The blank in his consciousness lasted only an instant.
Kirito shook his head a few times, blinked, and forced away the aftertaste of teleportation. It felt similar to using a Teleport Crystal inside Aincrad. But unlike the noisy plaza where transfers usually dropped him in front of a main gate, this place was wrapped in silence.
He slowly rose from one knee.
In front of him stood Yui, her face full of worry. She was not in her fairy form now, but in her real shape: a girl of about ten.
"Are you okay, Daddy?"
"Yeah. Where... are we?"
Kirito nodded and looked around.
It was a strange place. Strangely plain.
Unlike Sylvain or the streets of Alne, which had been decorated with almost too much care, everything here was monotonous. White panels. No ornamentation. No texture. Barely any attempt at detail.
It looked like a path leading somewhere. Not a straight one, either, but a road curving to the right. When he looked back, the same curve continued behind them. A long bend, perhaps. Or a ring-shaped corridor.
"...I don't know either. The navigation map doesn't have any data for this area..."
Yui sounded confused.
"Can you tell where Asuna is?"
Yui closed her eyes for a moment. Then she nodded hard.
"Yes. She's close. Really close. Above us... This way."
Her bare feet slipped out from under her white dress and struck the floor without a sound as she began to run. Kirito slung the sword in his right hand onto his back and hurried after her. After running with Yui for several dozen seconds, he saw a square door in the outer wall to their left. It was just as plain as everything else.
"I think this leads upward."
Yui stopped as she said it. Kirito nodded to her, shifted his eyes toward the side of the door, and froze.
There were two triangular buttons, one above the other.
He had never seen that shape in this world, but in the real world it was completely ordinary. It could only be an elevator panel.
For a moment, the thought struck him with absurd force: standing here in battle gear, sword on his back, he looked completely out of place.
Kirito frowned.
No. The strange thing was this place.
If these buttons worked like the ones he knew, then they had no reason to exist in this world at all.
Then where was this?
The question flashed through his mind, and vanished.
It did not matter. Not if Asuna was here.
Without hesitation, Kirito reached out and pressed the upward-pointing triangle. A moment later, with a dull thump, the door slid open, revealing a small rectangular room inside.
Kirito and Yui stepped in together. When he turned around, he saw a row of buttons beside the door, exactly as expected. If the glowing button marked their current floor, there were still two floors above them. He hesitated only briefly before pressing the topmost one.
Another system sound rang out. The door closed, and the sensation of a slow ascent spread through Kirito's body.
The elevator soon stopped. Beyond the open doors lay another curved corridor, identical to the one below. Kirito clenched his right hand and turned to Yui.
"This is the right height, isn't it?"
"Yes. We're close now... really close."
The moment she finished, Yui grabbed Kirito's hand and ran out.
Several dozen seconds later, Kirito was racing down the corridor, desperately trying to keep the surge inside him under control. He had no idea how many doors they passed along the inner wall. Yui did not even glance at them. She just kept running.
At last, in a place where there seemed to be nothing at all, Yui stopped.
"...What is it?"
"There's... a passage... beyond this wall..."
As she spoke, Yui ran her hand over the smooth outer wall. Her hand stopped. Blue lines like the ones at the stone gate appeared across the surface, crawling forward and intersecting at right angles.
Then the thick lines cut a rectangular shape into the wall, and with a heavy whump, the inner wall disappeared. Inside was exactly what Kirito expected by now: a smooth, flat, utterly featureless passage stretching straight ahead.
Yui said nothing. She stepped into the passage and began running even faster than she had on the lower floor. On her young face was a desperate urgency, as if she could not bear to wait even one more second.
Seeing that expression, Kirito knew.
Asuna was close.
Hurry. Hurry.
He repeated the words in his head and pushed forward with everything he had. Soon the passage ended, and a square door blocked the way. Yui did not slow down. She reached out with her left hand and pushed it open.
"-!!"
Beyond it was the setting sun.
An endless sunset sky covered the entire world.
Kirito felt, for a moment, that something was strange about his point of view. Then he understood. This place was set unbelievably high. He could see the curve of the horizon. He could hear the howl of strong wind.
The ground was no longer crystal flooring. It was a thick tree branch.
The narrow view toward the crimson sunset opened wide again. Above him, branches like pillars holding up the sky stretched in every direction, crowded with dense leaves. Below, more branches spread out beneath them. Beyond their tips lay a thin sea of clouds, and far below that, faintly visible on the green plains, a river wound across the land.
This was above the World Tree.
The top of the world. The place Leafa... Suguha had dreamed of seeing.
But-
Kirito slowly turned his head. The trunk of the World Tree rose like a wall, stretching higher and higher before branching outward.
"There isn't anything here... No city in the sky. Nothing..."
He said it blankly.
There was only that sterile white passage. That could not possibly be called the legendary city. If the Grand Quest had been what it claimed to be, then the moment they broke through the World Tree gate, some kind of event should have triggered. There should have been a fanfare. A clear message. Something.
But there was nothing.
This was an empty gift box. Wrapping paper and ribbon on the outside, a hollow lie inside.
How was he supposed to tell Leafa, who had dreamed of being reborn as an Alf?
