|INTERFACE INSTALLATION|

It started, for Kirigaya Kazuto, like so many things had recently, when he received an email from Kikuoka Seijirou. It asked him to come to the usual table, at the usual restaurant, at a certain date and time. What was different was that Asuna received the same request. Seijirou generally respected his request to keep the young woman out of their business. She worried, she did not need the money, her parents could make things problematic for both of them; the young man had a laundry list of reasonable excuses. Though he suspected the government agent agreed mainly because it was easier than arguing.

The young couple decided to meet up first and travel to the cafe together.

"What do you think it is?"Asuna asked her boyfriend softly, not wanting the taxi driver to hear them.

"I don't know," he replied, "Since he asked for both of us, maybe something to do with one of the Sleeping Knights? Or RECT Inc?"

She knew about his deal with the Virtual Division, to keep her out of the loop, and was torn. She liked that he wanted to protect her, but was frequently annoyed that that meant she was left in the dark and unable to help him. At the same time, given she still sometimes clashed with her mother, she could not argue too much.

The deal was obviously reflected in his suggestions, that she would not have been called if their was not already a link. She felt her ire growing, but forced it back down at the worry on his face.

"I haven't heard anything from Siune-san or my parents," she answered, and then could not resist the urge to rub it in, "But since I would have been left out of the loop otherwise, you could be right."

He looked mildly chagrined, but as the cab rounded a corner and the restaurant came into view, they settled into a thoughtful silence, both thinking that they would find out soon enough.

Inside, they started towards the regular table, but paused when they saw an unfamiliar couple sitting there. Kazuto and Asuna started looking around for Kikuoka, but they did not see the agent. Instead the man at their table caught their attention and waved them over.

They were a few years older than the teens, appearing to be in their late twenties. As they stood to meet the younger duo, they were both the same height, splitting the difference between Kirito's and Asuna's heights. The woman had short hair, a few shades darker than Asuna's chestnut locks. She was slimmer, too; if Asuna had the build of a swimsuit model, than the other woman looked like a professional athlete. She was cute, with a button nose, soft grey eyes, and thin lips, but Kazuto didn't think she was quite as beautiful as his girl. The man had black hair, longer than Kazuto's or the woman's, and a softer build than Kirigaya. He looked like an officer worker who kept in shape, compared to the sharper lines of the practicing swordsman.

"Kirigaya-san, Yuki-san, thank you for coming," the man said stiffly and gestured for them to sit. As they sat down again, Asuna noticed the casual ease with which their hands touched, and that each was wearing a wedding band.

"Of course," Kazuto answered with typical Japanese politeness, while Asuna inclined her head. There was a moment of pause, as if each side was waiting for the other. Then the man spoke.

"Tell me, what do you know about Elder Tale," he requested.

"Elder Tale, the oldest active MMORPG," Kazuto relaxed, falling into his element, "It has been online for almost twenty years, and has had twelve expansions. Used the Half GAIA project to create a half scale version of this world for its map."

"Wait, twenty years," Asuna frowned, "That would mean..."

"Elder Tale also has the distinction of being the only online game to survive Pluto's Kiss," the other woman confirmed. Asuna still looked uncertain, so Kazuto continued.

"Elder Tale was a multiple platform game, on the old Windows, Apple, and Unix and even the Xbox 360 game system," Kirito said, and the other man gave him an approving look, "But at the time they were working on versions for the PS3 release, Wii Release, and even ALTIMIT OS. That is how it survived, Atharva Inc. had already converted half of their servers to ALTIMIT. They were able to get the Wii and PS3 versions out, and offered existing customers a free copy."

"But I thought The World was the first MMO after Pluto's Kiss," Asuna protested.

"It was, from a certain point of view," the man explained, "It was the first new MMO, and it was the first one for PCs. Atharva focused on the PS3 and Wii versions, so the ALTIMIT version didn't come out until after The World. And The World garnered more attention, due to its use of the FMD."

"But Elder Tale did fine," Kazuto added, "Plenty of people could not afford an FMD. And then there was the comas not long after The World was released."

Both of the adults flinched, which both of the teens noticed.

"And Elder Tale is still around, while The World shut down, so they must have done something right," the younger man said, watching them closely.

"Did you ever play either game, Kazuto?" Asuna asked innocently, knowing him well enough to see what he was doing.

"I never played Elder Tales," he admitted, "I was more interested in newer tech. Using a monitor and keyboard just didn't appeal to me. I did play The World R2 briefly before it shut down. I wasn't terribly impressed with the FMD. And that was right around the time they announced the NerveGear and... well..."

"Why did The World shut down?" the younger woman prompted her lover.

"With every new release, a few people fell into comas," Kazuto shook his head in dismay, "And people began to be to afraid to upgrade. Of course, that's if you don't believe the urban legends."

Their hosts frowned at that.

"Urban legends?"

Kazuto could hear the false innocence in Asuna's voice, but was not sure if the adults did. Either way, he repressed his grin and nodded sagely. He was beginning to suspect that the other couple worked for CC Corp.

"Supposedly the people who went into comas were trapped in the game by the monsters, and defeating the monsters let them wake up," he explained, not sure if Asuna was aware or not. She liked to play games now, but had not before SAO, and didn't follow their history like Kazuto did.

