never told you what it is.”

[I’m not an idiot, Kirito-kun.]

“You were watching me,” Kirito realised.

[For your benefit.]

Now he did lose his nerve. “You fucking-”

[You want a ride or what?]

Kirito looked at the girls. They didn’t seem in the mood to do a lot of hiking.

“Fine,” he grumbled.

[Great. I’ve got a helicopter fifteen minutes out. Just wait right there. Ah and while you’re there, could you check the base for survivors?]

“Fine. Over and out.”

“And?” Asuna asked.

“There is a helicopter on its way. We should go back to the base so they can find us.”

“Alright.”

“Are we sure that’s a good idea?” Natsuki said.

“You prefer hiking?”

She hesitated one more second. Then, with resolute steps, she walked towards the base. The others followed.

Looks like he had underestimated Kikuoka. They were always planning to bomb the base and kill anyone inside. But he wanted to give Kirito a shot at getting them out first. If he had failed…

Kirito shivered at the thought.

After a couple minutes, they reached the base. Whatever bomb Kikuoka had dropped, it was powerful. Instead of a base, there was only a giant crater with debris all around. No way anyone had survived this.

They waited for a bit. Then, he heard it.

“There,” Natsuki pointed.

A large double bladed helicopter was coming towards them. When it landed, the sudden wind messed up their hair.

The doors opened.

“Let’s get out of here,” Kirito said.

They climbed into the helicopter one by one. Kirito made sure to wait until last. That way, he was certain everyone was safe.

When he entered the helicopter, all seats were taken.

“Here,” Asuna said, offering her seat. “I can sit on your lap.”

“Alright.”

Kirito got on her seat and she sat down on his lap. Asuna looked around defiantly, as if she was daring anyone to protest.

No one did of course. Although Yuri threw them an intense look.

“Strap in,” the pilot said. “We’re taking off.”

They clicked their seatbelts in place.

Kirito let out his breath. It was over. They were going home.

He wrapped his arms around Asuna.

The helicopter took off.

[Well done, Kirito,] a voice in his ear spoke. [The helicopter will take you to the plane and then you can come back home.]

“Home? But what about the girls? Not all of them are from Japan, right?”

[No, probably not. But we can sort that out once they are here. Just leave that to me.]

“I could-”

[No, no. You’ve done more than enough already. You saved them all, Kirito. Now relax and leave the loose ends to me. You go and have a party.]

“Sure,” Kirito said slowly.

He was getting a little nervous.

“Everything okay?” Asuna asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “We’re going to Japan by plane. From there, we can figure out a way to get you all home.”

The girls nodded. They all looked pretty tired.

His eyes wandered to Yuri.

Kikuoka had been very keen on tying up loose ends. He bombed the entire base just to make sure there were no traces left. But Yuri had the Third Eye power. If he learned about that…

Wait, but that made no sense. He let Kirito save the girls even though he knew where the base was. He cared not one bit about all of the people inside, but for some reason he did want to save the host-

Oh no.

Of course.

He didn’t care about the hostages. He wanted Yuri’s power to himself.

Yes, that made perfect sense. Kikuoka learned that she had the power. He only needed Kirito to locate the base and cause a distraction. And then Yuri would get out using her powers.

This wasn’t good. He had to get her out of-

“Kirito,” Yuri said.

He looked at her.

“It’s okay,” she told him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have a plan.”

“But… What?”

“You’ve done enough. Leave the rest to me.”

“A-Alright.”

Odd. Did she know what was going on? Had she arrived at the same conclusion?

But then what was her plan? Use her ability to control Kikuoka? That didn’t make any sense. He was hardly alone. She may be able to control a handful of guys, but not an entire organization.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Kirito told her.

“I do,” she assured him.

“Are you two done?” Asuna asked.

“Hey, calm down.”

“I am calm,” she barked.

“It’s okay,” their pilot suddenly barged in. “It’s just the stress. Why don’t you sleep for a bit?”

Before any of them could reply, nozzles in the ceiling turned on, spewing green gas in the entire cabin. Asuna rose from his lap, but as she did, she felt her legs turn to jelly.

Then, everything turned black.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kirito jerked upright.

Huh?

It was dark around him. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realised he was in his own room.

“Hey, Onii-chan.”

Suguha opened the curtains. Kirito shielded his eyes against the light.

She chuckled. “Late night?”

“Wha-… How…”

She sat down at the edge of his bed. “Did you do it? Did you save them? Is it over?”

“Where is my phone?”

“Nightstand.”

He grabbed it.

Suguha looked puzzled.

