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There was a certain timelessness to Asuka Empire that had left Yuuki speechless the first time she’d logged in. Perhaps it was just the incredible recreation of how Japan would have looked a thousand years prior, from the food to the architecture, as the game was so often praised for. But as she logged into Asuka Empire for the first time in a long time, she thought it might be something else entirely.Even now, she could imagine Ran by her side, a gentle smile on her lips, and Merida in front of her, cheerily explaining the next quest to them. Clovis would hang a little behind, only speaking to quietly offer his thoughts on how they might proceed. The other Sleeping Knights might join in, unable to hide their excitement for the inevitable battle to comeBut to her dismay, they disappeared the moment her concentration broke.Today, Yuuki had come to Asuka Empire alone. Ran and Merida and Clovis had all gone somewhere she couldn’t follow them to, at least not yet. And while she loved the other Sleeping Knights dearly, even Asuna and her friends who had joined in spirit only, she didn’t desire their presence today.Today was for her alone.Though she’d been fortunate that the generosity of Asuna and her friends had allowed Yuuki the chance to live almost normally, at least for a little bit, even their kindness couldn’t change the fate set for Yuuki. Exhaustion settled a little heavier in her bones these days, and her body weakened. She still had a little time left, but it had become increasingly clear that time had become scarce.Merida’s desperation for meaning struck her more deeply these days. Though she’d always wondered about it in the back of her mind, the question had thrust itself into the forefront and demanded to be answered. In ALO, she’d answered it with the Sleeping Knights’ names engraved on the pillar and with an OSS for Asuna.But now, her search for meaning had led her back here, to the game she’d left behind when too many others had left her behind.MMO Tomorrow had recently posted a story about a quest in Asuka Empire that had captured the hearts of VRMMO gamers across Japan. It detailed how the quest, one of the 108 fan-submitted quests that had been added in game, was created by a player who had passed prior to its release, and how his grandfather had endeavored to complete the quest before his own passing.It was a tear-jerker of a story on its own, but the name of the dead player had touched her far more than the contents of the article. Yuuki hadn’t realized Clovis had ever submitted a quest for consideration, let alone that it had been one of the ones selected.“The Phantom Orchestra, huh,” she muttered under her breath.The source of the quest’s name echoed in the distance, never becoming any clearer no matter where she went on the quest’s base map. Clovis had certainly done a great job of picking a piece that set the mood. The clear whistle of the flutes wrenched at her heartstrings, and the gentle plucking of the koto heightened her loneliness.“Now, where can I find that hokora?”She’d read the basics of doing the quest; it was straightforward and designed so that any player, no matter their level of skill, could complete it. After all, Clovis had intended his grandfather, who was about as far from a gamer as one could get, to be able to see it all the way through. Despite concerns about the ethics of its ghosts, the player base had rallied in support of the experience, with many going so far as to say it helped them come to terms with their own grief.Coming to terms with the many losses in her life was part of why she’d come back. The other, of course, was more personal.Clovis had been one of her dearest friends, the fourth member to join the Sleeping Knights and the third to die. She owed it to him to experience his final creation, for her own sake and for the sake of Merida and Ran who didn’t live long enough to see it with her.A part of her longed to enjoy her time here. She’d visit the sweet shops and try all the delicious desserts she’d eaten along Merida and Ran, back when Yuuki and Ran had first joined Asuka Empire. Maybe she’d take on a few quests and defeat bosses the trio had struggled with, just to prove to herself how much she’d grown.But without Merida and Ran, without Clovis and the rest of Sleeping Knights, what fun could she find in that? She’d only highlight her own loneliness.So with a longing sigh at her favorite sweets shop (maybe after the quest, she promised herself), Yuuki set off in search for the hokora that, thanks to her prior offering at the deserted shrine on the map, would start the questline.Unbeknownst to Yuuki, she was not the only one looking for the hokora at the time. In the midst of the rather plain map, a young man, no older than his early twenties, had also set off to complete the quest. He stood at the hokora when Yuuki arrived, reading the first note inside.Yuuki’s breath caught at the sight of him. She was fifteen years young, right at the age where girls swooned over attractive celebrities, and the man before her was as handsome as any male model she’d ever seen. He wore surprisingly simple gear for Asuka Empire, just a navy and white hakama and hakamashita look that wouldn’t be out of place in modern day Japan, though the staff he had tied to his back marked him as a mage-type class. His hair was long and dark. He had tied back it into a ponytail with an elegant red cord that matched the threading on his sleeves, not unlike how Ran had worn her hair back in the day.At the sound of her footsteps, the stranger looked up. “Oh, are you here to complete the Phantom Orchestra quest too?”His voice was soft-spoken, and his smile was warm, though it didn’t quite meet his dull brown eyes.“Sorry!” Yuuki called back, throwing up her hands in an unthreatening gesture. “I didn’t mean to disturb you! I can just come back later if you want!”She giggled nervously, fully prepared to do as she said. Despite her cheery attitude, she wasn’t too good at conversing with strangers, especially not handsome ones like this man.But to her surprise, the man cocked his head and offered, “Seeing as you’re here anyways, why don’t we do this quest together? I was planning to clear this quest by battling the boss without the help of the instruments, so as long as you’d be okay with that, I wouldn’t mind the company.”Yuuki had planned to complete the quest alone because the quest offered the kind of personal journey that she didn’t feel right sharing with any of her friends. Yet at this handsome stranger’s offer, her conviction wavered. “Are you sure you don’t want to complete it alone?”The stranger shrugged. “It’s not like we’ll spend much of the quest together, even if we work together to complete it.”That was true. The quest was notorious for splitting up parties; everyone had to find their own instrument to play to clear the quest. The standard method of completing the quest involved playing the instruments they’d collected as it was the easier method of completing it, but this stranger was determined to complete it through the far harder method.As fate would have it, Yuuki had intended to do the same. She firmly believed that there were some things in this world that could only be shown through fighting. Though the quest was sure to be heavy on the heart, she had intended to slay the monster at its full strength as if to say, “Look how strong I’ve become, Clovis, Merida. Look how much I’ve grown, Ran.”She hoped that wherever Clovis and Merida and Ran had gone, her feelings might reach them.