"...I can't forgive this."
The words slipped from him before he knew it.
Who was running this world? And for what?
Then he felt a small hand gently tug his. Yui was looking up at him, worried.
"Right. Let's go."
Everything was for Asuna. That was why he had come here.
Ahead of them, a massive tree branch reached into the sunset. At its center ran a man-made path. Dense leaves hid the end of the road, but beyond the treetop, something reflected the evening light in gold.
Kirito and Yui ran toward it.
He pressed forward along the branch path, holding down the anxiety and impatience burning inside him like fire. Several minutes passed. Or perhaps only a few dozen seconds. In his accelerated senses, every instant seemed stretched almost endlessly thin.
They pushed through clusters of dense, oddly shaped leaves and kept moving along the path. The branch twisted beneath them, and short stairways appeared ahead, rising and falling in quick succession. Kirito beat his wings and flew over them.
At last, the source of the golden light came into focus.
A lattice of metal bars.
No. A birdcage.
On another branch running parallel to the thick one beneath his feet, not far above, hung an old-fashioned birdcage with a cylindrical body narrowing toward the top. But it was huge. Large enough for more than a small bird. Large enough for a hawk.
No, that was not what it was for.
A memory that felt strangely far away returned to him: the story he had heard in Agil's shop. Five players had flown to the altitude limit and taken a screenshot. In that image, a girl had been trapped inside a strange birdcage.
Yes.
That was it.
Asuna was in there.
Yui's small hand tightened around Kirito's right hand, as if she knew the same thing. Moving at a speed closer to gliding than running, they flew past the final steps.
The branch path narrowed sharply and led straight beneath the birdcage. There, the road ended.
Now he could see inside the golden cage.
A huge potted plant stood there, and various flowerpots brought color to the white-tiled floor. At the center was a large bed with an ornate canopy. Beside it stood a pure white round table and a high-backed chair.
A girl sat in that chair, hands folded together on the table, head bowed as if in prayer.
Her hair fell straight down. She wore a thin dress similar to Yui's. From her back extended delicate, graceful wings. The sunset dyed everything red.
He could not clearly see the girl's face.
But he knew.
There was no way he would not know.
It was as if their souls were drawn together by a magnetic force. The instant he saw her, his eyes seemed to light, and sparks leapt between them.
Then the girl-Asuna-raised her head.
Perhaps because his longing had been too strong, the Asuna inside Kirito's heart had long since become something almost radiant. In his memory, she was sometimes sharp and beautiful like a drawn blade, sometimes warm and familiar and mischievous. The girl who had always been beside him during those brief, beloved days stared in surprise at first, then lifted both hands to cover her mouth.
Her large hazel eyes filled with wet light. A moment later, tears changed the shape of her lashes.
Kirito flew the final few steps in one breath and whispered in a voice that barely came out.
"Asuna."
At the same time, Yui cried out.
"Mommy... Mommy!!"
Where the end of the path met the birdcage, there was a square door made of bars set closer together than the outer cage. Beside it was a metal plate that looked like a lock mechanism. The door was closed, but Yui did not slow down as she pulled Kirito's hand toward it. Only when they reached it did she lift her right hand and reach left.
A blue glow wrapped around her hand.
Then she swept her hand to the right. The metal plate on the door flew off, and a moment later it dissolved into particles of light and vanished.
Yui let go of Kirito's hand, stretched both arms forward with all her strength, and shouted again.
"Mommy-!!"
Then she rushed straight through the open entrance into the birdcage.
Asuna stood up from the chair at once. Her hands opened wide from her mouth. Her lips trembled, but her voice was clear.
"Yui-chan!!"
Yui's small body leapt into Asuna's arms.
Chestnut hair and black hair swung through the air together, catching the red light of the sunset.
Holding each other tight, Yui and Asuna pressed their cheeks together and called each other's names again, as if they had to make sure this was real.
"Mommy..."
"Yui... chan..."
Their tears fell and shone like fire in the sunset before disappearing.
Kirito slowed down.
Step by step, he approached Asuna, then stopped a few paces in front of her. Asuna looked up, blinked, wiped away her tears, and faced him.
"Kirito."
After a short silence, Kirito's lips moved too.
"...Asuna."
He took the last two steps and opened his arms. He held Yui and Asuna both, pulling them close. A familiar scent drifted toward him. A familiar warmth passed through his body.
"...Sorry I'm late."
His voice shook.
At this distance, Asuna looked straight into his eyes and answered.
"No. I believed in you. I knew you would come back for me..."
They did not need more words.
Before he knew it, both of them had closed their eyes and buried their faces against each other's shoulders. Asuna's arms held him tightly. Between them, Yui let out a small, happy breath.
This is enough, he thought.
If the world ended right now, he would not regret it. Even if his life burned out here. A life that should have ended in that other world could end here instead, and become eternal like this...
No.
That was wrong.
This was finally the beginning.
The world of swords and battles was finally coming to an end. Now they could begin a new journey in the real world.
Kirito lifted his head and said,
"Let's go. Back to the real world."