“Hello?” Kirito asked.

[Kirito-kun. How are you doing?]

“Cut the crap, Kikuoka. What do you think you’re doing?”

[Oh you seemed tired,] Kikuoka spoke calmly. [So I’d figured I’d help you out a little. Did you have a nice rest?]

“Where are they?” Kirito demanded.

[Home.]

“I don’t believe you.”

[Go ahead and call them. But you’ll just wake them up.]

“You are playing me.”

[No Kirito. You played me. Or do you expect me to believe you had no idea what she was planning?]

“Who?”

[As if you don’t know.]

“What?”

[Well I suppose you completed your mission. I’ll get your payment in order.]

“I don’t want your money.”

[A deal is a deal. Now, I have work to do.]

“Hey, I’m not-”

A clicking sound cut him off.

Asshole.

“Everything okay, Onii-chan?” his sister asked.

“No.” Kirito threw back the covers.

Hold on. What was-

Susguha blushed and averted her eyes as he quickly covered himself with the blanket again.

“W-Where are my clothes?” Kirito stammered.

“I-I took them off.”

“When… how… why?”

“You came home last night. Some agents were with you. They said you fall asleep in the car. That you were tired from your mission. Your clothes smelled of sweat and… and blood. I took them off.”

“

All

of them?”

“Well uhm… they were all sweaty.”

“Right.”

“I’m sorry. I… I should have realised something was off. You’re a deep sleeper, but you didn’t respond while I undressed you. I should have-”

“It’s fine.”

“No, I-”

“There was nothing you could have done. Don’t go fighting trained agents, Suguha.”

“I don’t understand. I thought they were on our side? Why else bring you home?”

“I don’t understand either,” Kirito admitted. “But I’ll figure it out.”

“After you take a shower,” she told him.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Keep me posted. I need to go to kendo practise. Will you be okay?”

“Sure.”

She gave him a sudden hug.

“S-Suguha?”

“Be careful,” she told him. “I don’t think this is over yet.”

“I’ll be fine,” he insisted. “Get to your practise.”

“Alright.”

Suguha left the room.

Kirito sighed.

“Right. A shower.”

He went to the bathroom and took a long shower.

Oh that was great.

He sighed. The water was the perfect temperature.

If he wasn’t so hungry, he would have stayed there all morning. Wait, it was morning, right?

He glanced outside. The sun was low on the horizon, so it was probably early morning.

Kirito shut off the shower and dried himself off. Then, he wrapped a towel around his waist.

He could get dressed later. Breakfast first.

With his hair still dripping, he got down the stairs and into the…

What the…

The radio was playing. A familiar girl was dancing to an unfamiliar song.

“Y-Yuri?”

She spun around. “Oh. Good morning.” She beamed at him. “You want breakfast?”

He studied her. She almost didn’t seem real. Yuri wore a pink apron over a black dress and only showed hints of her usual shyness. She seemed a bit too much at ease here.

“How… What are you doing here?” Kirito asked.

“Ye. You can’t just ask a girl what she’s doing in your kitchen.”

“How did you even get in here?”

“Your lovely sister left the door unlocked.”

“Okay, what the hell happened? You-”

“Calm down. It’s over. We won.”

“How is that possible?” he asked her.

“I used my Third Eye ability on myself.”

“But… even then, you can’t go up against all of them.”

“I know,” she smiled. “Which is why I deleted my Third Eye ability.”

So she used her power to take away her power?

“That’s really clever,” he told her.

“I also deleted most memories from inside that facility. So I was completely useless to him. When he realised that, he decided to let me go.”

“Just like that?”

“Well maybe I threatened him a little bit,” she admitted. “His superiors did not know he wanted to keep the Third Eye to himself. And he didn’t want them to find out.”

“I see.”

“So breakfast,” she said. “Eggs and bacon?”

“Yeah okay. I… thanks.”

“Great.”

She got started.

Kirito slowly sat down at the kitchen table. This was an odd development.

“Oh there is one more thing,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“Well… I haven’t thanked you yet for saving my life.”

“Oh that. Don’t bother.”

“No, no. You saved my life. You should be properly rewarded.”

He waved his hand. “Kikuoka already gave me some money.”

“I wasn’t talking about money,” she said.

“Well you’re already cooking me breakfast,” he pointed out.

“How about I give you some dessert too?” She bit her lip.

Wait what?

Did she mean…

No, no. That made no sense.

“Don’t worry,” she told him. “Asuna is okay with it.”

“What?”

“Yeah. She feels bad for being so jealous and selfish. So she decided to share you from now on.”

