4Author's Note
This chapter is almost as long as the story was before this got added. I'm kind of surprised but kind of not. Most of this chapter was still the necessary evil of novel paraphrasing, but I did make a lot of changes, so it'd be in your best interests to still read it anyway. Making Kikuoka a kiss-ass was kind of fun, for one.
Anyway, I know I said I'd wait until I got to a certain point in ALO: PtR to publish this, but then the cover got finished, so I started working on it again. And then I realized that the spoilers wouldn't just be for ALO: PtR, but also for the only unpublished fic in the series. And since I haven't started on that and don't plan to for a while, I figured all was fair and that I should publish this anyway. Otherwise it's like I'm showing a preference for ALO: PtR over the unpublished one.
That said, this chapter contains spoilers for ALO: PtR and the unpublished transition between Transcendent Bonds and ALO: PtR, as well as some minor spoilers for TB itself. So if you have an aversion to being spoiled, you may want to stop reading here. If you don't mind spoilers/the curiosity for this fic outweighs the annoyance at being spoiled, then continue reading.
See you at the bottom!
Sword Art Online: The Strongest Warrior
Chapter Two: Persuasion Tactics
"Who's this guy?" I asked with no hesitation.
Kikuoka merely smiled at my blunt question, before his face suddenly turned dead serious, a first for my time knowing him. "Let's see… it was last month, in May. You were still getting your memories from ALO back then, if I remember right."
My eyes twitched again as I wondered just how much of my life this person knew about, but I kept silent in hopes he'd get to the point. "Anyway, at an apartment complex in the Nakano Ward, the landlord was doing some cleaning and noticed a funny smell. He narrowed it down to one unit, but there was no response to the intercom or the phone. Yet the lights were on in the apartment. So he undid the electronic lock and entered the apartment to find… Tamotsu Shigemura, age twenty-six, dead."
My eyes widened a fraction at this, but he still hadn't explained enough for me to understand how this was relevant to the case he needed me for. I gulped and nodded my head slightly, and he took it as the cue to continue talking.
"They determined he was dead for five and a half days. The room was cluttered, but not ransacked, and the body was lying on the bed. Around his head was…"
"An AmuSphere," I finished, knowing full-well he wanted me to connect the dots. I myself still used my Nerve Gear, but I knew what an AmuSphere looked like from my visit to Alice's house.
My mind began to wander at that point. First I was thinking about the AmuSphere I saw at Alice's house, and the next thing I knew, my mind drifted to what happened between me and her that night… my first real-life kiss. And then, the things I said after she told me I should leave… they were some of the boldest words I ever uttered.
"That's right," he interrupted my thoughts at what seemed like a perfectly timed moment. "They contacted the family at once and had an autopsy performed. The cause of death was sudden cardiac arrest."
"Cardiac arrest, huh?" I parroted his last words as I mulled them over in my head. "And do you know why his heart stopped, by chance?"
"We have no idea, actually."
I looked at him skeptically, not saying a word in response. He still hadn't explained how this pertained to me and my oncoming investigation in the slightest, so I saw no need to be frantic just yet.
"Too much time passed after his death, and the likelihood of criminal involvement was low, so they didn't bother with a detailed autopsy," he elaborated on his previous statement a bit. "The one thing we know is that he hadn't eaten anything in about two days, and was still logged in when it happened."
I knit my eyebrows together in slight confusion. This kind of story wasn't even all that rare, so why would he bring it up to me? Eating in the virtual world caused a false sense of fullness that lasted several hours, even if the user hadn't eaten anything in the real world. The ultra-hardcore gamers found that doing this cut down on food costs and gave them more time to play, so it wasn't rare to hear about players who only ate one meal every two days. I myself usually skipped out on dinner every day due to this same factor.
Naturally, if the one meal every two days pattern continued, there would be harmful effects on the body. Malnutrition was the obvious outcome, and if you had a seizure while living alone, unable to care for yourself… the natural outcome was much like this case. It happened from time to time.
I closed my eyes in a sort of silent mourning of this Shigemura, then opened my mouth a second later. "This is a sad story, but you know…"
"I know what you're saying. It's sad, but all too common nowadays," he spoke what I had implied without any hesitation. I sadly seemed to have lost that kind of bluntness with my memories, and even after getting them back, the unforgiving honesty I used to have never did make its return. I stopped mourning my old personality's death once he started talking again.
