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.

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

There were four towns and villages under the anticriminal code on the first floor.

Of course, there was the large city at the southern end of the floor, the «Town of Beginnings».

If you exit the city from the eastern gate and pass through the mountain region you will arrive at «Medai Village». If you exit the city from the western gate and pass through the forest you will arrive at «Horunka Village». And lastly, if you exit from the northern gate and follow straight towards the vast Rata Plains at the centre of the floor and cross the Dalhari Plateau, you will arrive at «Tolbana Town».

However, there are other various small villages that don’t have an anticriminal code, which are called «Outside Field Villages».

One such village is located at the southwest of Horunka Forest on a silent and desolated terraced corner, called «Roesel Village».

After walking aimlessly, Mito somehow ended up in Roesel Village as if something had guided her, just as the date changed to mark the passing of midnight. Although there were less than two kilometres between Horunka Forest and Roesel, it took Mito nearly ten hours to arrive due to her hunting every monster she encountered along the way. She didn’t have the courage to directly commit suicide, yet alternatively thought she could perhaps die from constantly battling monsters, by breaking her weapon or by stumbling into a similar large-scale accident much like earlier; but in the end she only levelled up gaining two levels from all the combat.

It seemed that Mito would not encounter monsters that represented any real threat to her in the south. ‘I shall stay this night at Roesel Village and tomorrow return to Horunka Forest, and I might as well try soloing the Field Boss at the Dalhari Canyon at the center of the floor…’ Mito thought as she passed through the rough wooden gate.

There were two ＮＰＣ guards on both sides of the gate, both sitting on the damp ground from the rain that just ended, dozing off whilst holding their spears. ‘Sometimes monsters wander into the Outside Field Villages, and the guards are supposed to eliminate them, but how are these guards supposed to protect the village in this state…?’ With that thought, Mito headed towards the plaza at the centre of the village.

She stopped in Roesel only once in the Beta, immediately leaving after replenishing potions in an item shop that offered a poor line of products. She didn’t memorize the place, but she recalled that the item shop was next to a building that looked somewhat like an inn. In the case she couldn’t find it, she could simply slip into the shed of a house.

She plodded along on the worn-out stone paved path, relying on the gloomy light of the lamps and the thin moonlight.

Suddenly, Mito’s footsteps stopped as she caught the sound of something.

She thought it was the chirp of a nocturnal bird, but the sound had a rich melody. It wasn’t from a bird, it came from a person singing. It seemed that somebody was singing somewhere within the village.

‘I suspect it must be an event which starts a quest that only appears late at night. But the fact that such a quest like this wasn’t talked about much during the beta means that it shouldn’t have any special reward for completing it, and I’m not in the mood to take on a quest right now.’

With that thought in mind, Mito ignored the sound and continued forward. But after two, three steps she stopped again.

The faint singing voice that journeyed towards her along the humid night breeze, despite only consisting of “La-La-La” scatting, gently permeate her tattered heart. Not only that, but she also felt that she had heard that melody somewhere before…

“Huh…”

Mito murmured in a low voice when she noticed that it was all due to nostalgia that had caused her feelings to stir.

That heartrending melody was the ending theme of an anime which Mito was fond of when she was a child. With that being the case, there was no way the melody could be coming from an ＮＰＣ. In other words, it had to be another player singing in this deserted Outside Field Village in the middle of the night.

Even though she wasn’t feeling in the mood to interact with another person right now, she just couldn’t fight the impulse of wanting to know the kind of player that was singing, and so she turned to move towards the direction the melody came from.

After crossing the plaza to head into a narrow alley, stepping over a crumbled stone staircase, and passing under a half-decayed arch, a grand view suddenly opened before her eyes.

She knew that Roesel’s coordinates were on the southwest edge of the map—or in other words, the perimeter of Aincrad, but this was the first time she had seen it. There was an area like a mini square plaza located on a slightly lower level than the crude stone built houses, its bounds spreading towards the infinite night sky.

The Town of Beginnings also had a place that faced the bordering perimeter which had a handrail that prevented you from falling unless you deliberately stepped over it. But in this plaza there wasn’t a handrail, not even a mere ramp. From where Mito was standing, only ten meters ahead, the stone-paved ground disappeared as if it was cleanly sliced right off.

If she jumped from here, she could stop feeling this despair, regret, and… but she held down her momentary destructive thoughts and reeled her gaze back in.

Three meters towards the edge from where she stood, there was a wooden bench with a person sitting on it.

A bluish tunic and skirt from the initial equipment options, a pure white wide-brimmed hat, and an instrument similar to a mandolin placed above her crossed legs. The neck of her instrument was plump and short, so it seemed more like an ancient lute. Her hat concealed her identity, but the aura Mito sensed from her conveyed that she was a girl around her own age.

“La-La-La”, the girl continued singing the vintage anime song while flicking her lute. To be frank, the performance was a bit awkward, but her singing voice was wonderful. Despite her lowered volume and slightly tilted downcast head, her sweet whispering voice resonated clearly as it richly vibrated on the midnight air, enveloping Mito’s body. Even the faint moonlight that was shining down on her back seemed to sway along with her song.

The anime song started with a melody in Ｃ, followed by a big chorus and finished with a final repeating phrase.

Unintentionally, Mito shed tears from the corner of her eyes, and while sweeping them away with her fingertips, she was hesitating if she should applaud or…

“She’s quite wonderful, don’t you think?”

Mito unexpectedly heard a whisper from her right and reflexively grasped the grip of her scythe and took a step back.

She didn’t know when that player approached her, perhaps she was there since the very beginning. The player was leaning on a stone wall, who seemed to be a woman, a considerably tall one. Mito was also tall for a fifteen-year-old girl, but this woman was probably near 170cm tall.

She was wearing a loose candy-coloured sleeved shirt, tight black leather pants and short boots. Over her crinkling short bob was a beret, and on her left waist was a thin curved sword.

Mito normally on guard in such a scenario, was captivated by the stylish woman in front of her.

Three weeks had passed since ＳＡＯ turned into a death game, and the majority of the players fighting outside the safe area didn’t have the chance to worry about the style of their equipment. Mito herself was simply wearing a metallic plate over her purple initial equipment tunic.

———‘Speaking of which, Asuna also had bought a whole load of all sorts of clothes…’

Swallowing those painful memories with a deep breath, Mito let go of the grip of her scythe and replied with an equally low whisper:

“I didn’t mean to be a nuisance. Excuse me.”