“That makes no sense.”

“I know you don’t believe me,” Yuri said. “But she’s coming over and then she can tell you herself.”

“Did you rewrite her too?”

“No. I would never do that. Ye, is that what you think of me?”

Kirito frowned.

Something odd was going on here. No way Asuna was open to sharing him. She-

A sudden sound derailed his train of thoughts.

“Ah, that must be her.”

And indeed, a couple seconds later, Asuna entered the kitchen.

“Hey, Kirito-kun.” She kissed him on his cheek. “You haven’t started without me, have you? You bad boy.”

“Uhm…”

Asuna sat down on his lap.

“Listen,” she said. “I’m sorry I’ve been so selfish. But it ends now. From now on, I’ll share you with other girls.”

“Wha… since when?”

“It’s my fault,” Yuri said. “When she sat on your lap on the plane, I was curious. So I checked your character files.”

“You said-”

“I didn’t change anything. I was just curious. And I saw that you are both deeply in love with each other.”

“Oh.”

“And you are in love with other girls too of course,” she added.

“What?”

“Suguha for example.”

“That-That’s insane,” Kirito sputtered. “You’re lying.”

“The character file never lies,” Yuri said. “You secretly fantasise about your sister.”

Kirito avoided her eyes. His cheeks were burning.

“Technically she’s my cousin,” he mumbled.

“And then there is-”

“Okay fine,” he cut her off. “What’s your point?”

“Well,” Asuna said. “I realised that it’s pointless to try and stop you. You are in love with plenty of other girls. It’s a matter of time before you start to cheat on me.”

“I would never-”

“Yes you would. Eventually, you would. So I figured, why fight it? Let’s just take control. If you’re gonna do it with other girls anyway, I might as well be there with you.”

“What?”

“The truth is that…” Asuna blushed. “I’ve been fantasising about a threesome for a while now. Yuri saw it in my file, so it’s pointless to deny it to you. She was gonna tell you anyway.”

“You bet I would,” Yuri said.

“So given that you know. What do you think? You up for a threesome?”

“I… uhm… what?”

“Why don’t we have breakfast first?” Yuri suggested. “He’ll need his energy.”

“Right. Good idea.”

Yuri scooped bacon and eggs on a plate and put it in front of him.

“This is all going so fast all of a sudden,” Kirito said.

“You don’t want it?” Asuna asked.

“No, I do,” he said. “It’s just…”

Could this be a trap? Maybe he was in a virtual world right now? Kikuoka could have put him in an AmuSphere after sedating him. And then all of this was a distraction.

There was no way to know for sure. Could he have lost the battle after all?

It all depended on whether Yuri was fast enough. If she had deleted her Third Eye before being sedated, this had to be real. But if she failed, then for all he knew the Third Eye was being used against him right now.

Or maybe-

“It’s not a trap or anything,” Asuna told him. “I love you. And I want to do this. It just took me a while to figure that out.”

“Right,” Kirito said slowly.

“Just sit back and enjoy the ride,” she said.

He relaxed his shoulders.

He could do that. Even if this was all fake, it’s not like there was a lot he could do. He might as well enjoy it.

After everything he had gone through, he deserved a break. He could figure out what all of this meant later on.

“I love you, Asuna.”

She smiled. “Love you too, Kirito-kun.”

“Me too,” Yuri said. “Kirito-kun.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kazuto woke up. His alarm clock indicated it was 9:34 am.

Seemed like a good time to get up.

Asuna was still asleep next to him. She looked so beautiful that he decided to let her sleep a bit longer. Yuri was nowhere in sight.

Maybe it was all a dream after all? Those memories of last night were a little too good to be true. He could have dreamed them.

Yeah, probably just a dream. No way any of that was real.

Kazuto slipped on a bathrobe and went downstairs.

He found Yuri lying on the couch, wearing his shirt and panties. She was watching tv, but when she saw him, she shut it off.

“Good morning, handsome,” she said with a dazzling smile.

“Morning,” he said. Wait, it was all real? How could that be?

Unless…

“Still tired from last night?” she asked.

“It’s not easy to satisfy two girls at the same time.”

“Well I think you did very well.”

“I did,” Kazuto said. “My stamina is incredible. Thank you for that.”

“Sorry?”

Kazuto sat down on their second couch. “You know. When I was climbing the elevator shaft with Yuri, I looked up and… she wasn’t wearing panties.”

“You’re a bad boy, Kirito-kun,” Yuri teased him.

“I didn’t know. But it did show me something interesting.”

“Kirito,” she pouted.