“I’d be delighted to join you, then,” she accepted without a further thought. “What class are you? Your outfit’s too general to tell.”The stranger glanced down at his outfit, bemused. “I’m a priest. I just prefer these clothes over the bulkiness of the standard priest garb. Based on your outfit, I take it you’re a samurai?”Yuuki laughed, clear as a bell, despite the fact she thought she’d never laugh in Asuka Empire again. “Our outfits are pretty conspicuous, huh?”The stranger’s smile became a little more genuine at her words.“I guess that decides our combat roles,” the stranger said. “As long as you’re comfortable on the front lines, I’ll support you from the back.”“Understood!” She stepped a little closer to him, her hand outstretched. “I’m Yuuki! And you are?”The stranger looked at her outstretched hand for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Was he suspicious of her? She thought for sure he wouldn’t take it, but after a moment’s hesitation more, he did. “Technically, I’m Yu here, but you can call me Itsuki.”“My sister’s nickname for me was Yuu,” she said without thinking. “What a funny coincidence.”Itsuki smiled a little at her words. “Even more so when Yuki would also be a valid nickname for me.”“Huh?” she asked, perplexed. “What’s your name then?”“My full name is Yukitsugu, but I chose Yu for a screen name here because oddly enough, that was my brother’s nickname for me.”This series of coincidences was becoming a little creepy.“Older or younger?” she asked.If he answered either of those responses, Yuuki would be in the clear. Hers was her twin, and few people had those.“Older, though he technically was my identical twin.”Yuuki’s jaw dropped. “Me too! What are the odds of that?”This was well past creepy now. The easy assumption would be that one of them was lying, but Yuuki most certainly wasn’t, and Itsuki seemed sincere in his responses. After all, he had responded about his twin without knowing her family situation.“Two identical strangers, meeting at the start of Phantom Orchestra,” Itsuki mused. “At this point, it seems like the two of us were brought here by destiny rather than random chance.”It sure felt like destiny that they’d met. Meeting each other by chance would be too improbable, especially in Asuka Empire, whose popularity had taken a hit after the release of the Seed.“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter what brought us here,” he continued, more matter-of-fact now. “We have a quest to complete.”They made quick work of forming a party, and Itsuki was placed in charge solely because he’d already started the “mochi” process at the hokora. He hadn’t gotten far; he was still sliding the appropriate bits of paper into the hokora when she showed up.As he put it quite succinctly, “There’s no point in wasting time running all over the place for rare mochi when we can just write their names on a piece of paper and fulfill the tasks. Every guide I’ve read has said the information you get while collecting the mochi’s superfluous and not worth the effort it takes to get it.”Yuuki didn’t argue with that. After all, she was far more interested in the ghostly part of the quest than the busywork. But it didn’t stop her from watching with great interest as Itsuki, time and time again, took out a letter from the hokora and wrote the appropriate name on the back of it. His calligraphy was flawless; if she hadn’t a thorough conversation with him beforehand, she might have thought him an NPC with how perfectly he seemed to fit in this world.At last, Itsuki finished with the final mochi request, the “isobemochi.” The matsuribayashi was so loud at this point, Yuuki had to look over a few times just to make sure there were no instrumentalists behind her.“Here’s the last riddle,” he said, handing over the final piece of paper to her.It read:
Even a lapis lazuli or crystal shines if illuminated. Even on a moonlit night with no need for lanterns, I sometimes wish for this light.
It was complete gibberish to Yuuki. If she hadn’t thoroughly read the quest guide prior to logging in today, she would have been lost. Apparently, she was supposed to realize based on this riddle and the piece of paper labeled “clouds” on the inside of the hokora that she needed to put a lantern on top of the hokora. She didn’t think of herself as dumb, but riddles like this were never her strong suit. Give her a sword and tell her to fight a boss, and she’d make quick work of it, but puzzles had always been more of Ran’s thing.From her inventory, she pulled out a lantern and gave it and the paper back to Itsuki.“Do you think you could have gotten the riddle on your own?” Yuuki asked. “I can’t make heads or tails of it!”Itsuki folded up the paper and set it back in the hokora. “I know Shinto shrines better than just about every other player in this game, so I’d have been looking the second level of the hokora anyways. As for the clue, the second line makes it fairly obvious you need a light. I suppose if this was the first time I saw it, it might have confused me at first, but I believe I would have eventually figured it out.”“Ooh I’m jealous,” Yuuki cooed. “Between me and Ran, I was definitely the brawns.”Itsuki cocked his head. “Ran?”“My twin.”They both fell silent. She could see the question written clearly on Itsuki’s face, and really, it was inevitable. Most people took on the Phantom Orchestra quest these days because of their own tragedies they wished to face head on. She was no different, and probably, Itsuki wasn’t either.“She passed away a little while ago,” Yuuki explained, her mood a little lower now. The matsuribayashi echoing behind her only added to her loneliness. “She had been sickly her whole life, and it caught up to her in the end.”Yuuki didn’t know why she was telling an almost stranger this. Maybe because she knew even then that this would be the only time they’d meet. Maybe because she just wanted to be able to tell all of this to someone who might be able to understand how it felt to lose a twin. Maybe because at this point, her time left was so limited that hiding her truth didn’t matter anymore.“I’m sorry for your loss,” Itsuki said, speaking with genuine sorrow in his tone instead of the polite pity that usually accompanied that statement. “I know better than anyone just how tough losing a twin can be.”He could understand too. A part of her hoped he wouldn’t, but most of her was relieved to find someone who could relate to the emptiness her sister’s death had left behind.