The shadow behind another VRMMO had been reported and dragged into the open once again.
At RECT Progress's Yokohama branch, the servers used to conduct inhuman experiments on the three hundred SAO players who had still not returned were exposed. Asuna Yuuki's father, Shouzou Yuuki, had trusted Nobuyuki Sugou--the man he had even considered as a future son-in-law. Sugou was the mastermind.
His subordinates and key witnesses confessed everything. There was no way out for Sugou, but he did not hire a lawyer to defend him either.
He could not.
A vegetative state.
That was his condition. When the police went to Sugou's home late at night to take him into custody, they found him lying unconscious in bed.
In the end, his trial would have to wait. The accused might never wake up again.
What he had done was an evil line of research that used FullDive technology for brainwashing. The results made it clear that the experiment could not be reproduced with any device except the first-generation NerveGear. Because of that, all NerveGears were forcibly discarded, and devices with countermeasures were now apparently being developed based on Sugou's experimental data.
Fortunately, the three hundred players who had not returned had no memory of the human experiments. Their brains had been harmed, but none of them showed mental abnormalities. All of them were receiving comprehensive treatment, and returning to society was not impossible.
But RECT Progress, ALO, and to some extent every VRMMO game took a fatal blow. After the SAO Incident, the ALO Incident followed immediately. The possibility of crimes committed through VRMMOs had become high enough for people to doubt them and fear them. In the end, RECT Progress was dissolved. Its parent company also took a heavy hit, barely surviving the crisis by replacing personnel.
ALO naturally suspended operations as well. The remaining VRMMOs saw their users drop sharply, their revenue shrink to almost nothing, and social criticism pile on top of them. They could not escape suspension either.
The Seed, the interface program developed by Kayaba, was a compacted version of the system that organized and automatically operated the SAO servers. It not only kept the parts needed to run on small-scale servers, but also included a game-development support package for use on more advanced servers.
In other words, it was something like a VRMMO editor.
Developing the sensory input-output runtime itself was extremely difficult. Every VR game in the world used the system that Argus, Kayaba's former company, had developed. The licensing fees alone had been enormous. After Argus collapsed because of the SAO Incident, those program rights were transferred to RECT Progress. Now that RECT had dissolved as well, a new successor was needed. But the price was huge, public outrage had not died down, and no one dared to take it over.
That was when The Seed showed its full value.
And that seed was transferred once again.
Satoru handed it to Hidemura Kurosaki.
"Payment for that pile of equipment," he said.
"Do you understand what this is worth...?" Hidemura sat upright in his chair, staring at Satoru, who looked as if he did not care at all.
"It seems to be worth a lot of money. Then using it as payment should be fine, shouldn't it?" Satoru answered calmly.
Hidemura rubbed his hands together.
"Now that ALO's hidden risks have been exposed, public opinion has given fixed-platform machines their old ground back. Thanks to your warning, I got the first move. The accuracy of the information alone was already enough." The man spoke lightly. "But... the age keeps moving forward. One day, no matter what, VR will be the trend."
"What do you mean...?"
"I will pay you the standard price for this program. In effect, I will buy it from you," Hidemura said.
Satoru smiled and shook his head.
"No need. But if you are willing, I would rather ask for a different bargaining chip."
"What is it?"
"I will give you The Seed, and I don't want any money for it. I have only one request. Don't monopolize the technology. Or rather, I want you to sell it to other people. At least let it take root and bear fruit. You won't control the resources alone, but you will have the first-mover advantage, and you will basically be collecting money from others for free. That should still be a major profit. How does that sound?"
The man, who had spent so many years dealing in profit, seemed unfamiliar with that kind of bargain.
"You aren't afraid I'll break the agreement? This is only verbal, isn't it?"
"You are Argo's father. No, Saki's father. And you helped me. It may have been a small favor to you, but it was a great help to me. It brought me one step closer to what I wanted... even if the result was not ideal. In truth, these things never meant much to me in the first place, so I don't mind. This request is only a passing thought." Satoru spoke quietly.
Hidemura studied him as if seeing him for the first time.
"I accept."
"Thank you."
"Suzuki-kun, one more thing." Hidemura smiled. "You don't have to use honorific speech with me anymore."
"But..."
"Don't be so stiff. Come on, let's go to the living room and eat. Saki must be getting impatient by now."
...
Agil's shop had an unadorned black door, the kind he himself called unpopular. Today, a simple wooden sign hung on it, the crooked letters reading: CLOSED FOR THE DAY.
Inside, though, it was lively.
Cheers, applause, and whistles rose one after another. The shop was usually sparse with customers, but on the day it had put up a closed sign, a good number of people had gathered. The speakers were playing heavy bass at high volume. Anyone unfamiliar with the song would probably think it was a light, stirring piece suited to a fantasy world.
But anyone who had heard it before, anyone who had been to that world, would be overcome with feeling.
The theme of the Town of Beginnings, First Floor, Aincrad.