Assuming that the short bob woman and the lute girl were companions, Mito bowed and began heading back to the village main plaza———but then…

“Hey, you should listen to the next song.”

The woman whispered while grabbing Mito’s mantle with her fingertips.

Mito didn’t want to get involved with other players at the moment, but a part of her also wanted to continue listening to the singing girl a little longer. After a moment of hesitation, Mito silently nodded.

The woman turned with a smile to face back towards the girl sitting on the bench, and then the girl began lightly playing the lute just as if she was waiting for that very gesture before beginning.

A simple but elegant melody similar to folk music played. This composition sounded familiar too. ‘What song is this?’ Mito wondered, noticing that she hadn’t hear this song in the real world.

Then it hit her, it was the song constantly performed by the NPC orchestra at the Town of Beginnings. The girl had to have practiced it a lot, since she was playing the intro so skilfully, much more so than the anime song from earlier. Then she raised her head and sang:

“To the twinkling stars up in the sky… and to the gentle winds blowing through the hills…”

As far as Mito knew, there wasn’t a singer in the NPC orchestra. This girl must had written her own original lyrics for the song. They perfectly matched with the exotic melody, as they added a nostalgic travelling feeling, and tenderly wrapped Mito’s consciousness making it float away.

‘How much I would have loved to listen to this song with Asuna…’

At the thought, Mito was about to shed tears once more. Against the tug of emotions, she held back her tears knowing she couldn’t permit herself to cry. She had decided it a necessity that the continuous pain she felt in her chest must not fade whilst she still lived.

The girl continued to sing the motif with a modest in volume yet emotionally sincere voice, then repeated the same melody on the lute, thus concluding the song.

In that moment, the woman next to Mito started to applaud, and after briefly hesitating Mito also began to timidly clap her hands. The girl rose her gaze and looked straight at Mito. The colour of her twinkling eyes slightly resembled Asuna’s.

‘I have to go’. As the impulse shot through her mind, Mito bowed to the girl and attempted to swivel her heel to turn back.

But the woman at her side grabbed her mantle once again and spoke:

“I’m going for a drink with her, wanna come?”

3.

Mito simply wished to express her impressions from hearing the song, that’s all.

Though she couldn’t just bluntly refuse the invitation and leave right away having stood there and listened to the girl’s singing. For that reason, she silently nodded at the offer.

The two songs were greatly soul stirring, so it was only right that she should give them some praise and words appraisal, and only then leave the village. Fortunately, there weren’t restaurants or canteens in Roesel that were still open this late at night, so there wouldn’t be a need to head indoors and sit to eat and drink with them.

With that in mind, Mito started to prepare the words she was going to say while they were walking, but then…

The short bob woman guided them to a building deep within the village that looked like a residence.

‘There’s no way that she’s planning to enter a villager’s house and dine on their table. Unlike retro ＲＰＧs, in ＳＡＯ you can’t just enter a residence and loot items from their wardrobes. If so, the ＮＰＣs will see it as inappropriate behaviour and the guards will rush towards you and throw you in jail.’

Mito panicked, thinking about how inconceivable it would be if a player came to an Outside Field Village without knowing such a basic rule… but the woman calmly opened the residence’s wooden door and proceeded downwards through a narrow stairway.

The girl with the lute followed her without hesitation, so Mito was left with no other choice but to chase on after them. The staircase had a gentle curve ahead that turned towards the left and then another wooden door at the very end. After following them through the second door, Mito’s whisper grew quickly to a much higher pitch:

“Ehh……”

 “Fufu, that surprise means it’s your first time here, isn’t it?”

The woman turned her gaze towards Mito. No wonder she was boasting, since under the desolated village was this chic fancy looking bar. It wasn’t particularly big, but the countertop seats at the right and the table seats to the left gave a stately appearance, along with the shining polished black floorboard.

There were no people present, probably because of the time. Only the barman, a middle-aged male ＮＰＣ who was polishing glass cups on the other side of the counter. "I'll take a table!" The woman called over to the barman and prompted Mito to take the seat at the opposite side.

Even a middle schooler like Mito knew that the seat farthest to the entrance was the seat of honour. But instead of trying to be modest, she simply removed her large scythe from her back to set it down against the wall of red bricks, and then meekly took her seat.

Across the table the girls took their seats also, and before Mito could even begin to discuss her feelings towards the song she had just heard, the woman faster yet asked:

"Why don't we order something first? This restaurant sells various drinks that are uncommon in Aincrad."

She took the leather bound menu from the stand and opened it in front of Mito. Like the great majority of restaurants here, the contents were written in English, but even someone who held the first place in her class at Aeterna Girls' Secondary Academy like Mito didn't understand some of the terminology used here... in fact, she didn't recognise many of the words at all.

Until yesterday, whenever she went to a new restaurant with Asuna, they both sat side by side looking at the menu together whilst chatting away "can you read that?", "what about this one?" to each other. Although Mito had slightly better grades, she usually lost to Asuna in English tests, and so enjoyed playing vocabulary games with her.

However, those days would never return.

Glimpsing over the menu, Mito chose the drink placed at the top of the list.

"...a Lime flavoured soda water."

Then she turned the menu towards her companions and slid it towards them. "Umm" the woman groaned and *tap* hit one point on the menu with her thin middle finger.

"A Gimlet for mwah. What about you, Yu-chan?"

"Emm..."

The girl tilted her head to read the text easier from her side, and for the first time she let out her voice, not for singing, but for talking normally:

"Ley, which drink would match well with this moonlit night?"

"Well... you ought to try the Moonlight Cooler then surely"

"Wow, they have such a cocktail? I'll take it!"

Smoothly following on from the last spoken word, the barman behind the counter elegantly said "Bear with me", as if he was listening the whole time from over there.

Mito’s gaze was completely stolen by the girl, who now wasn't wearing her hat. Framed below a side-braided fringe was a face that looked so cute and fairy-like Mito couldn't help but imagine that she was of the same age as her.

Moreover, she confidently ordered alcohol as if it were nothing... and, as if she could read the admiration inside Mito's mind, the girl mischievously said:

"It doesn't count since the alcoholic drinks in this world don’t have any alcohol, you know?”