“What happened?” she asked quietly. It probably wasn’t polite to ask, but she couldn’t deny she was curious to know just how deep their similarities ran.Thankfully, Itsuki didn’t look offended by her question. “My twin, Haru, died in the SAO incident. I suppose it was a painless death for him, but he was one of SAO’s last victims, so I spent a lot of time at the hospital leading up to his death. I imagine it was much the same for you.”“It was.” And still was. She didn’t have the heart to tell him she was just as sickly for fear he’d be in the same situation. Even if he wasn’t, it put too much of a damper on things when people knew she didn’t have much time left.She just wanted to experience this one quest properly without being fussed over.“Should we begin the quest?” Itsuki asked, holding up the lantern in front of him.She nodded. “Go right ahead!”Itsuki set the lantern atop the hokora. Almost immediately, a visible shift occurred. Light shot out from the lantern over the rice field, spreading out until the area was coated in a golden glow. From it, a castle of gold appeared, towering over the little hokora. An impressive stone wall surrounded it, broken only by a stately castle gate that marked its entrance.That wasn’t the only change that the lantern wrought. Around them, the ghostly orchestra finally made their appearance, dressed in kariginu and eboshi and focused solely on their music. Itsuki stiffened beside Yuuki, watching the eponymous Phantom Orchestra with wide eyes. Yuuki, meanwhile, closed her eyes to take in their harmonious sound.Their music was at its highest intensity since she’d met Itsuki, the musicians attacking the notes with a fury that didn’t suit their lifeless demeanors. Knowing the nature of most of the 108 quests, this was intended to strike fear into the hearts of the players, though Yuuki found it more intriguing. When she opened her eyes once more, she watched with curiosity as the players drifted back towards the castle, as if they hadn’t noticed Itsuki and Yuuki standing there.Amidst the music, a single chime sounded, a low note resonating like the temple bell rung 108 times on New Year’s Eve.The quest had officially begun.They stood there in silence until the last of the ghostly procession disappeared into the castle and the world around them grew equally silent again.“Should we go in?” Yuuki asked.Itsuki, who had regained his composure once the music faded away, nodded. “Let’s go.”Yuuki took the lead, bounding up the steps two at a time while Itsuki trailed behind her. She waited for him by the gate, and once he reached her, he stopped beside her.“I suppose this will be it for a while,” Itsuki said. “Good luck.”Yuuki smiled back at him. “Don’t die in there!”He merely nodded in response, his attention focused ahead of them.Without another word, they crossed the gate and entered the castle.If the quest worked as it was supposed to, Yuuki and Itsuki would be separated for a while. Each party member was sent to a different part of the castle to face their own trials and find an instrument to play. Only once they had their instruments would they be reunited to face the final boss.True to the guides online, when Yuuki entered the castle, she found herself not in the entryway, but in a nondescript hallway lined with tatami mats. There was no obvious light source, but she could see her surroundings quite clearly, even without any sort of night vision.That meant she could see that, despite what she’d read about the quest, she hadn’t ended up in the hallway alone.Itsuki still stood beside her, looking as perplexed as she felt.“What are you doing here?!” she shrieked, jumping back a bit in her shock.Itsuki seemed at a loss for words. He turned his head from side-to-side, scanning their surroundings with the critical eye of a seasoned VRMMO player. Surely he had to see what she did. There was nothing here but them.“This is certainly odd,” he responded at last, his confusion not quite masked by his more serious demeanor, “but this is a quest that’s infamous for its oddities.”Considering Clovis had designed the quest with his grandfather in mind, articles about the event had focused on the unusual features of the event that activated when his grandfather was in the party. But given his grandfather wasn’t in the party, she thought it would have proceeded normally.“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter,” Yuuki said, slapping her cheeks to regain focus. “We’ll just do the whole quest together, then!”Itsuki didn’t look too thrilled by the prospect of working together, but all he said was, “I’ll take the lead.”He slinked ahead, his footsteps so silent it was as if he never touched the tatami mats beneath his feet. Yuuki felt like a bumbling oaf in comparison, though her feet hardly made a sound as she followed behind him.The hallway seemed to stretch on forever. Every time she glanced behind her, it appeared exactly it had the time before, and exactly like it still looked ahead of her. The only difference was that ahead of her was Itsuki.After what may have been five minutes of silence or fifteen, Itsuki came to a sudden stop. She stopped by his side, just in time to see a child emerge from the shadows in front of them. He was young, though it was hard to say how young he was given he wore a black kitsune mask over his face. It stood in sharp contrast against his lifelessly white skin.“Who are you?” Itsuki asked, taking a hesitant step forward.The boy did not respond. Instead, he turned around and fled deeper into the hallway.“Wait!” Yuuki cried as she bolted after the child. She heard Itsuki swear behind her, but heavy footsteps behind her told her that he had followed her.The matsuribayashi pounded in her ears once more.She skidded to a stop as her head started spinning. It was a miracle she didn’t collapse to the ground; her fixation on the boy, who stood still in front of her, was all that was keeping her steady. Itsuki stumbled beside her, clutching his head in one hand.The boy turned back to face them. In the shroud of shadows, he took off his mask.Ran stared back at Yuuki. She looked just as she had back in her Asuka Empire days, dressed in classic miko attire with a gentle smile on her lips. Yuuki wanted nothing more than to go and hug her, to tell her just how much she’d missed her, but she was frozen in place. Her eyes watered, even though she’d told herself she wouldn’t cry until after she finished the quest.Then Yuuki blinked the tears away, and the illusion was gone. The boy ran ahead, disappearing into the darkness of the endless hallway, while she stood frozen in place.Beside her, Itsuki had fallen to his knees, staring blankly into the void ahead of them.Logically, she knew what she’d seen was the “ghost” of the Phantom Orchestra quest. The phenomenon was an illusion of her mind’s creation, and perhaps the most controversial part of the quest. It’d been a stroke of genius on Clovis’s part. He and Ran were the smart ones of the Sleeping Knights, after all.But having seen the illusion for herself, she decided that reading about it never could have prepared her for how real Ran seemed. It was like Ran, for a few moments, had never been dead.She wiped at her eyes.