Released as a Blu-ray Release Bonus for the Sword Art Online -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night movie. Memorable Song follows Mito/Misumi Tozawa from the moment she parts with Asuna on Floor 1 in the middle of the Aria movie, and fills in the gap between then and the end of the Aria movie, at the Floor 1 Boss Battle.
RAWs provided by Kizuru.
Translated by Davigron.
Edited by Cirtoyt.
Translated by Davigron.
Edited by Cirtoyt.
1.
―――It should be fun, since you’re so good at videogames, Misumi-chan.
―――I-It’s just that it’s always only one person who survives…
―――Just leave us alone!
It had been six years since Misumi Tozawa heard those words from her two close friends.
However, to this day those memories remained so vivid, that every time she remembers them, she is assaulted by a piercing-like pain within her chest. ‘If only I could rewind time and restart my life from there…’, she had lost count of how many times she had made that wish.
Although, most likely, there was no point of going back in time. Even before, Misumi had always been a self-centred, haughty, arrogant, egoistic person.
At that time, she used to play a handheld hunting action RPG with her friends. One that consisted of a world filled with monsters where you had to cooperate with your friends to defeat them while gathering materials to craft weapons and armour. Misumi was an attacker with a long sword, but she always tried to support her friends as much as she could. However, there was a limit to what she could do, and even if she thought it was better to remain as the only survivor instead of completely losing the game… her friends did not.
In her innocence, she believed that they were enjoying the game, so it was such a shock upon hearing that they didn’t want to be friends with her anymore that in that moment she couldn’t stomach it. She dizzily returned home and even caught a fever that confined her in bed for some time.
Since then, Misumi had never touched anything with “Co-op” in its title. Though unable to abandon playing games all together, she started to play mainly serious one-vs-one fighting games and MMORPGs with a strong focus on PvP on the internet, in an attempt to relieve her gaming crave, where Mito ended up striking down many others.
And it was the same that day.
Around the time Misumi was in 8th grade (or middle school 2nd grade) at Aeterna Girls’ Academy, she was participating in a one-vs-one fighting game tournament at her favourite game centre inside a mall. It wasn’t the usual format, but one with a last-man-standing consecutive win derby format. And Misumi, who was in a better mood than usual, not only was winning the tournament, but also remembers that she was one win away from beating the tournament record. However, her excitement vanished when she glimpsed outside the mall for just a brief second, when she recognized on the sidewalk a student from her grade within the crowd.
Despite Misumi being aware that the tournament was actively streamed from a monitor outside the mall, the last time it did so, it only displayed the game screen. She had no idea that this time there were new cameras installed that were also recording the players’ faces. The student was looking up with a surprised expression towards the monitor. Then she looked inside the mall through the automatic doors, and in that moment, she perfectly crossed glances with Misumi.
She totally wouldn’t care if they had encountered each other inside a bookstore, or a clothing store. The problem was that Aeterna had a strict rule that forbade approaching game centres and such similar places.
In that moment, Misumi decided to renounce her chance at breaking the tournament record, dashed out the mall, and blocked her classmate’s way, preventing her from fleeing. Misumi gave a sharp look at her startled classmate, trying to lightly intimidate her, but for some reason, Misumi found herself speechless the moment she saw the girl’s hazel brown eyes opening widely.
That classmate was none other than Asuna Yuuki.
Now, in this moment, Misumi / “Mito” was staring at Asuna’s / “Asuna” name written on a holographic window. The “Send message to a friend” window.
The message box was blank, but that wasn’t an issue for the system. Regardless of having any contents, when you press the ＳＥＮＤ button, a message will be sent, and even without a reply she could know that Asuna was still alive.
However, if the addressed player doesn’t exist then an error message will be displayed. If that happens, it meant that Asuna had already left Aincrad. And if Akihiko Kayaba’s words were true, that would mean that the real-life Asuna Yuuki also…
Her trembling fingertip couldn’t touch the ＳＥＮＤ button. She couldn’t even push it one centimetre.