"This kind of death isn't news anymore, and you can't get an accurate tally because families don't want people to know about them dying while playing a game," he continued speaking the merciless truth without even blinking. "In a way, this is a case of VRMMOs contributing to the death numbers…"
"But you didn't bring me here to talk about normal cases," I countered his logic with my own. "Be straight with me; give me the lowdown. What happened behind the scenes that makes this case special enough to bring up?"
"There was only one game installed on Shigemura's AmuSphere," he started by backtracking as far as he possibly could. "Sword Art Online. Have you heard of it?"
"I've heard of it, but I haven't tried playing it yet," I acknowledged, sighing into the palm of my right hand. "It's that one VRMMO based on Kayaba Akihiko's hit 2D MMO of the same name. It's also the only VRMMO in the business that lets you go pro, right?"
"The very same," he said with an unreadable tone and an emotionless visage. "Shigemura was apparently the very top player in Sword Art Online, or SAO for short. He won a tournament held to determine the very best back in April. His player name: Zexceed."
"So, was he logged into SAO when he died?" I tried to get to the heart of the situation. Kikuoka shook his head, and I knew I had failed.
"Actually, not this time. He was in character as Zexceed while appearing on the MMO Stream online channel."
"Oh… on This Week's Winners, then," I connected the dots in my head, recalling a particular incident that happened recently. "Now that you mention it, I remember one of the last times I watched it, they had to cancel because the guest dropped out partway through."
"That would have been it, then," the man across from me acknowledged before continuing the story. "He had a heart attack in the middle of the program. We know the time down to the second, thanks to the recorded log. However, as far as stuff we haven't confirmed yet, there's a very strange blog post someone put up about an event in SAO that happened at the same time."
"How is it strange?" Now we were getting somewhere.
"You know how MMO Stream plays even within the world of SAO?" he asked me as if I somehow knew anything beyond the surface of this game I've never played before.
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised," I admitted as much as I could for someone who knew nothing about the game in question. "At least, when the stream is about their world, it would make sense."
"Well, it was being streamed in a bar in the Town of Beginnings, the main settlement of floor one of SAO," he told me, confirming my suspicions before causing new ones. "And right at the time in question, they reported a player acting very strangely."
I stayed silent, waiting for him to explain the situation in full before making any rash judgments. After all, I knew that this was probably the most important part of the case – the reason it was unusual in the first place instead of just a standard malnutrition death. After a few seconds of waiting, Kikuoka continued his story.
"Seems this player fired a chakram skill at the image of Zexceed on the TV, shouting about judgment and that he should die and the like," he told me, stopping for a second to gauge my reaction. When I didn't give him anything to go on, he continued speaking. "One of the other players at the scene just happened to be in the process of a sound recording, and he uploaded it to a video site. The file had a Japan Standard Time readout on it, and according to that, the skill released at the TV at precisely… eleven thirty pm and two seconds, May ninth. In the description, he said it hit the holographic screen a second later. And Shigemura suddenly disappeared from the program at eleven thirty and fifteen seconds."
"That may seem convincing, but the two can't really be related," I told him my thoughts, pulling the cup of coffee closer. "It must be a coincidence."
I took a sip of the coffee, noting with interest that it was sweet at first, but after swallowing, the aftertaste was quite bitter. It seemed to have a flavoring similar to semi-sweetened chocolate, more on the bitter side than the sweet. I normally wouldn't mind such a flavor, but the bitter aftertaste seemed to amplify the unpleasant nature of Kikuoka's story, which was already bad enough by itself.
After I put the cup down, I continued. "The jealousy and hate the best player in SAO gets has to be at least several times worse than in any other MMO, virtual or otherwise. It would take some guts to attack him directly, but it seems almost normal to attack a TV featuring him. No negative repercussions whatsoever, he'll never even know you did it."
"I thought the same thing before I did a little digging," he told me, before his face turned scarily grim. "And I found another one."
I narrowed my eyes, trying to ascertain the truth to this statement. He didn't seem to be lying, but… "Come again? You mean another case like this one?"