The cups in everyone's hands reflected the light. The mood in the room had been burning hot for a while already.
"SAO cleared!!"
Everyone raised their glasses and shouted with all their strength.
A celebration for clearing Sword Art Online. That was the event started by a few people who liked making a fuss. In Satoru's mind, at most it would be some people he knew. After all, the organizers were Agil and Klein, and those two did not exactly seem like they had a vast circle of friends. But the number of people who came was several times what he had expected.
"Boss, whiskey."
"Oh, oh! One for me too!"
After those indulgent lines, the huge man in a white shirt and black bow tie stared at the two of them for a few seconds. Then he slid two glasses of whiskey with amber liquid and ice in front of Satoru and Klein with a rather artistic flourish.
"Don't you still have work at your company after this?" Satoru lightly clinked glasses with him.
Klein gave a grin and spun on his chair, looking with a typically lecherous expression toward a certain corner of the shop. A group of women sat around a table there, laughing brightly.
"Compared to overtime, drinking is obviously way better. And how could I not come here...? Yuyu, that's pretty cold of you!"
Satoru smiled faintly. The two drank down the sharp liquor together, feeling the burn of alcohol slide into their stomachs.
Since he had nothing better to do, he followed Klein's gaze. Some of the people there he knew, and some he did not. Asuna, Silica, and Leafa--Kirito's younger sister--were people he had met. The ones he did not know were apparently close friends of theirs as well. On that front, Mr. Sword Saint had lost badly.
After one glance, he shook his head, turned back around, and continued drinking by himself.
Near them, Kirito was talking with a man in a suit, someone completely different from Klein, giving off the air of a businessman.
He was from the Liberation Army: Thinker. Speaking of that, several former members of the Divine Dragon Alliance--Diavel, Kibaou, and Lind--were apparently too far away to make it for now. They had all said with some regret that they would definitely come next time, and they had already sent recorded videos to take part in their place.
"Congratulations, really..."
Kirito was speaking with Thinker.
"Still, getting used to the real world again takes effort. Work is finally getting back on track too."
"Tch. What are you even saying, coming from a guy who found a partner inside that death game?" Klein delivered the bitter cry of a defeated man.
"Haha..." Thinker scratched his head shyly.
"Still, I was pretty interested in that game-information magazine you made," Klein said, patting Satoru on the shoulder. "It was seriously useful. Right up there with that Rat's strategy guide. Even this famous lone Sword Saint used your paper as a reference."
"I'm glad it could help everyone." Thinker nodded firmly.
"But putting out a VRMMO-themed magazine right now doesn't sound very easy." Satoru ignored Klein's comment and spoke a little more seriously.
"True, considering everything that's happened," Agil added from the side.
"It is. But still... for me, I guess I still have other feelings toward that world. I don't know why, but I want to do it. At the very least, ALO hasn't truly ended."
Satoru nodded as well.
In the ALO that should have died, several players who worked in venture capital had pooled their money to establish a new company. They bought all of the disaster-struck ALO data from RECT for an almost free price. And so, the world of the Fairy Dance was reborn.
The old SAO servers had already been initialized and scrapped. But among the Argus development materials transferred for the new ALO operation, there was something unexpected.
That man's afterimage was still there. It would be too pitiful if it had nowhere to go.
Satoru looked at the ice swaying in the liquor inside his glass and smiled.
So everything is being reborn... is that it?
"Hey, hey! Yuyu, what do you say? Join Fuurinkazan. This time we're charging all the way to the hundredth floor!" Klein grabbed Satoru's arm, looking exactly like a newbie begging to be carried.
"We'll see..." Satoru answered vaguely.
"You don't... not want to go back to that world anymore, do you?" Kirito said cautiously from the side.
"I don't know," Satoru said.
It was a reborn world where she was no longer there.
Yurnero did not need to make any more decisions either.
Was there any reason to go back?
"I'm grateful to you. Asuna is too." Kirito pressed his lips together and scratched his head, as if trying to find the right words. In the end, he turned straight to Agil and said, "Give me a beer!"
"Whoa! That's manly! Nice! This is exactly when you clink glasses!" Klein clapped.
"He isn't even old enough to drink legally..."
"Then we just don't say anything, right?" Agil raised an eyebrow too.
"..."
"Encouraging a minor to drink is a crime, you know." A lovely female voice suddenly sounded from behind the group of men who had started pouring drinks with their heads down.
"Ah, Asuna...!" Kirito jumped.
"Wow, this oolong tea sure has a lot of bubbles!" Klein offered a feeble cover.
Behind them, Asuna folded her arms and sighed helplessly. A moment later, though, her delicate face shifted into a playful smile.
"Pour me a glass too!"
"..." said everyone.
"Well, I want to thank Yurnero too."
"I just thought Asuna could put more heart into it than a guy like Kirito, who's terrible with words," Agil said, caught between laughter and exasperation.
Satoru looked a little helpless too. Smiling, he raised his glass of whiskey and clinked glasses with everyone.