“Fuck,” Itsuki muttered as he wobbled back into a standing position. “The disclaimer really doesn’t do that justice.”He looked shell-shocked. She imagined she looked much the same.“Should we keep going forward?” Yuuki asked, hesitant.Itsuki shook his head. “Right before the boy showed up, I remembered that in the articles, it said the grandfather had followed the arrows on the ceiling to get out of the infinite hallway. So, let’s try that.”She looked up as he suggested. Sure enough, embedded in the woodgrain of the ceiling, there was a distinct arrow shape pointing behind them.“Why don’t we walk together this time?” Yuuki asked, offering a hand to Itsuki.Maybe Itsuki was a complete stranger, but after that illusion, she had no desire to be alone.Itsuki, after a moment’s hesitation, took it. He squeezed her hand as if to reassure her, though she suspected he was just as in need of the comfort as her. “Let’s go. I don’t want to stay in here any longer than we have to.”They followed the arrows through the hallway. Itsuki directed them as need be, though the path was quite straightforward now that they knew where they were going.They ended up in front of a fusuma made up of ten panels.Yuuki’s breath caught at the sight of it.Ran, Merida, Clovis, Siune- all the Sleeping knights were depicted on it. She remembered the quest vividly, how the group had fought their hardest to take down the dragon, Kiyohime, and eventually succeeded. It had been the last major quest they’d completed with all the members of the Sleeping Knights.She rested her hand against the depiction of Ran, who had closed her eyes while she cast a spell on the dragon. It was beautiful, seeing the moment captured in sumi-e like this. Clovis had really outdone himself on this quest.“She looks an awful lot like you,” Itsuki commented, letting go of her other hand.Yuuki shook her head. “That was my twin. That samurai over there is me.”She pointed at the version of her on the fusuma, who charged into battle with a fearsome swing of her katana. She looked deadly there, she thought. Deadly but beautiful.Was this how Clovis saw her?“It’s an impressive display of artistry.” Itsuki scanned the fusuma with an admiring gaze, as if to make sure he carefully took in all of its intricacies. “The creator of this quest captured you perfectly in the traditional art style.”Yuuki could guess at the implicit question he was asking.“Clovis and I belonged to the same guild,” she explained quietly. “All of us on the fusuma did.”She knew he wouldn’t overlook the past tense in her explanation.“This quest must mean a lot to you, then,” he said, not unkindly. “Does the guild still exist?”She nodded. “It does, though we moved over to ALO a little while ago. Asuka Empire lost its appeal to me after Ran died, and everyone was quick to agree to changing games after Clovis passed away too. It was hard for them to continue playing here when we’d already lost three of our members.”She pointed up at the ninja on the fusuma, who she’d thought of a lot lately. “That’s Merida. She was the one who introduced me and Ran to Asuka Empire. She was the first member we lost.”Soon, Yuuki would be gone too.“I’m sorry,” Itsuki muttered after a long silence. When she looked over at him, he stared at her not with pity, but with genuine sorrow in his dull brown eyes. “It must have been difficult to lose so many guild members at such a young age.”When Yuuki had met Itsuki, she had never imagined telling him the full truth. They were strangers, even if they’d shared similar experiences. Yet as she contemplated doing just that, she couldn’t help but wonder if that was the appeal of him. He was a stranger, someone she’d probably never meet again. Maybe he was the only kind of person she could be honest with now.“It was kind of inevitable with our guild,” Yuuki sighed, dropping her hand back to her side. “We started in Serene Garden, after all. Every member of the Sleeping Knights is on borrowed time.”As she spoke the name of her guild, a change occurred before them. The ten panels of the fusuma snapped to the sides, opening up a new pathway before them.Yuuki knew this scenery.The route ahead was grassy, lined with pristine white pillars that towered high in the sky. A stone pathway cut through the field of grass and wildflowers towards a common area, where she knew she’d find an array of swings and benches and tables. The sky above them shone a pristine blue, and the wind blowing through the meadow was sweet. In the distance, a mountain range loomed, silhouetted against the horizon.This was the Sleeping Knights’ special garden, the record of their existence in Asuka Empire that they’d left behind months ago.Her eyes watered at the sight. Clovis really had thought of everything when he’d made this quest.Itsuki stepped out into the garden before them. Other than Clovis’s grandfather, no one but the Sleeping Knights had ever set foot in this place, yet she wasn’t opposed to it. If anything, she thought he suited the environment well. He had closed his eyes, and his dark ponytail swayed gently in the breeze. He seemed so utterly at peace amongst the surroundings that she couldn’t help but step forward to join him.“Have you been here before?” he asked as she approached.She nodded. “I have. This was where the Sleeping Knights’ recorded our victories. It’s just as I remember it.”Together, they ventured into the heart of the area. Yuuki approached the massive stone monument in the corner of the garden, while Itsuki respectfully sat at one of the tables to give her a little time alone.The monument was the written record of the Sleeping Knights’ time in Asuka Empire. Every time anything of note happened, Clovis would update the monument with the date, the name of the event, and a corresponding screenshot. It hadn’t been updated since his death; they had left Asuka Empire behind not long after his funeral.Yuuki brushed her hand over the characters etched into the stone. Birthdays, quest completions, and even particularly notable gatherings were marked there, each a memory that she held dear. It’d been designed so anyone could touch a date and see a photograph from the event. She chose to view the one from the completion of the Kiyohime quest.The picture that appeared before her was the last group picture that included all the Sleeping Knights. In her exuberance at such a flawless victory, Yuuki had bundled the group together and said, “Let’s get a picture together!”The Sleeping Knights had been quick to squish together for the photo. Yuuki stood at the front, one arm slung around Merida’s shoulders and the other around Ran’s. Merida and Yuuki beamed brightly at the camera while Ran faced it with a soft smile. Clovis stood beside Ran; the picture captured him smiling at Ran with a light blush on his cheeks.She’d forgotten that he’d doted on Ran. Maybe if they’d lived longer, something might have come of it.The rest of the Sleeping Knights crowded behind them, and they’d just barely managed to get all of them completely in the frame.Of all the pictures they’d taken together, both in Asuka Empire and ALO, she considered it her favorite. Even though they’d face their first death not long after, they had all managed to find joy on the battlefield together that day, fighting side-by-side with friends.She waved away the picture as tears prickled at the corners of her eye.Clovis. Merida. Ran. None of them deserved to die as young as they did.She didn’t deserve to die so young either.As she stood there, tears streaming down her cheeks, she felt two soft beings brush against her legs. When she looked down, two white foxes stared back up at her.