"Exactly. This one happened a little less than ten days ago," he told me, and I instantly realized that this whole problem had only recently been brought to his attention. "On June eighteenth. Another body found in a two-floor apartment building, this time in Omiya Ward in Saitama. A door-to-door salesman got angry that there was no response despite the lights being on, and thought the resident was ignoring him, so he turned the knob and found that it was unlocked. Inside he saw another person on their bed, AmuSphere in place, with a decomposing smell—"
A very intentional and forced cough interrupted our conversation, and Kikuoka and I turned over to see two of the same ladies staring at us disapprovingly when I arrived, giving us glares almost more disturbing than my table-mate's story. The person across from me must have had nerves of steel (setting aside the fact that his job probably required it), though, and merely gave them a slight bow before continuing his story a little more carefully.
"Putting aside the state of the body, it was once again determined to be heart failure," he told me, clearly avoiding describing it for the sake of the other occupants of the restaurant. "This one was… well, the name doesn't matter. Male, age 30. Another influential player in SAO. His character name was something ridiculous. I think it was 'Lightly Salted Cod Roe' or something."
"There was a guy in GGO named 'North Sea Salmon Roe', so maybe they were related," I recalled the rather odd name that showed up on the frontlines shortly after the first BoB. "Since I don't remember any streams going on that week until after that date, I'm guessing this one was in-game rather than on TV?"
"Brilliant deduction. I just love how quickly you make connections!" he raised his voice in excitement as he praised me, but after what I assumed were harsh glares from the two women behind me, he cleared his throat and began talking again. "Based on the AmuSphere's log, the signal died out about three days before the body was found, at exactly ten o'clock and four seconds PM, June fifteenth. That about lines up with the estimated time of death. At the time, he was meeting with his guild in the central square of the Town of Beginnings. As he was delivering a fiery speech on the pulpit, a player invaded the meeting and hit him with a Chakram skill. You don't take damage in town, from what I understand, but when he turned to yell at the intruder, he just suddenly dropped offline. Of course, this info comes from a message board, so it's hard to get an exact picture…"
"Did the player who attacked him say anything in particular?" I asked after he trailed off. He responded with about what I expected.
"He said something about judgment and power and dropped the same name mentioned by the guy who attacked Zexceed's image on the TV."
"The first two and the same weapon choice were enough to be suspicious, but that last part makes it obvious," I explained a bit of my thought process to him. "It's gotta be the same guy. What's the name he said?"
Kikuoka looked at his tablet through his glasses with a mild squint. "Looks like it's Death Blade."
"Death Blade… huh?"
I looked into my coffee mug, the rest of my dishes ignored, and let the name roll around in my head for a while. No matter how dumb it may have been, a character's name was a huge part of the first impression one gave to others. The name Death Blade suggested the cold, unforgiving glint of a black metal sword to me.
Or maybe a dagger— no, this isn't the time.
I shook my head, trying to force out the sudden rush of memories. Of the young, smart yet naïve boy who used a handgun and black dagger, who was drawn into darkness and a path of murder by the pretty words of PoH. That kid… even if he did survive GGO, there was no way he would have started playing another VRMMO after all the trauma he went through…
"You said it was cardiac arrest that killed them both, right? I'll trust those words at face value for now," I told him after I finished shaking my head. "And I'm sure if they picked up any problems in the brain, you'd have said that, not that anything can damage it from the AmuSphere. Maybe if it were Nerve Gear, but the newer hardware is weaker."
"You ruled out the possibility already? I'm impressed by your knowledge. You've done your homework as well, I see," he praised me once again, and my eye twitched at how much of a kiss-ass he was being with me. "You're right on all accounts. There was nothing wrong with their brains other than being dead. The only thing that happened to their bodies was heart failure."
"There's something else I found out through 'doing my homework'," I pressed on, using his own words to further my point. "The AmuSphere addressed the fatal workings of the Nerve Gear, but they didn't address another capability the original hardware had. I may be the only one who knows about it because I'm the only one who confronted Sugou before he 'went insane', but the Nerve Gear and the AmuSphere can both alter the memories of the user."
"Oh? This is the first I've heard of this. I might have to get in touch with the manufacturers of the AmuSphere again. Can you explain a bit more?"
"That's the reason both of us logged out that day with an unusual case of complete and total amnesia, though his was branded as insanity due to things going on in his personal life at the time," I elaborated on the situation a little. "Because he set it up so that when I logged out, all my memories would scatter away from me. So before I killed him in the game, which forced him to log out, I did the same thing to him with my admin rights."