"U-umm... but then you make it sound like other things besides alcohol don’t have anything of themselves inside them either..."

Mito retorted hesitantly, and the girl let out a joyfully "ahaha" then straightened up.

"My name's Yuna. Thanks for listening to my song."

"...uuhh, umm..."

In that moment Mito's plans of mentioning how she felt towards her song vanished and she then hesitated briefly on giving her name, but then did it anyways to not sound rude.

"...I'm Mito"

Mito once again tried to share her compliments towards the song but immediately was interrupted by the woman with the short bob chiming in.

"I'm Ashley. pleasure to meet you, Mito."

"...nice to meet you too."

Timed with her bow, the barman came over from the counter, lined three thick leathered coasters in front of them and then placed their drinks.

Mito’s carbonated drink had a cut lime as decoration, along with a plant-based straw. The woman named Ashley had a cocktail glass with a white milky drink. Finally, the girl called Yuna received a tall glass with a round sliced lemon inserted at its edge.

“Wow, that lemon must resemble the full moon.”

With increased joy, Yuna elevated her glass towards the centre of the table. Mito followed her and tried to clink her glass against Yuna’s, but suddenly Ashley jumped in to say:

“Yu-chan, we don’t go about clinking our glasses in this type of bar.”

“Eh? Is that so?”

“These glasses are very thin and they could easily break. So, we give cheers by simply raising them.”

Ashley grabbed her glass from the base and raised it up to eye-line.

‘Could she be a college student…?’ Mito thought as she raised her glass mimicking Ashley, while holding the straw with her mouth.

Although this world didn’t have freezers nor ice machines, the drink remained cold, and it’s refreshing acidic and carbonated lime flavour shot through to the top of her head, leaving a faint sweet flavour on her tongue even after swallowing.

She felt a little curious, since on the menu the drink appeared as «ｓｏｄａ ｗａｔｅｒ ｗｉｔｈ ｌｉｍｅ», so she glimpsed at the counter, and as if the barman anticipated her reaction, said:

“I added a small portion of lime cordial because you seemed tired. If that’s not to your taste, then I will prepare it again.”

“No… It’s very delicious, thank you for your consideration.”

She said with gratitude and gave it another swallow. ｃｏｒｄｉａｌis an adjective that literally means «relating to the heart», but it also stands for a medicinal syrup made from infusing fruits and herbs. Regardless of its original meaning, the drink’s refreshing sweetness was infusing deep within her body soothing her exhausted heart.

However, even if it could take away her grief of losing Asuna—no, letting her die—she didn’t want that to happen. She must continue to carry it until the day she runs out of strength and collapses in this world.

Mito kept her head low whilst holding her drink with both hands.

“As far as one knows, this bar is the only one in Aincrad that serves the same cocktails as in the real world.”

Ashley whispered from the other side of the table on the left, like she was revealing some huge secret.

That was in fact true. If Mito was not mistaken, until now all the restaurants she visited that had drinks on the menu contained generic written names such as «Currant juice» or «Spice wine». She didn’t remember seeing even the most famous cocktails like Martini or Margarita.

On the other side also, Yuna was tilting her head, subtly shifting her medium-short hair.

“Maybe you’re right… But then, why? This is so delicious; it would be great if all the other restaurants do the same.”

And then, Ashley whispered so low that even someone with a good Eavesdropping skill couldn’t hear.

“Probably to not break the world setting. For example, this Gimlet is named after some ancient soldier from England or something like that. But there are also a lot of other cocktails named after nouns from the real world, like the Tom Collins or the Manhattan.”

“Ohh right… I doubt there is a Manhattan in the lore of Aincrad.”

Yuna nodded in agreement and Ashley lightly shrugged.

“Well, I could also mention endless other examples… like various restaurants having sandwiches named after people in their menus. But this restaurant in particular reminds me so much of the real world, I can understand why the developers or whoever made this place wanted it to be a «Hidden spot».”

Muttering the final part, Ashley then drank a third part her Gimlet, held it in her mouth and closed her eyes savouring it.

‘I see…’ Mito thought, but at the same time, the whole speech didn’t really click with her, a person that had never been in a bar such as this one in the real world. If there was a game centre instead, now that would be a painful reminder of life outside. After all, this world was inside a game—if you can call a game something that can cruelly kill you in real life if your HP drops to zero.

Mito suddenly had a flashback about Asuna’s HP bar rapidly decreasing, blinked rapidly and spoke to Yuna in front of her:

“Umm, the song you were singing earlier was the ending of “Nanana and Hacchi”, right?”

Immediately, the girl’s face shone with joy.

“Oh, Mito you know it! I hate to say it, but it truly is a very obscure show.”

“I’ve like it ever since I was a child. I had totally forgotten all about it, but I was really happy to hear it again after such a long time. And I also loved your arrangement of the Town of Beginnings ＢＧＭ that you sang afterwards. Did you compose the lyrics, Miss Yuna?

“You can just call me Yuna.”

Pleasantly smiling, Yuna nodded with a bit of shyness.

“Pretty much, I’m composing it myself but… It sounds a bit clumsy.”

“That’s not true! The “Bestow your blessings… and guide the travellers…” part, I don’t know how to put it in words, but it’s fantastic!”

Those were the impressions Mito wanted to tell her. Then she took a one hundred col coin from her pocket and softly placed it on the table.

“I listened to it for free, so I wanted to pay you here. Thanks for showing me this secret restaurant, Ashley. It was delicious.”

She stood up and did a quick bow.

“Well, I have to go.”

She was about to reach her large scythe on the wall, but in that moment…

“Umm… Mito!”

Yuna yelled, so Mito unconsciously suddenly span around to face her.

“Eh, what…?”

“Ah… sorry to startle you. I wanted to ask you one more thing…”

“…”

Mito looked downwards, trying to hide her reluctance. The girl probably was going to ask her why she came to this village, or why she was travelling alone. In both cases, Mito would have to reveal that she lost her partner if she wanted to answer honestly. Of course, she could just tell a lie, but she couldn’t do that to someone of such a pure singing voice.

But then, an unexpected question reached the ears of a hesitating Mito.

“Mito, do you remember the lyrics of the “Nanana and Hacchi” ending theme?”

“huh…?”