“………I’m sorry, Asuna.”
Mito barely squeezed out those words in such a feeble voice, then pressed the cancel button on the upper right corner of the holographic window.
The square window disappeared with a loud *sigh* like sound.
When she glanced above, thick lead-coloured clouds appeared over the dreary wilderness. The sky of each floor in Aincrad was covered by the bottom of the floor above, but the floating castle itself was floating upon an empty sky, and if it entered inside a mass of clouds then the weather could change drastically like this.
As a former Beta Tester, Mito could predict rain in up to ten minutes of anticipation. Unlike the real world, you wouldn’t catch a cold here from getting wet, but fighting in the rain exposes you to the increased risk of falling over from the Tumble effect and dropping your weapon by Fumbling. She was completely aware of her desire to rush to a place where monsters wouldn’t spawn, but her legs were simply not moving. Since the first day imprisoned in this world, her sense of reality was fading little by little, despite desperately trying to protect it. Even the physical sensation of her avatar was disappearing.
‘If only… it was all a lie.’
‘If only since the moment I woke up tod… no, since the day I put the NerveGear on my head, if everything since then were only fake memories.’
Mito earnestly made that wish, while slowly facing forwards and closing her eyelids. Then her eyes opened again, and she found herself on the Aeterna Girls Academy rooftop, looking at Asuna’s confused face…
Interrupting, as if mocking her wish, a drop of water hit the back of her neck. *plip* *plop* drops of water plopped on her head and shoulders. The following sensation of the rain falling on her skin, and the realistic weight of the humid air were a suddenly merciless reminder that her current world was this «Virtual Reality».
Today was the 20th day since Mito became trapped inside Sword Art Online, and along with Asuna she was earning experience points and collecting materials while hunting monsters at the «Horunka Forest» on the western side of the first floor.
That forest was littered with plant monsters called «Ｌｉｔｔｌｅ Ｎｅｐｅｎｔ», that could spawn in great numbers within a small area, making such a place greatly efficient for hunting, and of course, enough to be considered dangerous. Mito herself died while being completely surrounded by these monsters during the beta test.
Asuna had never played a ＶＲＭＭＯ, not even a mobile ＲＰＧ before this world, but despite that, Mito brought her to that dangerous place because of two reasons: First, Aincrad’s first floor was divided into north and south by a rocky mountain called the «Dalhari Plateau», and the most suitable route to cross it for a 2 person party was from the cave at the north of Horunka Forest. And second, Asuna’s ability as a ＶＲＭＭＯ player greatly surpassed Mito’s expectations…
Based on Asuna’s skill when they used to play mobile one-vs-one fighting games in the real world, Mito thought that she would have to wait a whole month to gain enough faith in her abilities, yet unexpectedly she made incredible progress towards overcoming her fear of fighting large monsters. Her speed and precision were far from those of a beginner, and beyond that, Mito was surprised by Asuna’s «excellent intuition».
In ＳＡＯ, where you fight controlling your virtual body, much like using your real body, you need to focus on your judgement and insight, along with your initiative to act, and blend them together, concentrating them into something you would call “sense”. Basically, you need to attack exactly when you should attack, and defend exactly when you should defend, and this is something surprisingly difficult to achieve.
But Asuna, slightly after two weeks of training, could even beat a monster the same level as her almost without taking any damage. She chose to wield a Rapier which was light and had decent reach, but difficult to block with, making it a complex weapon that only lets you evade attacks by parrying or stepping aside, and so Asuna’s combat style consisted of her performing dancing-like movements around the monsters as if she were toying with them whilst simultaneously stabbing them at ultrahigh speed. It was an act that captivated a former beta tester like Mito from time to time.