"What game is this, again?" he asked me, and I remembered that I still hadn't told anyone about this particular experience.
"It wasn't really a game," I explained, sighing slightly. "It was Sugou's experiment space, though I think it was also a sub-server of ALfheim Online. It was where he kept three-thousand players of GGO prisoner for an extra month, performing memory altering experiments on them."
I felt myself getting a little unstable at the sudden recollection, so I decided to change the topic. "Anyway, that's enough about that. Back to the original topic. Their brains weren't damaged, and I know from reading about the limitations of the AmuSphere that no kind of sensory input signal is allowed to be strong enough to actually have harmful effects on the body. In other words, there's no way that the attacks could actually be connected… unless…"
A crazy yet still plausible idea entered my head at the last minute. While there was no way that the attack in-game could be the cause of death, I had noticed that both instances where this happened were seconds away from a major time in the hour. The first one was at eleven thirty plus a few seconds, and the second was at ten o-clock and a few seconds. Those were very specific times… almost as if the attacker had obsessed over the timing. But why would that even matter?
"Unless what? What are you thinking?"
"I've got a wild idea, but I'm not entirely sure if it's of any worth," I told him my musings, my stare hardening a bit. "Both instances were at very specific times. He seemed to be obsessing over the timing. It doesn't make sense at first, but when you think about how he actually has no way of really causing death through an attack, it starts to be a little more clear. The only reason he'd obsess over timing so much is if he were waiting for something – no, someone else to do something before he made his move."
"So you're saying there could be another guy involved?" Kikuoka assessed, giving me a curious frown. "And that this other person is the one actually causing the death?"
"Yeah," I answered with a single word and a nod of my head. "Then the obsession with timing makes perfect sense. It would also explain why they died right after a single pointless attack, one that wouldn't have even dented their HP because of the locations."
"I see what you mean," he acknowledged, face turning a bit grim. "But then how did this duo obtain the addresses of these people? It's not like they would just automatically know where to go."
"There must be some in-game event where the players have to enter their address," I addressed his concern with a possible answer. "What about the tournament you talked about before? The one to decide the strongest player? Do the players have to enter their addresses for that?"
"I don't know for sure," the man across from me said while putting a hand to his temple. "But I do know that the winner of the tournament actually gets a very large cash prize and a share of everyone else's subscription fee until the next tournament is over. If the money is sent via house mail, then it is plausible that they would make all participants enter their addresses."
It was at that point that I suddenly remembered what he supposedly wanted from me. He wanted me to do 'hands on research'. After what we had been discussing, this only brought one conclusion into plainly obvious view.
"Sorry for the change of subject," I prefaced my coming words with this as a means of explanation. "But am I right in assuming that you want me to actually play SAO and get him to come after me?"
"Well, when you put it like that, I sound heartless."
"If all you want is to get him to attack someone, why don't you go get hit by his chakram?" I couldn't help but ask.
He frowned even more than before, shaking his head. "I'd solve this myself if I could, but you've already ruled out and come up with more possibilities in thirty minutes than anyone officially on this case has in over a week. And not to mention, it seems that this Death Blade person has an extremely rigid process of choosing his targets."
"And that process is?" I queried with an icy tone and even more glacial stare.
"Death Blade's two targets in the game, Zexceed and fish guy, were both well-known for their skills," he told me, holding his hands up in a defense mechanism. "So it looks like he won't attack you unless you're one of the best. I could spend years and never get to that point. However, in Gun Gale Online, you were not only the best from what Sinon-chan says, but you were also famous for being able to use a sword effectively in a world of gun-based combat."
"SAO has got to be harder than GGO," I countered his statement about my skills with a comparison. "I mean, there are tone of pros playing it."
"You mentioned 'going pro' earlier, too. What exactly does that mean?"
"It means what it says," I started. I knew that by explaining this, I was beginning to fall into his trap, but my desire to clarify things was stronger than my desire to bail. "People can earn a living playing the game. Of all the VRMMOs out there, Sword Art Online is the only one with a coin conversion system."
"Oh?"
Even government agent Kikuoka was not completely knowledgeable about all the gaming lingo out there, it seemed. I could tell he was legitimately confused this time, rather than pretending to be to get me to reveal more.