“You’re one of the Sleeping Knights, aren’t you, miss?”Yuuki turned around to see a young boy behind her. He wore a kitsune mask over his face, not unlike the ghostly boy she and Yuuki had encountered earlier, though his mask had a white base instead of a black one.“I am,” she said, instinctively crouching down to his level. “Did Clovis create you?”The boy nodded. “Kiyofumi designed their area so only the Sleeping Knights could find it, although his grandfather found it too. You recognize this place, don’t you?”“I do.”The boy must have been an AI. He spoke far too naturally to be an NPC, and if anyone in the Sleeping Knights was smart enough to make an AI, it would have been Clovis. Yuuki would have liked to introduce him to Kirito; she had a feeling they’d have enjoyed talking about programming together.A part of her wondered if she should try to bring Kirito and Asuna to meet the boy, though she ultimately decided against it. It was unlikely the quest would glitch twice like this and allow them to come here together. Even if it could happen twice, she didn’t think she could bear to come back here again.“You’re the only Sleeping Knight to visit this area since Kiyofumi died,” the boy said. His voice was eerily like Clovis’s, so much so that if she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine he was standing there. “You must be a very kind person to come back here after all this time.”“Clovis was a very dear friend to me. I had to complete this quest once for him.”She could hear the smile in the boy’s voice as he said, “You are just as nice as Kiyofumi said, Yuuki.”He set off back towards the table where Itsuki sat, and Yuuki followed behind him.“I didn’t expect you to come with a stranger, but I guess Kiyofumi must have thought you shouldn’t have to complete this quest alone.”Yuuki didn’t have the heart to tell the boy that Clovis must have known that no matter how long Ran had been dead, Yuuki could never quite learn how to live alone.When they reached the table where Itsuki sat, the boy gestured for her to take a seat too. Itsuki watched the boy with interest, though he didn’t say a word.The boy waved at the two foxes trailing behind him, who leaped up onto the table in front of them. One of them faced Yuuki, while the other faced Itsuki. They barked in unison; at the sound, an instrument appeared in front of each of them.An elegant kotsuzumi was laid before Yuuki, while the other fox nudged a wooden flute towards Itsuki.“I’m sure you could have found them on your own,” the boy said, “but Kiyofumi would have wanted to help you one more time if he were here. Now go beat the boss for him, okay?”Yuuki looked up to thank him, but he’d disappeared before she could respond. In front of her, the foxes had vanished too, leaving only the instruments and Itsuki before her.“Was that an AI?” Itsuki asked as he picked up the flute.She nodded. “Clovis made him. He must have appeared here because Clovis knew me.”She picked up the kotsuzumi and placed it in her inventory.“Do you still need some more time here, or are you ready to head back?” Itsuki asked quietly.She sighed as she stood up. “Let’s go back.”She couldn’t spend any longer in here without losing it completely.Itsuki was a quiet presence beside her as they reentered the hallway. He didn’t ask her about what had surpassed in the garden, though she had a feeling he had heard everything.This time, when they entered the hallway, it was far shorter. They barely walked five minutes before reaching a door. It opened up to an open-air accessway connecting their building to the golden castle in front of them. It was so wide it may as well have been an observatory deck; if they had encountered it under safer conditions, Yuuki would have liked to pull up a chair and sit there for a while, admiring the view from up high.“Up ahead should be the Dark Zone where the hatchling Yamata no Orochi should be,” Itsuki explained as they stepped out into the open. “We’ll have to take down the large snake in there first, which will transform into the hatchling. We should plan to lure it outside first. Its first form is a youkai, so use anti-spirit tactics against it. As for the second, I’ll handle distracting it and supporting you, while you attack and defeat its eight heads.”It was a sound strategy, just what Yuuki would have come up with for the two of them from the guides she read. “Sounds good to me. We’re not playing our instruments, correct?”“Not unless it reaches the point that it’s the only way we can win,” Itsuki confirmed. “I’ll let you know if we reach that point.”Itsuki approached the steel door, while Yuuki stayed a few steps behind him. He placed his hand on the handle; she could hear the matsuribayashi pounding behind the door.“On the count of three.”Itsuki tightened his grip on the door handle.“One.”Yuuki pulled her katana out of its sheath.“Two.”She crouched down into an attack position.“Three.”Itsuki flung open the steel door. Almost immediately, the boss appeared. The sound of the matsuribayashi cut out just as suddenly, though Yuuki didn’t notice it over the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears. The snake was long and white, as thick around as either of them. Its beady golden eyes glared at her as it lunged forward. Its maw gaped open, and its sharp fangs drew dangerously close to her.Still, she didn’t cower away. Itsuki was counting on her.“Holy Slash!” she cried, striking at the snake’s maw with a clean slash imbued with divine power. It was her basic anti-youkai technique, a single strike that did decent damage but wouldn’t be overkill for the boss’s weaker first form.Her slash cut clean through the snake; it severed in two as her sword passed from head to tail through the monster. The bisected remains of the snake landed on either side of her, thankfully free of blood as it was a youkai and not a true living creature. Its HP had hit zero in one hit.“That was quite impressive.” She looked up to see Itsuki watching her, his staff in hand. A pair of snakes laid beside him; they must have been the boss’s minions that he had taken care of while she was busy with the boss. “I never imagined you’d make such quick work of it.”