Looking at a puzzled Mito with a serious expression, Yuna added:

“Remember that I was scatting earlier? That wasn’t intentional. It’s just that I forgot the lyrics. I would immediately search it up over on the other side, but we can’t get out of here…”

“Oh… I don’t know…”

Although Mito was relieved that the feared questions didn’t come, immediately remembering the lyrics of an anime song from ten years ago was an impossible task even for someone as confident in their memorisation skills as her. She tried to retrieve it from her mind, but not a single word came forth.

She was tilting her head and frowning, until Ashley, who had remained silent, slipped out a giggle and said:

“It’ll never come out if you keep doing that. Didn’t you already know one part, Yu-chan? Then why don’t you try singing from there?”

“Oh, you’re right!”

Yuna exclaimed, and then she took her lute, which was leaning against the same wall as Mito’s scythe, and looked over at the counter.

“Barman, can I perform a song?”

“Of course, no problem.”

The barman swiftly spread his arms, with a naturalness that only a player could have. But the yellow cursor floating above his head made clear that he was just an NPC.

Yuna stood up to lower her seat fifty centimetres and crossed her slender legs, where she placed her lute and strummed a chord.

With that, Mito lost any chance to flee. She took a seat and Yuna began playing the intro like she was waiting for her.

Yuna began scatting, but this time she did it faster, probably trying to match the original ＢＰＭ. As Mito continued listening, she began to recall vivid memories of some show she religiously watched every week around the same time she was in her first year of elementary school.

Mito… Misumi was an only child and both her parents worked, so on weekdays after school she attended club activities in Aeterna Girls Academy until 4:30pm. It took her about 20 minutes to get from school to her home in Minami-Azabu by jogging with her little legs, just in time to watch her favourite show at 5pm on Fridays.

If she was not mistaken, it was around the same time her parents’ relationship went colder. Misumi never saw them fight, but they evaded each other by staying away from home, and they compensated her by buying anything she wanted to fill the gap.

These circumstances made Mito a hardcore loving gamer, and the children’s anime “Nanana and Hacchi” was a big influence on this. The plot was about two siblings, one the older sister and the other a younger brother, going into an amazing videogame world. It had the typical conventional plot, but the careful depictions of family love and friendship greatly radiated in the eyes of a young Misumi.

Her childhood memories watching “Nanana and Hacchi” were the reason she was captivated by the first ＶＲＭＭＯ－ＲＰＧ in history, Sword Art Online. If Misumi had never seen that anime, Misumi would have never played ＳＡＯ, and probably Asuna wouldn’t have died. Still, this all happened because of Misumi… Mito’s fault.

Once more, a pain assaulted her, like a cold knife piercing her heart. She took a deep breath and focused her mind on Yuna singing.

Yuna’s clear and delicate, but powerful voice relieved the pain in her chest. She closed her eyes and recalled the vivid memory of her being alone on the living room floor illuminated by the setting sun, holding her knees and fervently watching the TV screen.

When the song ended, she opened her eyes, hoping to wake up in that place.

Wishing that she had never abandoned Asuna, that her friends had never rejected her, and that none of this ever happened.

Mito strongly prayed for it. But, in that moment…

The second chorus was coming, and the song suddenly stopped as if a string had broken. She raised her face and saw Yuna with a frustrated expression. Her mouth was still moving, until she said breathily:

“All of this was for nothing… No matter what, I can´t remember the lyrics. What about you, Mito?”

Mito then remembered the heart and soul of the matter at hand and deeply apologized.

“Sorry, I got so absorbed that… I couldn’t remember anything either.”

“I see… Well, it’s an anime from eight years ago after all… What about you, Ley?”

Yuna turned to the left and Ashley slightly shrugged.

“I myself think it’s a very good song, but one does not remember hearing it on the other side. Why not ask around by sticking a note on some bulletin board in a big inn at the Town of Beginnings?”

“Nooo… We would get scolded if we asked such a stupid question in a situation like this!”

“Mwah highly doubts that’s gonna happen.”

Ashley said with a sarcastic smile, moving to bring her glass towards her mouth with her right hand, until she noticed that it was empty and returned it to the coaster. Then she materialised a hundred col coin from her fingers and placed it over the silver coin Mito left earlier.

“It’s been lovely up till now. As a token of my appreciation the second round is on me. Choose your favourite, Mi-chan.”

Mito blinked when she noticed that she was the “Mi-chan” Ashley was calling for, and replied:

“No, I really have to go…”

"Do you have an appointment or something?"

"No, it’s not something like that"

"Then, why not have another round with us? It would be rude of oneself to force it upon you, but surely it would be a waste if you came to this bar to have nothing but a carbonated drink."

"...Well Ok, I'll accept one more drink."

Mito lightly nodded and her eyes dropped at the menu Ashley passed her.

She obviously hadn't drunk any alcohol back in the real world, but after coming to Aincrad, more than once she had ordered ale and wine in restaurants along with the filled-with-curiosity Asuna. Honestly, to her, wine was nothing but sweet juice and ale a painfully sour carbonated drink. But after seeing Yuna, a girl the same age as her, enjoying her moon-coloured cocktail, she thought she might like to try it at least once.

She gave a look at the tightly-packed lines of scrupulous handwritten letters, and her eyes stopped at one name. It didn’t matter if she didn’t know anything about it, so she didn’t think too hard before choosing it.

“Yes, this one called Violet Fizz.”

“Alright.”

Ashley winked as a signal to the barman to take the order. *Shink-shink*, a satisfying shaking sound resonated immediately.

Again, the glass came in less than a minute.

A liquid that shone a magnificent purple colour even under the dim lantern light, was poured onto a slim and elegant flute glass. Its colour was much more vibrant than the “violet” of its name.

“Wow, beautiful!”

Yuna cheered staring over with uncapped excitement. With an air of slight apprehension, Mito raised her glass and prepared to take a sip.

First, she tasted a strong floral aroma. Then she felt a refreshing sweetness and sourness, followed by a sharp carbonic sensation. At the end, she felt a tingling salty bitterness taste that could be the alcohol, that was not all that bad.

After that, she took a larger sip and muttered:

“…It’s delicious.”

“Great! That cocktail is made using a violet flower liquor named Parfait Amour as a base.”

“Violet…”

Mito fixatedly stared at the glass, and Yuna at the other side of the table pleasantly spoke:

“So, that’s why it has a beautiful violet colour.”

From hearing this, Ashley awkwardly smiled and muttered:

“Well, usually the Parfait Amour is actually made with an artificial colorant to emulate the purple colour of the violets.”