"Which is nonsense. Sure, the FMD might have caused seizures and comas in certain people. But they weren't like the FullDive headsets we have now. And they didn't even leave the players connected to the game, so how could anything in the game effect them?"

The man was obviously annoyed by his flippancy and dismissal. But the woman looked downright angry. The teen wondered if he might have pushed them too hard.

"Who did you say you were again?" Asuna asked.

"We didn't," the woman was almost growling.

"My name is Saitou Ryusei," the man answered, "And this is my wife, Saitou Akira."

The names sounded familiar to Kirito, and as he thought about their conversation, it came to him.

"Saitou-san," he addressed the woman nervously, "Your maiden name wouldn't happen to be Hayami, would it?"

She nodded smugly.

"Holy..." Kazuto barely cut himself off, "You're the dot Hackers."

"Kirito," Asuna prompted, falling back to his online name in her surprise.

"Is it true?" the young man asked.

"Yes," Ryusei answered, "All of it."

Kazuto's mind raced, and he realized the legends might be an exaggeration, not unlike some of the stories growing out of his own experiences. He had heard about using colors and images to treat some conditions. If the game's displays put people into a coma, maybe defeating certain monsters had released some sort of counter code. Show it to the people in the comas and they wake up.

"The dot Hackers were a group of gamers who saved the players put into comas by The World," Kirigaya explained in awe, "led by Kite and BlackRose, they defied CC Corp to rescue everyone."

"That sounds like us," Asuna said, understanding filling her voice.

"So, what is this about Elder Tale," Kazuto asked, his expression darkening, now that the connection was made. He remembered their initial question and came to one obvious conclusion. Now he just needed confirmation.

"Two months ago the new expansion was released," Akira said, her expression matching his, "Within one hour, 707,814 players worldwide had logged in. And at the one hour mark, 191,288 vanished."

"Vanished," Kazuto could not believe what he was hearing. Ryusei took out his smart phone, and showed them a video clip. It showed a young woman facing her computer. In the background, they could see a mirror showing a game on the monitor. Then the screen flashed bright enough that the camera was burned out for few frames. And when it came back, she was gone.

"The video hasn't been edited," Akira told them, "And we have over a hundred of them."

"At the same time, Atharva lost control of a third of their servers," her husband continued, "And that's the physical servers, each of the 13 servers that make of the Elder Tale is actually a bank of twenty-four physical devices, of which eight on each server are now operating outside of Atharva's control. And everyone who logs in goes on to the servers that are still under the company's control."

"You can't mean..." Asuna sounded incredulous.

"We don't know," Akira seemed to agree with the younger woman, "People's minds getting trapped in a game through a headset is one thing. Literally getting sucked into their monitors is..."

"Either way, that many players disappearing at the same as the company loses control of the servers can't be a coincidence," Kazuto mused.

"How have we not heard about this?" Asuna asked, "It's twenty times as many people were trapped in SAO."

"But with SAO, your bodies were left behind, and Kayaba announced what was happening to the media. Nothing like that has happened here."

"So what are you going to do?" Asuna asked.

"We are friends with some of the best white hats and grey hats in the world," Akira said, "They haven't been able to take control of the servers, but they have been able to find a way for us to log in to those servers instead of getting directed to the normal ones."

"And you want us to go with you," Kirito said, a hint of sharpness in his voice.

"No," Ryusei hissed angrily, "We want both of you to go back to your school. We want you to graduate and complete your VR probe so people in a MediCuboid and AIs can interact with the rest of the world..."

Both teens started; other than a handful of friends, Yui's existence was supposed to be a secret.

"… and you to take over your parents' company so you can help him."

Kite forced himself to sigh, noticing some of the people around them were looking.

"But the government doesn't trust us. They trust you. Or more likely, they think they can control you better. So they made us come here to ask."

"But you don't want us to help."

"No. You are both still children. And you have been through more than us, without being given a choice."

"Doesn't that make us more qualified?"

"Since you haven't even played Elder Tale, and we don't know what we will find when we log in; no, it doesn't."

Asuna and Akira shared a look. The look that only women can share when their significant others are being stupid.

"Would you be willing to help us?" Akira asked, "Even though we have no idea what we will find, and what the risk will be? We could literally end up in another world with no way home."

"You two are going to do it, aren't you?" Asuna asked softly.

"Yeah, but the thing is," Akira offered sadly, "we have friends who were playing Elder Tale and vanished. And the two of us never have been able to turn down a friend in need."

"This happens to your friends a lot?" the younger woman was confused again, "And they ask you to rescue them?"

"They never ask," Ryusei returned his attention back to the girls with a melancholy sigh, "more like screaming at us to save ourselves."

Asuna glared at Kazuto in affectionate annoyance at that. And Akira had her own glare for her husband.

"We can't let them help," Kite insisted.

"We had to ask them," she reminded him, "Now, if we don't let them help, all they have to do is go to Virtual Division. At best, they'll be helping us anyway. At worst, VD will try to stop us, and send them in anyway."

"But they..."

"Are two years older than we were during the Cursed Wave," Akira interrupted, already knowing what he meant to say, "And both are expert swordsmen."

"They haven't actually agreed yet," Ryusei's protest was weak, "They are just arguing because we said they can't."

Both of the teens just smirked. And Ryusei just sighed in defeat.

'Fine," he took out a business card and handed it to Kazuto, "If you insist, then meet us here tomorrow at 9 am."