Of course, knowledge and experience were also indispensable factors to survive in this world, but Mito could cover that. If they continued to increase their level, at this pace they could cross the Dalhari Plateau in a few days and catch up to the front-runners who were at the vanguard rushing to defeat the death game… An idea that Mito imagined may just be achievable after tackling the present Horunka Forest. Today they were both collecting materials and earning experience points when they saw a Little Nepent group which if they proved they could handle disposing of safely, then tomorrow they would be able to leave the forest and head straight to Tolbana at the northern side of the first floor… or at least that was what she predicted.
In fact, the hunting went much better than she expected. Mito with her large scythe and Asuna with her Rapier were smoothly eliminating the Nepent’s numbers at a pleasant pace. A bit longer and they would have cleared the whole area… Or so Mito thought until an unexpected figure appeared at the edge of her vision.
It was a grey hooded small humanoid rat. Its name was «Spry Shrewman» to be exact. She encountered only one during the beta and it escaped from her clutches just before being beaten.
Mito was instantly captivated by it, briefly called out to Asuna to check if she would be fine alone with the spawning Nepents before beginning to pursue the Shrewman. It was the quickest humanoid rat on the first floor, so it teasingly dodged Mito’s large bobbing scythe, but as expected, it could not escape Mito’s range boosting sword skills, shattering into pieces.
After confirming it dropped the rare item she was aiming for, she hurriedly returned and saw Asuna casting a sword skill to do the finishing blow to one Little Nepent. It was the advanced piercing skill she had just acquired recently: «Shooting Star».
Asuna perfectly kicked the floor and did a flawless efficient animation. Mito was delighting with her student’s progress, until…
She noticed a new Nepent spawning behind the Nepent Asuna was aiming for.
Shooting Star was a sword skill with a reach and piercing power comparable to spears. The Nepent in front of her had one third of its HP remaining, so Asuna’s rapier was probably going to reach the Nepent behind after dispatching the one at the front.
Normally it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s killing two birds with one stone.
However, Mito noticed that the Nepent on the back was shaking a thin stem with a bright red sphere at the end.
A «Fruit Nepent». If you hit the fruit itself or do enough damage to its torso without cutting the stem, the fruit would explode, spreading an intense pungent smoke. The problem wasn’t the smell, but its dangerous effect: summoning its companions across a wide surrounding range.
Of course, earlier before beginning the hunt, Mito lectured Asuna about the hazard of encountering a «Fruit» type. If only it spawned a little to the right or the left, Asuna would have noticed it and tried to deliberately fumble Shooting Star.
But the «Fruit» type was at a position behind the one in-front where Asuna couldn’t possibly had noticed. Mito tried to scream “Stop!”, but it was too late.
The rapier dashed at high speed, emitting a dazzling light effect that pulverized the first Nepent and deeply pierced the torso of the second Nepent. Its seed instantly swelled and played an especially high-pitched sound as it spread purple smoke.
That was only just ten minutes ago. Mito’s memory of what happened next was vague. But she was certain that she couldn’t save Asuna, and also…
…Mito…Misumi Tozawa thought herself as a very weak, foolish, and cowardly person.
She should have returned to Horunka Forest and rushed into the still remaining horde of Little Nepents to choose the same fate as Asuna. Apart from this, there was no other way of compensating for the sin she had committed of abandoning her friend whom she vowed to protect.
And yet, her legs still wouldn’t move, like they were rooted to the floor.
The cold raindrops continued to drop one by one, striking Mito’s body as she drooped her head. The rain suddenly intensified, soaking her head and cloak whole.
If she can’t return to die in the forest nor live and proceed, then she should stay right here and simply become a statue. As an object she would lose her perceptivity and her ability to think, and little by little become mossy and erode away.
Mito was earnestly praying for that, but of course, her prayer did not get heard by the “virtual world god”… nor the administrators.
She wondered over how many minutes, or tens of minutes she passed doing that.
Shortly, Mito realized that continuously staying like this wouldn’t give her the punishment nor salvation she wished, lifted the hood of her cloak over her head and began to despondently walk through the falling rain.
2.
Coming soon...