“But, chemically made colorants should not exist in Aincrad, right?”

Yuna pointed out and, after blinking twice, thrice, Ashley chuckled:

“Fu fu, that’s correct. Then let’s say that the Parfait Amour in this shop takes its colour from real violets.”

Mito enjoyed her cocktail while listening to the conversation between the two girls.

The lime flavoured soda water was delicious too, but this Violet Fizz wasn’t just a simple drink, as she could deeply sense the maker’s skilfulness and the heart they put into it. Mito wanted to share her impressions with the barman, who had quickly returned to the other side of the counter. But since she had never been interested in food and drinks, she couldn’t find any words other than “delicious”.

In times like these, Asuna would make plenty use of her rich vocabulary, formulating a whole poem to express her fascination towards the drink.

She wanted to drink with Asuna. To look at the menu with her and talk about its content. To be next to her.

Something was falling on her right hand, with which she was holding her glass.

She took a moment to notice that her eyes were overflowing.

“Mito…”

Yuna said worried. Mito quickly wiped her eyes and said:

“Sorry, it’s nothing.”

“Your face says otherwise, like it did the first time we met.”

Ashley whispered. She stared at Mito with her smoke grey eyes whilst tasting an amber coloured cocktail that came along earlier with the Violet Fizz.

“Your eyes were so gloomy that, to be frank, at first I thought you were some kind of ＰＫ player. But then, that face you made while listening to Yu-chan made one realise that they could never have been so wrong.”

“ＰＫ…”

For someone that before ＳＡＯ spent most of her time ＰｖＰing on traditional ＭＭＯs, the acronym caught Mito by surprise. Even the giant avatar she had before transforming into her real appearance in the «Mirror Event» was designed to be a ＰＶＰｅｒ. For that reason, Asuna was so scared that…

Mito once again was pursued by her partner’s face, so she shook her head and refuted to Ashley:

“But, would somebody really carry out a ＰＫ in these circumstances? I mean, if you kill a player here…”

“They will really die”, I couldn’t express those words for two reasons. First, I was terrified of confirming that Asuna was dead. And the second, that I perhaps cannot say that for certain, she thought.

Like she was reading Mito’s mind, Ashley nodded:

“Well… precisely because of this situation there may be those who attempt to ＰＫ believing this was their chance to kill people for real and get away with it. In fact, that makes up about twenty percent of the reason why oneself can be found here with Yu-chan.”

“Huh…?”

Without getting the meaning of those words, Mito turned to Yuna.

Yuna, who finally finished the Moonlight Cooler she requested earlier, suddenly exhaled and unexpectedly said:

“Ley is my escort”

“Escort…? Why not something like an adventuring partner?”

“I don’t intend to join the Assault Team right now. Since I only want to practice singing with my lute.”

“If that’s the case, why are you here at Roesel…?”

Mito tilted her head, and Yuna looked over at her side apparently seeking help. But Ashley took a sip of her cocktail to appear feigning ignorance. Yuna pouted and with resignation she looked again at Mito and awkwardly smiled:

“To be honest, I’m running away.”

“Running away…?!”

‘For what reason would she become a runaway in Aincrad? Does she mean that she dove with her guardians? Or she feels she is running away by diving into this virtual world?’

Those were about twenty percent of the thoughts that were going around Mito’s head in that moment.

“Well, um… I, came here with my childhood friend from kindergarten.”

“…I see…”

‘It was like us’, Mito reflexively thought. She felt like she could relate because, despite only becoming Asuna’s friend a little over a year ago right after the game centre incident, she was already aware of the conspicuous Asuna’s presence since they were first brought together in elementary grade at Aeterna Girl’s Academy.

“And which of you…”

“…invited the other to ＳＡＯ?”, she wanted to ask, but realised that it would be much too inconsiderate to ask in this situation. However, Yuna didn’t even seem to care about that and replied:

“The other person. But I don’t feel any rancour. I learned that I could sing and play instruments in this virtual world, and that’s why I became fascinated by it. Moreover… both the game and the NerveGear…”

Yuna abruptly stopped talking this time. In that instant, her lowered gaze immediately jumped up and continued her explanation:

“I got both the game and the NerveGear twice due to certain reasons, and I was so excited that I dove right away and then, they told us that we couldn’t log out anymore. Since then, my childhood friend… I call him Nau, he’s been staying at the same inn as me…”

“W-wait a minute. Your childhood friend is a HE?”

Mito abruptly interrupted. Yuna blinked several times and made a very complex expression.

“Yes, but it’s not what you are thinking! We are in separate rooms, of course.”

“O-okay… Sorry for interrupting you.”

“Don’t worry, it’s something that could be easily misunderstood. Anyway, the thing is that he… strongly feels responsible for what happened and he is very resolute to protect me until the game is cleared…”

“……”

“Very resolute to protect me”. Mito reflexively held her breath when those words reached her ears. The joyful Yuna apparently didn’t notice it, and continued:
“I was very happy when he said that, but his methods are a little, drastic…… He said that we couldn’t take a single step outside the Town of Beginnings until we raised our weapon skill proficiency to a safe level.”

“…and how much is a ‘safe level’ ?”

“At least １５０.”

“Eehh…? And how did you plan to raise it inside the town…?”

Mito asked, and Ashley replied:

“There is a training ground or something akin to that in the Town of Beginnings, if one is correct? It has training dummies where if you continuously throw sword skills at them, you won’t level up, but will increase your skill proficiency!”

“Ohh… I see. But raising your skill proficiency by hitting those training dummies should be way slower than fighting with actual monsters. To rise your skill level to １５０ I think you would need to commit to full training every single day for at least one entire month, or possibly more…”

“Nau says that it could take half a year.”

Upon hearing that, Mito swiftly shifted her gaze back from Ashley to Yuna.

“A… A half year just to raise your weapon skill proficiency…?”

“Yeah. Apparently, when you reach level １５０ within the One-Handed Straight Sword skill you unlock a ranged four hit combo attack. With that, you have a much greater chance of escaping if many monsters end up surrounding you, so it’s worth to do it…”

“……”

The Mito from yesterday would have been astonished about how impractical that was.