"Um, well..." Just then, another small, timid voice spoke up. Everyone looked down a little and saw Silica, who had come over with Asuna. The girl fidgeted with her fingers, hesitating. "I... I want to..."
"Not you," Satoru said first. "You're definitely sticking with juice."
"Eh? Oh... if Yurnero-san says so." The young girl looked a little downcast.
"Come on. The juice here is surprisingly good." Satoru softened his tone. Like he was looking after his own little sister, he poured a glass of orange juice, handed it to Silica, smiled, and ruffled her hair. "Here. We can still clink glasses. Same thing."
Silica's face turned faintly red, and she quietly murmured, "Mm."
Beside him, Klein gave Satoru a look that lasted a microsecond and somehow carried pure contempt.
"You... you really are full of surprises, aren't you?"
"What? Want to settle this with rock-paper-scissors?" Satoru looked up.
"Hey! The Red Comet of Fuurinkazan has presence too! Come on, let's do it!" Klein rolled up his sleeves.
Five minutes later.
A disheveled man collapsed onto the bar counter.
"You... you're weirdly good at rock-paper-scissors." Agil stared wide-eyed at Satoru, who had barely lost a single round.
I can't exactly tell him that the moment he moves, I can see through what he's going to throw, Satoru thought with a wry smile, tapping his forehead.
Sure enough, that thing... could no longer be turned off.
"Ah, sorry. I'm going outside to take a call." Satoru felt his phone vibrate.
"One... more! I... I refuse to accept this! Today... you're not getting away!" Klein reached out a trembling hand.
"Stop playing. You're still thirteen punches behind him," Agil said gravely.
"No, I won't back down!" Klein stiffened his neck.
...
"Hello?" Satoru stepped out of the cafe, closed the door, and leaned against the wall to answer the call.
"Suzuki-kun. Bad time?" came the voice of that staff member who always wore a faint smile, his tone sounding rather like a product salesman.
Seijirou Kikuoka, from the General Affairs Department.
"I was just getting into it. Shame your timing had to be this bad." Satoru spoke indifferently, pulling out a cigarette and putting it between his lips.
"I really am sorry. Things aren't nearly so carefree on my end. I hope you'll understand. And when it comes down to it, this is your fault too, Suzuki-kun. The ALO incident has been giving me quite the headache."
"What are you talking about? Isn't serving the public your job?"
"You're right..."
On the other end of the line, Kikuoka answered with exaggerated respect, then paused for a moment.
"Still, you really did handle it quickly, Suzuki-kun."
"What?"
"Aren't you just pretending not to know?" Kikuoka's tone changed slightly. "You took the initiative to contact Rinko Koujiro, joined forces with Kurosaki Enterprises, and used every resource you could reach to break through ALO. Rinko Koujiro used Kayaba as bait. Kurosaki Enterprises used the market as bait. And you turned all of it into one clean operation."
"What are you trying to say?" Satoru exhaled a thin stream of smoke.
"It was impressive. Your ability to act is astonishing."
"That doesn't sound worth interrupting your busy schedule just to praise me."
"Sigh... I can't even have a proper conversation with you. Fine, then I'll give you my news too. Rinko Koujiro has already left Japan to study at a university in the United States."
"I see..."
"Yes. So you won't be able to go looking for her from now on."
Satoru frowned.
"As I thought, you have an agreement with Rinko-san. And not just a simple partnership. Given your position, I'm afraid you probably knew where Kayaba was even before all this..."
"That's enough, Satoru." The tone on the other end suddenly changed. "Sometimes... being too sharp isn't a good thing."
"Don't hurt her."
"Who?"
"Rinko-san," Satoru said. "She has nothing to do with this anymore."
"...I don't intend to. If anything, I'd rather she stay in the United States for the rest of her life."
Satoru paused for a moment.
"I don't want anything more to do with you."
"That may not be entirely up to you, Mr. Suzuki," Kikuoka said with a laugh.
Satoru snorted and was about to hang up.
"By the way, Mr. Suzuki."
"What now?" he asked impatiently.
"Do you think good people are rewarded?"
Satoru closed his eyes and took a long drag of nicotine. A few seconds later, he spoke softly.
"Then do you think bad people always get what they deserve?"
He hung up, turned to push the door open and go back inside, then stopped.
What a racket.
I wish you were here too.
He lowered his head slightly, ran his fingers through his hair, and looked at the white strands in his palm with a bitter expression.
...
Kikuoka listened to the busy tone and reluctantly hung up.
Do bad people always get what they deserve?
He murmured the words to himself.
With his arms folded, he looked at the enormous facility in front of him. The room was filled with white. Through his glasses, he gazed at the girl lying on the white hospital bed inside the glass-walled room. She lay there quietly and peacefully.
Yuuki Konno.
He glanced at the nameplate beside the door.
Kikuoka pushed up his glasses. The frames hid his eyes.
"These are all... unavoidable choices, Suzuki-kun. If only you could truly stop here."