"Basically, the cash in the game can be withdrawn as real money," I continued to elaborate. "It's an electronic currency, not actual yen, but it might as well be, all things considered."
"How do they make a profit like that?"
"Because not everyone is making money off it. It's kind of like slots or betting with poker," I told him, watching as his eyes gained a small light of understanding. "The monthly fee is three-thousand yen, which is high for a VRMMO. The amount the average player will earn is maybe ten percent of that, so a few hundred yen. But there's a high similarity to gambling in the game's system – every once in a while, someone gets a rare drop that's worth a ton of money. They sell that in the auction house and convert the earnings to electronic money, and it can fetch them tens to even hundreds of thousands of yen. Anyone who hears that is gonna think 'that could be me.' See what I'm saying?"
"Yeah, that makes sense…"
"The pros in SAO are the ones who earn a constant amount every month," I went back to my earlier point. "The best players earn around two to three hundred thousand a month, which isn't much in real life – but it's still enough for a frugal lifestyle. So basically, these few top players are able to earn a complete living from the membership fees of the rest of the player base. That's what I meant when I said the best players get more jealousy and hate than in other games. They're like government employees scarfing down expensive desserts on the taxpayers' hard-earned money."
"Wow, you really have a way with words, don't you? But I find such unforgivingly blunt honesty fascinating. It makes you an interesting person."
I ignored him and started to tie in my previous explanations with my reason for saying them. "Because of that, the high-level players in SAO put way more time and enthusiasm into the game than those in other MMOs. If I waltz in there without any knowledge of the game, I'm not going to get anywhere. Besides, my character in GGO was a hybrid between handgun and sword – I used both, not just one. You'll need to—"
"Before you refuse, answer one question for me," he requested, his face getting a little desperate. I nodded, and he continued. "Sinon told me you were fast enough with a sword to block bullets with a ninety-five percent success rate. Do you honestly think that anyone in this game centered around swords could attack you faster than those bullets moved in GGO?"
Well, shit. He has a good point. Even if the Sword Skills from the 2D version are in the game, they'd be in slow motion compared to what I've blocked before.
"If you still think it'd be too much to take on the pros, then I can turn it into a job for you as well," he chimed in, stopping my thoughts cold. When I looked up to him with a blank expression, he smirked. "I can pay you a stipend for research assistance monthly for as long as you're on the case. Let's say… the same amount one of those SAO pros makes in a month. This much."
He held up three fingers, and I could feel my salivary glands start working overtime at the implied hundred thousand behind them. The first check would be enough to restart my business of making custom computers and selling them, with change to spare. But as tantalizing as the offer was, it also raised more questions.
"Something's not right here, Kikuoka," I decided I had to get an explanation before making a decision. "Why are you to fixated on this case? The chance that it's just an urban legend made to explain two people going offline permanently is over ninety percent. And on the off chance that this is legit criminal activity, you're so desperate to catch him that you're sending a high schooler who just recovered from total amnesia to try to do it for you."
Kikuoka straightened his glasses with pale, slender fingers, hiding his expression from direct view. It was clear he was considering how much of the truth to reveal, and how much to keep hidden. He was even more shrewd than I initially thought.
"Well, I wouldn't send a high schooler unless they were the best for the job, just for the record," he finally said after several seconds of silence. "But you're right, I am unusually fixated on what could just be rumors. The truth is that the bosses are worried about it. The real-world influences of full-dive technology are under more scrutiny from a variety of fields than anything else. The social and cultural impact is undeniable, but the biological impact is a subject of hot debate. They want to know how the human condition is changed by the virtual world."
He sighed before continuing to talk, this time a bit less emotionlessly. "If it's determined that there is proper danger, it's possible that a move to regulate will be in the works again. Actually, there was almost proposed legislation on the incident right after the GGO incident. But the entire virtual division, including myself, feel that it would be wrong to hold back the tide now – for the sake of your generation, the ones enjoying these VRMMOs. I want to find out the truth behind this odd series of events before it gets used for political purposes by those who want to crack down on the technology. If it turns out to be just an urban legend, then that's the best outcome, but I don't know for sure. I want you to help me figure it out beyond a shadow of a doubt. That sound okay?"