But right now, Mito couldn’t judge Yuna’s childhood friend for being too prudent. If she had the same patience, she would have managed to create a gap between the horde of Little Nepents and be able to save Asuna…

After Mito fell silent, Ashley spoke:

“Heey, Yu-chan. And why then did you leave the town? You can practice your singing and play your instrument safely inside still without worry, couldn’t you?”

“I can but… There’re thousands of people at the Town of Beginnings, so if I went outside and sang, people would immediately gather round. And if I sang inside my room, nobody would hear me, and there the sound tended to reverberate slightly differently than it did in the real world, making for quite an unpleasant feeling.”

“Ohh one understands… Well, what if mwah was one of those players attracted to Yu-chan’s singing, heh?”

Ashley said while smiling, but her face immediately strained.

“But, singing would put you at risk out in the field! Players wouldn’t gather, only monsters.”

“Yeah, Nau told me the same. I thought about constantly moving between towns and villages where there are fewer people so I could focus on practicing. But yesterday, after sharing that with Nau, he forbade me to do it… and not only that, but he also told me to prioritise sword training instead of singing or playing my instrument. That’s why I thought of slipping out from the inn and heading on out all by myself.”

“I see…”

As Mito was watching Ashley take a slurp of her cocktail with a distressed expression, and Yuna staring at the menu with a puffed up face, her feelings finally began to calm down because she understood that Yuna was a runaway because she ran away from the inn where she was staying with her childhood friend. However, a new question appeared:

“I understand why you ran away, Yuna, but how did you end up together with Ashley? You said earlier that she’s your escort. Did you pay her?”

Although Mito’s question was for Yuna, Ashley was the one who replied:

“No! It was mwah who pushed to stick with her. One got a message from Yu-chan that she was leaving the Town of Beginnings so oneself insisted on going with her.”

“Emm… What kind of relationship do you two have to begin with?”

“Artist and fan!”

Ashley instantly replied and Yuna poked her arm blushing:

“Hey, stop that already! I told you before that it is me who is a fan of you!”

Yuna took her wide brim hat from a hook on the wall and stroked it gently while saying:

“It’s because of this hat that you made for me. I really love that the feather makes it look like a bard’s hat.”

“One made it with that in mind.”

As Ashley replied, Mito looked at her outfit. She was wearing an elegant dawn pink candy sleeve shirt with a striped woven pattern fabric that Mito had never seen in any ＮＰＣ shop.

“By any chance, is that shirt made by yourself?”

Ashley broadly smiled at Mito’s question.

“Oooh, good eye! Everything from top to bottom, to be exact.

Apparently, her leather pants and beret were handmade too. Basically, the two of them formed a singular duo, Yuna was a bard, and Ashley a seamstress.

And that doesn’t have to mean that Ashley is lacking in combat skills, since according to her, she is Yuna’s free of charge escort. And that also meant that the curved sword on her left waist is not a mere accessory. However, there are things that you can only learn through consistent combat experience.

“…I think I understand the situation better now. But, Ashley, you said earlier that you accepted to escort Yuna because you were worried about her getting ＰＫ’ed, right? If that’s the case, why did you choose to come to an Outside Field Village like Roesel, instead of a town with the anti-criminal code like Horunka?”

Mito thought that question could be unnecessarily meddlesome, but couldn’t help but ask it regardless.

Fortunately, Ashley didn’t appear offended and agreed:

“Yeah, that’s true. But there are pretty strong ｍｏｂｓ on the way to Horunka… One thought it could be too risky to bring little Yu-chan there, someone with little combat experience. On that point, Roesel is close by to the Town of Beginnings, and there are only bees, boars, and at the most, wolves that appear on the way.

“…Yeah, that’s right.”

She replied muttering, enduring the reappearing grief that was assaulting her.

Asuna had acquired enough experience in combat, never faltering on regular equipment maintenance or replenishing her potions. But even if she lost her life due to a Fruit Nepent appearing at the worst and most unfortunate timing, all was because of Mito’s overly optimistic judgement. If only she had either «Nau»’s prudence, or Ashley’s wisdom, Asuna wouldn’t be dead. Even after arriving in Roesel Village following her desire to find compensation for her sin, she was again reminded of how foolish she was.

Yuna and Ashley were good people. However, for Mito, continuing this conversation with them was somewhat overly painful.

‘I will leave once I finish my Violet Fizz’. Having decided that in her heart, Mito grasp her glass at the neck with her right hand, then sipped the leftover purple liquid.

She drank, carefully tasting it. The aroma of the violets slipped through her nose, while the alcohol irritated and burned her throat. ‘So delicious… I wouldn’t mind if this were the last drink I drank in Aincrad’.

With a sigh of relief, Mito looked at Yuna and said:

“Your childhood friend must care about you a lot. You should really head back to the inn before he starts to worry too much about you.”

And then, Yuna smiled with a little embarrassment and nodded:

“Yeah… I get it. I already sung as much as I wanted, so I’ll return to the Town of Beginnings at dawn!”

But Mito’s relief was short, because Yuna leaned towards the table and…

“Mito, would you want to go with us? I would love to talk more about “Nanahachi”, and also, when I can recall the lyrics, I want you to hear the full version…”

For a moment, just for a mere moment, Mito thought about accepting.

To return to the Town of Beginnings, and sleep like a log at an inn. For many days… until she forgot everything.

However, she painfully knew that was impossible. Because she thought that the image of Asuna being surrounded by a crowd of Little Nepents, her eyes turning deep black from the despair, and her ＨＰ bar decreasing until becoming one single deep crimson dot, would never disappear from her mind.

If someday she reunites with her again in some other place and had the chance to apologise, then she probably would say…

“…Thank you. But I can’t go with you.”

Mito tried to put a smile on her face, and softly shacked her head. But Yuna pitched forward even more to ask further:

“Why? You said you don’t have any appointments, didn’t you?”

“Yeah…… But, I need to go to the north.”

As soon as she answered, Mito realised that, in fact, that was her only option. Crossing the Dalhari Plateau, joining the first floor frontline, and continue fighting. And if she collapses after using all her strength contributing to complete the death game, then she would be able to leave behind a small proof of her and Asuna’s existence in Aincrad.

As if she read Mito’s voice or her facial expression, Yuna stopped being insistent and returned to her seat.

Mito raised her flute glass with her right hand and finished her Violet Fizz with one final gulp, slowly savouring the taste.

She placed her empty glass on the coaster, before giving a slight bow to Ashley.