“Thanks!” She crossed over to him as quickly as she could; she didn’t want the boss to reform into its Yamata no Orochi form between them. “You defeated those two pretty easily too!”He glanced down at the monsters by his feet, which had almost fully disintegrated by now. “They weren’t any harder than your average field monster.”She would have liked the opportunity to talk to him more, but at that moment, the matsuribayashi begun playing once more. She whirled around; the footholds around the upper floors of castles were filled with members of the Phantom Orchestra. Their music had reached a frenzied pace; the climax of the quest had arrived.Behind Yuuki, the large snake she had killed resurrected. What had been a snake large enough to swallow her whole became a creature large enough to destroy the castle with ease. The front of its body split into eight heads, each of which was as thick as a train and had its own brand of nastiness to deal with. She’d faced the original boss once before with the Sleeping Knights. While it wasn’t the last quest they all completed together, it had been one of their last boss battles as a group.Then, they’d been one of almost two hundred players. The players had further divided into eight equal groups, one for each head. Here, it was just her and Itsuki.Side-by-side with Itsuki, she faced an insurmountable task: defeat the hatchling Yamata no Orobochi without resorting to the instrument-playing method of weakening it. It would be nigh impossible, and if she hadn’t know herself to be the best of the best amongst VR gamers, she never would have attempted it. But if anyone could do it, it was her.Besides, she had Itsuki now too. He watched the boss reform with a determined expression on his face. If he felt any fear, he didn’t show it on his face. He must have been as good a VR gamer as she was to have even considered attempting to defeat the quest without the aid of an instrument.The hatchling let out eight simultaneous roars, melding eerily with the beating of the tsuzumi.“Let’s do this,” Yuuki cried, lunging forward with her katana in hand.Itsuki didn’t respond verbally. Instead, he threw a firebomb into the air, which exploded with a loud bang and a flash of light.The hatchling, for a short moment, was attracted to the light. Yuuki took that distraction to strike at the first of the eight heads. She landed a clean blow across its eye, one of its weak points. Its health bar trickled down, though it was still far from finished. As she pressed her feet against its head and propelled herself backwards, Itsuki threw another firebomb into the air.Were they snake fireworks? She’d heard of them, but they were supposed to be impossible to get without extremely high luck. How had he gotten his hands on them?She didn’t have time to ask him. All she could do was land strike after strike on the heads while Itsuki kept the boss distracted long enough for her to attack. The first part of the fight was almost like a dance; she barely got a chance to land before attacking again.The first and second heads fell this way; with them, she took away the hatchling’s ability to heal and paralyze. It would have been nice if the whole battle could have continued this way, but its end was inevitable. Either the boss would grow resistant to the snake fireworks’ effects or Itsuki would run out of the fireworks, and the battle would become far tougher.The latter occurred first.“This is the last one!” Itsuki shouted, his soft-spoken voice barely audible over the pounding of the matsuribayashi that now served as boss music. “Make it count!”“Holy Strike!” she shouted, plunging her katana into the poison-breathing head’s eye. The HP bar halved. She pulled out her katana and stabbed at the eye again. This time, it slid under the eyeball, and she gouged it out when she yanked back her katana. The HP bar crossed under the quarter mark.She leaped back before the hatchling counterattacked.Though a quarter of the heads were gone, and a third was soon to follow, the fight’s difficultly spiked. She could not longer focus solely on the offensive. While Itsuki supported her every step of the way- blocking flank attacks with shield magic, healing her every wound, and cleansing her every debuff- it wasn’t enough to allow her to attack recklessly. She spent more of her time dodging heads than attacking.Fire burned past her. Icy breath nipped at her exposed skin. Strong winds rustled her hair, and she pulled her scarf over her mouth and nose whenever the air grew too toxic to breathe. More than once, she was petrified, saved from death only by Itsuki’s lightning-quick spells, and she spent much of the battle looking down to avoid the bewitching evil gaze of one of the hatchling’s heads.But soon, the poison breath ended. The wind stopped howling thanks to a diverting attack from Itsuki. Yuuki severed the petrifying head from its body, and two slashed eyes turned the evil gaze into a lifeless one.That left just two heads, fire and ice.Only now did Itsuki step to the frontlines, his staff and spell tags in hand.“Let’s finish this,” he said. She nodded in return.“Divine Judgement!” Yuuki cried, leaping above the fire-breathing head with her katana in hand. It shone gold as she slammed it onto the head, cutting it clean in half.“Return to Stardust!” Itsuki shouted. A spell tag landed on the forehead of the ice-breathing head. When he slammed his staff into the ground, a pillar of light burst from the tag, piercing straight through the head.Two HP bars ran down to zero simultaneously.They’d won.Above them, fireworks blossomed in the sunset sky. The Phantom Orchestra disappeared into sparkles of light, the souls of the villagers who’d been trapped to create it freed at last. Beneath their feet, the golden castle disintegrated. Only the foothold they stood on remained.Yuuki finally let out a sigh of relief. It was all over at last.In front of them, the kitsune-masked boy appeared once more, his hands behind his back.“Congratulations on completing the quest,” he said. “While Kiyofumi didn’t make it impossible to defeat the quest through brute strength, he intended to make it difficult enough that only the largest and strongest of parties could complete it that way. You managed to do it with just two of you.”The boy stepped forward until he was right in front of them. Only then did he put his hands out in front of them. He held his hands out towards them; in each hand, he held a white kitsune mask, just like the one he wore on his face.“Kiyofumi was sure you’d beat this quest through brute force, Yuuki. That’s why he gave me special rewards to hand out to anyone who completed the quest in that manner.”Her breath caught in her throat as she and Itsuki took their rewards. “He knew me so well.”“If he were here now, he’d say, ‘Thank you for playing!’ But because he can’t be here, and because there was a chance I might not be here either, he left you another, more proper message that should be available at the hokora now. Please read it.”Before Yuuki could say her thanks, the boy waved goodbye and disappeared into the distance.A part of her longed to race after him, but her feet remained rooted where she stood. Itsuki stared down at the mask in his hand, an odd expression his face.“What’s wrong?” she asked quietly. “Aren’t you happy we completed the quest?”He looked up from the mask. “It’s stupid, but I’m little jealous of you.”“Why’s that?”