“Of course I got a good look last night as well,” he continued.

“Where is this going, Kirito? Do you want another look? Shouldn’t we wait for Asuna? She’s gonna feel left out. Like last night, when-”

“I noticed something odd last night,” he droned on, ignoring her. “That little birthmark on your thigh. It’s gone.”

“Birthmark?”

“Yes. High up your thigh. Too high for anyone to see under normal circumstances. It was there in the elevator shaft, and now it’s gone.”

“Are you sure you saw it right?” she asked. “You only had a brief look.”

“Completely sure. It was here, on your left leg.” He marked the location on his own body.

“You mean this one?” she lifted the shirt. The birthmark was there on her inner thigh. Right where he had pointed.

“Oh right, sorry, it was the other leg.”

“Oh come on,” she said. “This is so unfair. I had her nailed down. I even got her chest size right.”

“You can drop the act,” he told her. “Monica.”

She sighed. “But I like this new body.”

“You rewrote your own body. And you rewrote Asuna.”

“Oh come on. What are you complaining about? Asuna is way more interesting now that she isn’t so selfish. You know, I could increase that chest of hers now that you know. Wouldn’t you like that? An Asuna 2.0 with all the bugs worked out?”

“I like her just the way she is,” Kazuto said.

“Oh please. Don’t give me that crap. Asuna is a lot happier like this. I got rid of all those negative feelings.”

“You brainwashed her,” he argued.

“For her own good.” Monica rose. “You weren’t complaining last night. Why are you opposing me, Kirito-kun? I gave you everything you ever wanted. And I can give you the rest of them. Suguha, Silica, Lisbeth, Sinon, all of them. I can give you your own harem. Without any drama.”

“And what about the real Yuri?”

She looked away. “There is nothing I can do about her.”

“Yes there is. You have the same power.”

“Yes,” she said. “And as long as they don’t know it, I’m safe. The moment I reveal it, Kikuoka will not rest until he’s got his hands on me.”

“He has Yuri.”

“Yes,” she confirmed “But he won’t harm her. He’s just scared of what someone else might do with her powers.”

“We have to save her,” Kazuto insisted.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you ruining everything?”

“I’m not abandoning Yuri.”

“Then I’ll just have to rewrite you,” she said. “Kirito 2.0.”

“You may be able to rewrite me, but you can’t touch a computer program. Isn’t that right, Yui?”

[It is,] the computer voice confirmed.

“If you touch me, she’ll tell Kikuoka that you have the Third Eye as well.”

“Ugh,” Monica groaned. “You’re an idiot.”

“The mission isn’t over until every girl is safe. We’re saving her.”

She sighed. “Well it’s not like I have much choice, do I?”

“That’s right,” he said.

“I hate you. I hate you so much.”

“Please. Why would you go through all this trouble if you hated me?”

“Well what about you?” she shot back. “How convenient you only realised it now.

After

our wild night together.”

“That… That has nothing to do with it,” he argued.

“Really? Looks to me like you took advantage of the situation.”

“You need to roll back those changes you made to Asuna.”

“That’s just gonna create drama. We need to focus now. We can’t be distracted by Asuna’s silly feelings of jealousy.”

“You-”

[I gotta agree here, Papa,] Yui said.

“What?”

[Her feelings will only hinder our mission.]

“Don’t be crazy. We need to-”

[Monica?]

“Hey,” Kazuto said. “What are you- argh-”

A sudden headache flared up. The room danced in front of his eyes.

What the…

Kirito blinked. “What is…”

“I just said good morning,” Yuri said. “Are you still asleep?”

“Sorry. I… still tired from last night I guess.” He grinned.

“You were very good,” she praised him. Yuri placed a gentle kiss on his lips. He tried to turn it into something more serious.

“Easy now,” Yuri said. “We need to stay focused.”

“Right. They still have Monica,” he remembered. “That bastard.”

“We’ll get him. Don’t worry.”

“Of course.”

“I’ll go wake Asuna,” she said.

“Okay. I’ll make some breakfast. Let’s call everyone in. We’ll need help.”

“Good.”

Yuri left the room.

“Yui, can you call Klein?”

[On it.]

He picked up on the third ring.

[Hello?]

“Hey, Klein.”

[Why you calling so early? I thought the mission was over?]

“No. The mission is not over until everyone is safe.”

[A girl?]

“Yes,” he confirmed.

[Is she hot?]

“Klein.”

[Oh come on. Just answer the question.]

“Yes,” Kirito sighed. “She’s very attractive.”

[Then I’m in.]

“Good. Get your ass over here. We have work to do.”