“Thank you for the meal. It was very delicious.”

“That’s all good. Would you mind drinking with us again on another occasion?”

Mito turned away her gaze from her grey eyes that seemed to see into her, and muttered:

“…Maybe…”

And before saying another thing, she took her large scythe from the wall it was standing against and placed it upon the mount on her back. And with a little hesitation, she turned her gaze one last time to Yuna and…

“I really loved your singing. I want you to head back to town and let other people hear you.”

And then, she left the table without waiting for a reply. She bowed to the barman across the other side of the counter, who was calmly polishing glasses, and opened the door.

She scaled the gloomy stairs, and as soon as she reached the surface, her face was hit by the cold night breeze.
​
Mito pulled the hood of her mantle over her eyes, then began to walk towards the exit of the village.

4.

There were three legitimate routes to cross the Dalhari Plateau and gain access to the northern area of the First Floor.

The first one started from the northern exit of the Town of Beginnings, it then travelled across the Rata Plains, and through a canyon placed at the centre of the Dalhari Plateau, where a big Field Boss nestled. The second goes towards Medai Village on the east side of the plateau, where you would then pass through a ruin’s dungeon. And finally, the third route, that leads to a natural cave that tunnels through the west side of the plateau, beyond the Horunka Forest.

During the beta, apparently there were players who attempted to climb the Dalhari Plateau with equipment and skill compositions focused on rock climbing. However, many ended up abandoning such a feat having fallen too many times to their deaths, although, Mito did hear about a select few achieving it. However, in the present conditions, death was not an option, so you couldn’t attempt such a trial-and-error method of rock climbing this time around.

Whilst Mito suffered from a drowning sense of despair, unable to accept Asuna’s death, she thought about soloing the Field Boss within the canyon, equivalent to jumping from the edge of Floor 1 of Aincrad. But if she someday reunited with Asuna, she would likely never forgive Mito for committing suicide.

The air of gloomy despair hadn’t vanished from before, but through her meeting with Yuna and Ashley, other people locked in this virtual world, Mito recognized that everyone else has their own ways of fighting in this extremely unfair death game. And Mito must have her own. No matter how cruel or sorrowful, she must continue gripping her weapon until the moment she collapses, after running out of all her strength. Like Asuna.

‘If I aim to join the frontlines, the shortest path is to return and slip through the Horunka Forest, and breakthrough the natural cave on the west side of the Dalhari Plateau.’

Mito thought, as she walked by the still dozing NPC guards sat at the exit of Roesel Village, and headed to the north.

It would be almost 2am by now, but she didn’t feel sleepy. The Violet Fizz she drank earlier revitalized her, or else it was Yuna’s singing.

Ashley asked “would you mind drinking with us again on another occasion?” and Mito replied, “maybe”, but she had no intention of revisiting Roesel village, and she also had no intention of returning to the Town of Beginnings, so the chance of meeting with them again was low. But, that’s ok. Because if she formed a bond with them, they would be sad when Mito inevitably died.

‘Hereafter, I should keep my distance from every other player as much as possible. And I won’t form a party with anyone, only when it’s strictly necessary like when I must form a raid party at the Floor Boss fight.’

Hardening her resolve, Mito walked for fifteen minutes towards the wilderness north of Roesel.

“……?”

Suddenly, Mito felt uncomfortable for some reason and stopped.

She drew the grip of her scythe with her right hand, quickly glancing around her surroundings. But she saw no monsters and no players, not even any small animals.

She crouched behind a bush and focused on her hearing. But couldn’t catch anything alarming, except the dismal sound of the wind.

‘It’s just my imagination’, she exhaled after being pressed for air, and began to walk again, until she noticed.

The reason why she was uncomfortable wasn’t because she heard any unfamiliar sounds, but because she didn’t hear any familiar ones at all.

On the vast and extensive fields around the Town of Beginnings at night, you can hear the howling of Ｄｉｒｅ Ｗｏｌｖｅｓ, Ｗｉｌｙ Ｗｏｌｖｅｓ, and other types of wolves, except on rainy days. In addition of setting the stage to scare players, it’s commonly accepted to be a hint towards new players to avoid fighting them, since wolves are a formidable enemy for new players in the early game, especially if they are in a group. But it’s strange to walk for more than ten minutes through the field without hearing a single one.

She thought of two reasons: that they changed the spawn conditions or spawning rate, or alternatively someone was hunting them down.

The first was not unreasonable, but pretty unlikely. Since in an ＭＭＯＲＰＧ such changes only occur when there’s an incident where something becomes a huge advantage or handicap for the average player, and that’s not likely happening here.

But the second was even more unlikely. Wolf type monsters’ howling reached more than one kilometre, and three or even four parties of six people are needed to wipe them out to such an extent and to do so faster than they can spawn back. There couldn’t realistically be such people doing that at this hour.

Then, why couldn’t she hear any howling?

Mito reflexively stopped and looked around again searching for answers.

The ground ended one hundred metres to the west, where it spread open upon a dark blue starry sky. At the north lied the deep black forest of Horunka.

And finally, from the east to the south simply spread a prairie with growing plants and vegetation, and at the end were the twinkling lights of the Town of Beginnings.

As before, there was no sight of any monster or player. Yet it felt unnatural if you thought about it. Even after fifteen minutes of walking, no wolves appeared, where she normally should have encountered at least one or two. In fact, before arriving in Roesel Village she repeatedly encountered and fought lizards and bats.

‘Then why the hell is this field so empty? It’s like somebody just gathered all the monsters and took them to some other place…’

“……!!”

Suddenly, the penny dropped.

Wasn’t that exactly it?

While It’s true that you need an entire battalion to kill monsters at a rate to exceed their re-popping pace, if you attack one at a time whilst running between them, you can practically sweep a whole area together. It’s not a simple task since the chasing algorithm of the monsters differ from one species to another and even individually, but there isn’t any much difference between the speed of two types of wolves, lizards and bats, so to make all pursue you is simple. Although even with a high enough dexterity, it’s a task that could lead to death if you stumble even once, so you had to have enough guts to do it, or be completely insane to——……

Insanity.

There’s no way that a player does that without something in mind. Mito thought up two reasons for why someone would try to round up a monster train in an ＭＭＯ.