After the embrace, Kirito and Asuna's hands stayed tightly clasped. Yui was still clinging to Asuna's arm. Kirito looked at Yui.
"Yui, can Asuna log out from here?"
Yui frowned slightly, then quickly shook her head.
"Asuna's status is locked by a complex code string. We need a system controller to release it."
"A controller..."
Asuna tilted her head, uneasy.
"I think I saw machines like that on the lower floors of the lab. Ah... yes, there are several in the lab..."
"Is that the white, empty passageway?"
"Hmm... Is that where you came from?"
"Yeah."
Kirito nodded. Asuna looked at him with a troubled frown, as if something had just occurred to her.
"Did you... run into anything strange?"
"No. We didn't see anyone."
"Maybe Sugou's people were wandering somewhere else, then. If you see them, just cut them down."
"Sugou...?"
The name shocked Kirito, but at the same time everything clicked into place.
"Was it him? Was Sugou the one who did this? The one who locked you up here, Asuna?"
"Yes. But that's not all. Sugou is doing something terrible here too..."
Asuna's voice carried deep anger. She seemed about to say more, then shook her head.
"We'll talk about what comes next after we get back to the real world. Sugou doesn't seem to be at the company right now. Let's use this chance to get into the server and free everyone. Come on!"
There were countless things Kirito wanted to ask.
But getting Asuna back to reality came first.
Taking Asuna's hand, still held by Yui, Kirito ran toward the gate that Yui had permanently deleted. Two steps. Three. Just as he was about to crouch and pass through the cage door-
He felt someone watching them.
A chill, dark presence pressed in from nearby.
It was exactly like the feeling he had known in SAO. Not the sensation of being targeted by a monster, but the gaze of an orange player hiding in the shadows, waiting to kill.
Kirito instantly released Asuna's hand and grabbed the hilt of the sword on his back. He was about to draw it. His hand had only just begun to move when-
The birdcage seemed to flood with water all at once.
A heavy plop.
It felt as if his whole body had been wrapped in thick, viscous liquid.
No. That was not right.
He could still breathe, but the air was abnormally heavy. His body tried to move, only to meet a powerful resistance, as if he were pushing through slime. Heavy. Too heavy. Even standing was painful.
At the same time, the light of the world began to fade.
The birdcage, which had been bathed in sunset red, was gradually swallowed by a deep darkness.
"Wh-what is this!?"
Asuna cried out.
Her voice sounded warped, as if it were coming from underwater.
An unfamiliar shudder ran through Kirito, sharp enough to make his skin crawl. He tried to turn and pull Asuna and Yui into his arms, but his body would not move. The thick air seemed almost alive as it blocked him.
Finally, darkness swallowed the world completely.
No, not completely.
Asuna and Yui, both in white dresses, were still visible. Everything else looked as if it had been smeared over with heavy black paint.
Kirito bit his lip and forced his right hand forward. The bars of the birdcage should have been close. If he could grab them, he might be able to pull himself out of this space.
His hand found nothing.
It was not only what they could see.
They had fallen into an unknown dark world.
"Yui-"
He was about to ask if she understood what was happening.
But in Asuna's arms, Yui suddenly arched backward and screamed.
"Ah! Daddy... Mommy... be careful! There's... something bad...!"
She never finished.
Purple lightning wrapped around Yui's small body. A blinding flash burst out, and when Kirito's vision returned, Asuna's arms were empty.
"Yui!?"
"Yui-chan!?"
Kirito and Asuna shouted at the same time.
There was no answer.
In that thick, dense, pitch-black darkness, only Kirito and Asuna remained. Kirito desperately reached out, trying to get closer to her. Asuna, fear in her eyes, reached toward him too.
Just before their fingers touched, a crushing gravity slammed down on them.
It was as if they had been dropped to the bottom of a deep, muddy swamp. Kirito braced against the pressure and fell to one knee. At the same time, Asuna collapsed as well, catching herself with both hands against the invisible floor.
Asuna looked at him. Her lips moved slightly.
"Kirito..."
It's okay. I'll protect you.
He was about to say it.
Then a thin, viscous laugh echoed through the darkness.
"Oh my. What do you think of this magic? I was planning to add it to the game in the next update, you know. The effect may be a little too strong, don't you think?"
...
"Hah... hah..."
Like someone who had nearly drowned and just broken the surface, Satoru leaned against the wall and staggered forward.
His avatar's complexion looked normal. Too normal, almost. But his eyes showed exhaustion and pain with brutal clarity.
It really was addictive.
Just like a drug.
He gave a bitter laugh, teeth grinding audibly.
"Rinko-san..."
"Don't worry. After the system crash, the server is in complete chaos. I'm searching as fast as I can," Rinko said quickly. "So you don't need to push yourself any further."
"No... I can still see more from here. Back in the real world, someone like me is useless. All I can do is wait. But here... I might still be able to see something."
Satoru spoke softly as he moved forward, step by step.
Besides, he could feel it.
Something was there.
He pressed a hand to his false chest and felt the heart beating inside.
This resonance.
Is it...
Is it really there?
Hope appeared on his face.
Even as his brain kept begging him to rest, he rejected it without mercy and continued forward at a slow pace.