“You’ve got such wonderful friends. Clovis really went above and beyond to make this quest special for you and the other Sleeping Knights. I just can’t imagine anyone I know doing the same for me.”A part of Yuuki wanted to cry out, “I’d do that for you!” but she knew she never could. Even if she had longer to live, Itsuki was just a similar stranger to her. They’d probably never meet again.In the end, all she said was, “At least you’ve still got plenty of time to find some friends who do the same for you.”He stayed silent for a long while thereafter.“Do you know want to know I came to Asuka Empire?” His voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper.She nodded.“I’m not normally an Asuka Empire player. Ordinarily, my main VRMMO is GGO- I go by Itsuki there- but a couple of months ago, I decided to take a break from playing. I’d been playing a lot with a strange group of players around that time. It was fun for a little while. I thought maybe I’d finally find friends in GGO in them. But after we cleared a big questline first, it all became too much. The newbie who’d caught my attention and brought me into the group became a hero to everyone, and trying to maintain a friendship with him became overwhelming. I tried talking to him about it, but our conversation didn’t go the way I hoped.”He closed his eyes, his head bowed in shame.“I came very close to making the biggest mistake of my life that evening. The only thing that kept me from doing so was the fact he didn’t keep very many people around him. I realized I must have meant something to him if he let me stay a part of his little group, even if I couldn’t be uniquely special to him.”He lifted his head back up, more contemplative now. “But as fate would have it, when I logged off that evening, I stumbled across the MMO Tomorrow article about the Phantom Orchestra quest. The mistake I almost made was partially motivated by my inability to come to terms with my brother’s death, so the quest caught my interest. Since completing it was a less dangerous way of dealing with my grief than what I’d intended to do the next time I logged into GGO, I announced my intention to take a break from playing GGO for a little while. As soon as I logged out, I started playing Asuka Empire.”Something about him in that moment reminded him of Merida, so much so that she asked, “Did you want to recreate SAO? Turn GGO into a death game?”Itsuki froze, unable to even remotely cover his shock. “How did you- what gave you that idea?”“One of the original members of the Sleeping Knights, Merida, was one of SAO’s beta testers,” she explained. “They found her brain tumor prior to its release, so she didn’t play. It ate away at her so much she stole my sister’s augmented NerveGear to dive into SAO. Thankfully, we managed to stop her before she could do it, but her story isn’t unique. There were a lot of people who wanted to dive into SAO but couldn’t. Given you told me your brother died in SAO, I’m sure you must have felt the same way. From there, since you said the mistake was partially motivated by your brother’s death, I just figured you must not have been able to let the idea go.”“Despite what you said about being the brawn earlier, you’re quite thoughtful yourself,” Itsuki commented. “What you said was right. I’d tried to dive into SAO to make sure my brother made it out alive but failed at both tasks. I’ve known one of the GGO admins since practically the start of GGO, and it occurred to me that he could make the death game I desperately wanted to understand a reality. He made the death game stage for me, and it was all ready to be added that evening. Instead, I had him delete the program.”She breathed out a sigh of relief she didn’t know she’d been holding.“I don’t intend to go through with it at this point. Instead, I focused my energy on preparing for this quest. I wanted to complete it without the help of the instruments to prove I could stand on my own, so that the ghost of my brother I saw back in the hallway could see how much I’d grown.”His voice cracked as he continued. “He would have loved it here. We were raised in a Shinto shrine family, so the world of Asuka Empire is very nostalgic to me. I just wish he could have been here to see it.”For the first time since she’d met him, tears glistened in his eyes.She didn’t know quite what to say or do. He was older than her by more than a few years, but he was the one who was weak and needed comforting now.“Every day, I wish Ran was still by my side,” Yuuki said at last. She too had started to blink back tears, but she continued to speak, her voice growing a little stronger with every word she spoke. “She would have loved soaring around ALO with the Sleeping Knights. Though I’d have loved to live a lot longer, I at least get to look forward to meeting her again soon, wherever she may be. But if I were in Ran’s place and she was in mine, I’d want her to live a long, happy life without me. I’m sure your brother wants the same for you too.”There was a lot more she could have said, but she never was good at expressing things with words. She preferred to show her feelings through fighting; the sword could say things that words could not. But it had been a long battle against the hatchling Yamata no Orochi, and she was far too exhausted to duel now.But despite her meager effort to comfort him, it was enough for Itsuki. “Thank you, Yuuki.”He smiled weakly at her. She beamed back.“I guess this is where we part ways.”She shook her head. “Come to the hokora with me! Officially, the quest may be over, but it isn’t over to me until I see what Clovis left for me.”To her surprise, he replied, “I guess we’ll be together a little while longer then.”They proceeded quietly to the hokora where they first met. It looked no different than how they left it.“The grandfather gave ‘yanagimochi’ and got a letter in return,” Itsuki explained when they had stopped in front of the hokora. “Is there a type of mochi that meant anything between the two of you?”She had to think for a while about that before it came to her. “Oh! We all got sakuramochi together the day Clovis joined the Sleeping Knights!”Using the brush behind the hokora and a piece of paper for offerings, she wrote sakuramochi on the piece of paper and set it gently in the hokora. It vanished in a flash; an envelope sat in its place.She opened it up to find a letter dressed to her.
To the person who found this letter,
I don’t believe anyone should find this but its intended recipient, but if you found this and aren’t my friend Yuuki, please put it back where you found it so that she can find it later. This letter is my final message for her.
To Yuuki,
Though we spent so much time together here in the virtual world, I don’t think I ever could find enough time to tell you how much your kindness meant to me. I would have only known the real world and Serene Garden had it not be for you and Ran and Merida. My best memories are of fighting my hardest alongside you and the rest of the Sleeping Knights. You showed me how to live the last year and a half of my life to its fullest, and I could never thank you enough for it.