"I suppose I'd be a bit more willing if you explained why you haven't just gone through the company that created SAO's VR version," I said after a moment's hesitation. "Because I'm assuming that something is preventing you from doing that to find out this attacker's identity, based on how you've resorted to this kind of method instead."
"Another brilliant deduction," he praised me again before his smile turned bitter. "The developer of SAO is a company called Zaskar – actually, I don't even know if they're a real company. Either way, the servers are based in America. They've got excellent customer support in-game, but their actual office location, phone number and email address are all private. I swear, ever since the creators of ALO had that giveaway of The Seed, these VR worlds pop up like bamboo shoots."
"Is that so?"
I looked disappointed outwardly, but I actually knew a lot more than I let on. In my last moments in Sugou's experiment space, I had actually put The Seed, which Kayaba had given to me minutes prior, in a location where the company managing ALfheim could easily find it. When ALO got bought out after Sugou woke up, the new company must have found it, because the engine they gave away a thousand copies of and started to sell had the same name and was the same exact thing, as far as I could tell.
"So basically, if we want to get down to the truth of the matter, we have to make contact in-game," he said exactly what I had been expecting to hear. "Of course, we'll take every precaution we can in the name of safety. You'll dive from a room we've prepared for you, with a full-time monitor that will automatically disconnect the AmuSphere if its output does anything funny. I'm not asking you to get him to attack you; I just want you to react based on what you see and how you feel. So… are you in?"
I realized at that moment that I had no way of denying him anymore. The noose had found its way completely around my neck.
Even though I knew I'd regret my next decision, I also couldn't deny that my interest had been piqued. The power to affect the real world from the virtual world… if such a thing existed, could that have been the thing that Kayaba Akihiko sought when he created GGO? Was the incident that began on a cold winter day two and a half years before still happening even now?
If that was truly the case, then maybe it was my responsibility at GGO's clearer to see this unfold.
I shut my eyes, gave a great sigh, and spoke. "All right. I don't like being forced into it, but I'll do it. And just to let you know, I'll be using my Nerve Gear. But I can't promise I'll be able to find this Death Blade guy. We don't even know if he really exists."
"Ah, all right, Nerve Gear it is. And about whether he exists," Kikuoka started with an innocent smile that did nothing to betray his true intention. "Didn't I tell you already? One of the players present at the first attack got an audio log of the room. He brought a compressed version of it to us. It's Death Blade's voice. Have a listen."
He extended a wireless earbud to me, and I immediately inspected it for earwax, thankfully finding none. I hope your heart stops next, I thought as my suspicious gaze turned to him.
However, instead of voicing my thoughts, I said, "How considerate of you. Thanks, I guess."
I stuck the bud in my left ear and watched Kikuoka tap at the screen. A low buzz of excitement sounded from the earpiece. Suddenly, the murmuring stopped, and a piercing statement cut through the tense silence.
"This is the true power, the true strength! Carve this name and the terror it commands into your hearts, you fools! My name, and the name of my weapons, is… Death Blade!"
The voice was strangely metallic and inhuman, as if it went through a distortion. And yet I vividly felt the flesh-and-blood human presence within that shout. Rather than the voice of someone role-playing, this voice channeled a true impulse to slaughter, more intense than I'd felt in years.
Author's Note
So yeah, this almost doubles the story length. How about that? This is the kind of length I was expecting for this story's chapters, to be honest. Expect them to be as long as this most of the time, rather than the piddly-assed starting chapter lengths.
Anyway, what do you think of the changes that have been made? Canon Kirito is supposedly very smart, but you never really see him show his intelligence. He seems more or less average until he's in front of a computer. Since my Kiriko is a hands down genius, and in most areas she's not afraid to show it, I had her reactions and deductions be a little more reflective of that.
Anyway, I dunno when the next chapter will come yet. Because of the multitude of differences from canon, this story is in a lot of ways incompatible with the Phantom Bullet novel. Which means for a lot of things, I can't use the novel as a base. For example, Asuna isn't even a part of the story anymore at this point, so what happens next in the original novels can't be used by this story at all, even a little bit. Which of course means that I'm going to be writing the next chapter freestyle. I've already got an idea on where it's going to go, so at least I'm not stuck or something.
Anyway, I'm about done here. I'll see you next chapter, I guess.