I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was submitting a quest for the “Hundred and Eight Apparitions” competition. I could see how much Merida and Ran’s deaths had hurt you, and I thought that if I told you I was leaving my last legacy as an Asuka Empire quest, you wouldn’t move forward like you needed to. Please forgive me for keeping quiet.
Congratulations on completing my quest! I bet you brute-forced your way through it, didn’t you. I hope you liked the surprises I left for the Sleeping Knights in the quest. I wanted to make sure I honored you all somehow; you all made my life so much better, and I cherish all the memories I made with you. I know you’ve talked about finding a new game to play, and that you’re probably playing that game more than Asuka Empire when you’re reading this, but you’re always welcome in the Sleeping Knights’ record garden. It doesn’t solely exist in this questline, though I know you already knew that.
You must miss Ran and Merida dearly. I do too. But as I worked on this quest, I felt them with me in spirit. Unfortunately, by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be with them too. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to tell them how much you love and miss them. To be honest, I’m a little excited to see them again, even though I know I’ll miss all of you here too.
Thank you for being one of the best parts of my life, Yuuki. Please don’t join me and Merida and Ran too soon.
-Yanagi Kiyofumi (Clovis)
She teared up reading the letter. Upon noticing her, Itsuki rested a gentle hand on his shoulder as if to comfort her, though he made a point of not looking at the letter. He only let go once she folded the letter up and wiped her eyes.“He must have left a nice letter,” Itsuki commented.She smiled weakly back at him. “He did.”It hit her then that this was it. Now that she’d read the letter, they were officially done with the Phantom Orchestra quest. Yet even now, she still wanted to spend just a little more time with this similar stranger.“Hey, I know we’re done with the quest, but would you like to go get some oshiruko with me?” she asked. “It was Ran’s favorite and the first thing we ate here in Asuka Empire together. I’d like it to be the last thing I eat here too.”Beside her, Itsuki laughed, the first time he’d done so all day. “It was Haru’s favorite too.”She took that as a yes.About a month after completing the Phantom Orchestra quest, news of tragedy spread across all the VRMMO news sites. ALO’s top player, Yuuki, had passed away peacefully after a lifelong battle with HIV/AIDS. From Asuka Empire to ALO, the news broke the hearts of VRMMO players across Japan. Those who knew her were devasted; many of those who did not had known SAO victims and understood the pain of her passing.Even in GGO, which was a dog-eat-dog sort of world normally, most of the player base had laid down their arms and joined together in a rare moment of unity. While the biggest events mourning her passing had been in ALO, her story had resonated deeply for many GGO players as well. A few had known her personally, but most players simply mourned the loss of one of the greatest VRMMO players the world had ever seen.The events weren’t coordinated. While the GGO admins had put out a message to acknowledge her passing, Yuuki had never played GGO, so they didn’t feel it was their duty to sanction anything official to honor her memory. Instead, the players themselves had set up an impromptu memorial in her honor. It had started small- one of the third BoB’s victors, Sinon, had laid a bouquet of flowers and a candle not far from the AI graveyard- but before long, a number of players had stopped by and left offerings of their own for Yuuki too.For Itsuki, it was almost unfathomable that just one month ago, the two of them had completed the Phantom Orchestra quest together. They’d laughed and talked over oshiruko afterwards, and she had seemed so full of life then. He had known, even then, that when they both logged off of Asuka Empire that day, they would never meet again. Yuuki had gone back to ALO to spend her final days with her friends. Itsuki finally found it in himself to return to GGO and face the people he’d been running away from.To his surprise, both Alphard and his new squadron welcomed him back with open arms. Yuuki had been right when she’d told him he still had plenty of time to find friends. In fact, he hadn’t needed much time at all to find them. Maybe he hadn’t thought of most of his squadron mates, new or old, as his friends before, but since he’d logged back in, it’d become clear they’d always thought of him that way.Looking back on it now, he had been stupid to think otherwise.Though he had never intended to complete the Phantom Orchestra quest with Yuuki, he was glad he’d had the chance to do so. She had been so bright and full of life, teeming with hope despite the horrible hand she was dealt by life. It was a beautiful way to live, and it’d left a strong impression on him in the weeks since he’d seen her. Though he had thought of his situation as hopeless before, she had reminded him to keep fighting for a better life anyways, no matter how short or hard of a life it might be.If they could have met again, he’d have taken the opportunity to thank her properly for her kindness.That thought was what led him to the memorial now.The memorial, despite its simple origins, had become a masterpiece overnight. A single candle had become a stone pillar adorned with solar-powered fairy lights. It was etched with a message that honored not just Yukki, but every VRMMO gamer who had died. Sinon’s bouquet of flowers had been placed in a vase in front of the memorial; Zaskar had already sent out a notice saying they had preserved it and the monument as immortal objects. Everything from ammo to hair ribbons laid around the memorial as offerings for the deceased, their life gradually dwindling away but the feelings bestowed in them as strong as ever.Itsuki had brought two such offerings with him. He laid down the photon sword first. Beyond the fact Haru had loved swords and had carried one in SAO, the blade of light shone Haru’s favorite shade of blue. It had sat in his inventory for ages, but he had never been able to bring himself to sell it. Maybe it was fate that he held onto it, so he could offer it to his brother now.He set his offering for Yukki beside the sword for Haru. His offering for Yuuki had dropped from a monster the day she died, as if fate itself had acknowledged her passing. He suspected that if he compared the time of her death to when the item dropped, they would be identical.The sun had begun to set above him; soon, it would be far too easy for another player to jump him. He allowed himself a few more minutes at the memorial, paying his respects to the deceased. Then, when the sun had sunk low enough to kiss the horizon, he stood up from his formal prayer position and spared one last glance at his offerings.For a moment, he swore he saw two individuals standing there. One was a boy who may as well have been the Itsuki of Asuka Empire except for his warm smile. The other was younger, a girl who beamed at him with wings of light spread out behind her.
Take care, Yu.
Itsuki blinked to find no one standing before him.Instead, all he saw was the white kitsune mask he left for Yuuki, shining gold in the sunset glow as it rested gently on the photon sword.