The first, would be to gather up all the monsters into one place and then blow them up all with one single powerful attack, this tactic is called a «Train Hunt». The other one, was to gather a large number of monsters into a single area in order to attack a player, called «Monster ＰＫ», AKA ＭＰＫ.

There had been about three weeks since the ＳＡＯ official service began, but it’s still too early for someone to have mastered enough powerful sword skills to do a Train Hunt with such high stability. Then, that would mean this is for an ＭＰＫ. But, why now? And why here? There’s no sign of life in the whole area around Roesel, and it’s very unlikely that a party would be here at two o’clock in the early morning. Probably, Mito was the only person right now who so happened to be walking around this half kilometre area.

“…No way! To attack me?”

Mito muttered with a low voice, and detached her scythe from her back.

She didn’t remember being a current target of any ＰＫｅｒ, but she did recall that Ashley spoke at the bar that someone could still be carrying out PKs, as she said «precisely because of this situation there may be those who attempt to ＰＫ believing this was their chance to kill people for real and get away with it», so in other words, there is a very high chance of somebody genuinely killing just for the pleasure. Maybe even choosing a target «just because it was there».

Even though Mito noticed there could be an unknown player going after her right this moment, she was strangely relaxed.

Mito was a ＰｖＰｅｒ, not a ＰＫｅｒ, but she knew the general modus operandi of a ＰＫ, and how to deal with them. Although ＳＡＯ is the first ＶＲＭＭＯ in history, it should work the same.

To deal with a train ＭＰＫ, first you need to avoid being shifted to as the target by the monsters. You can’t do anything if the guy that is leading the train teleports right in front of you, but on the first floor there are no teleport crystals yet.

So probably, they would plan to hide with the hiding skill within the grass or in the shade of a rock, and jump into such a hiding spot just as they got close to Mito. If that’s the case, she needed to expose their hiding status to change the monsters’ targeting once more, so they will attack the ＰＫｅｒ first. And with that, Mito could escape at full speed.

But in that scenario, the most probable case would be that the ＰＫｅｒ would die.

Nevertheless, she’s now the type of person who let her close friend, who she vowed to protect, to die, so she couldn’t have any sympathy or mercy towards a murderer who doesn’t deserve any.

Consciously feeling her heart growing colder, Mito sharpened all her senses.

A Train ＭＰＫ should be accompanied by a very loud noise. At this hour, the field should be completely silent, so it would be impossible to not hear the roars and steps of numerous, dozens of monsters coming towards her.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, and finally, one entire minute had passed, and the only sound that reached her ears was again the lonely ringing breeze.

Was the ＰＫｅｒ still gathering monsters? Or else maybe there weren’t any monsters and something else happened and Mito was simply suddenly jumping into wrong conclusions about being targeted…?

No, something’s wrong.

Perhaps Mito couldn’t be the only target.

Hidden within rolling staggered terraces one kilometre away to the south was Roesel Village. It has no anti-criminal code due to being an Outside Field Village, and only two ＮＰＣ guards to defend it from monsters.

They should be stationed there as a simple defence system to prevent monsters making their way inside the village, but if someone were to gather dozens of monsters, or a giant crowd of them even, it’s unlikely that only two guards could stop them all. Mito didn’t remember hearing of such an event happening in the beta test, but logically thinking, there was nothing stopping a crowd of monsters breaking into the gates of a village like this and attacking the defenceless villagers, leaving considerable casualties.

Although, ＮＰＣs were different from players, where even if they die, they would revive sometime later, so if a ＰＫｅｒ went to the trouble of gathering an entire crowd of monsters just to attack a village that can’t be destroyed and cause only a temporary massacre, then…

“……Ah!”

Mito shouted in silence while twisting her body towards the south and using all her strength to kick off against the ground.

———‘I was a fool. There aren’t only ＮＰＣs in Roesel.’

———‘They’re aiming for Yuna and Ashley!’

She said clenching her teeth, running as fast as she could back towards the village. Sprinting at full speed at night could easily end up with her stumbling over an unseen rock or branch, so she could only hope and pray that didn’t happen.

She didn’t know if the ＰＫｅｒ was specifically aiming for Yuna and Ashley, maybe they were simply aiming at the whole of Roesel Village from the very beginning and the girls just so happened to be there. Be that as it may, the girls weren’t people who were used to fighting, and they wouldn’t be able to handle an entire horde of dozens of monsters all on their own.

Mito prayed that Yuna and Ashley were still in the bar. But ultimately, that place wasn’t a totally safe place either, since wolfs and lizards could break down the doors and enter at any moment. And if there were demi-human monsters in the mob train, then they could do way more than that——……

She leaped, crossed bushes, and dashed with all her might for two minutes. A slightly higher terrace appeared. She rounded it from the left, focused her vision, and then:

“Ah!......”

Mito gasped with a heavy hoarse voice.

Bright red flames rose from every corner of Roesel Village. Undoubtedly, a large crowd of monsters had rushed into the village and knocked down the fire lamps.

Given the situation, the ＰＫｅｒ must be hiding now in the surroundings watching everything unfold. However, there wasn’t enough time to investigate where the culprit may be, who presumably must have had a high hiding skill. Right now, it’s more important to check if Yuna and Ashley, and the poor ＮＰＣs, were safe.

Quickly deciding what to do, Mito sprinted again. She returned to the gate that she left twenty-four minutes ago, instead now hearing people’s screams and the roar of beasts.

Without giving into desperation, she stopped and looked at her surroundings. She didn’t find the two ＮＰＣ guards. They were probably fighting further within the interior of the village, or they most likely were the first victims whilst still nodding off… As she thought of this, suddenly from the darkness past the other side of the gate:

“Shaaa!”

With a menacing sound, a black shadow sprouted.

It was a one-metre-tall large lizard. Its name was displayed as «Ｓａｎｄ Ｌａｃｅｒｔａ», it had tough skin and poisonous fangs. Although its appearance was seemingly sluggish, it actually was a quick and formidable enemy that jumps at targets, but also whilst doing so exposes its vulnerable spot on its belly.

Mito’s large scythe flashed from below, and *Sa-shing*, she cut open the Sand Lacerta from its abdomen to its head. The lizard turned blue and scattered into pieces, while Mito began to run again and dashed between the lizard fragments.

She ran through the main street, and on the first intersection she finally spotted humanly figures. Unfortunately, they weren’t Yuna or Ashley. It was one of the guard ＮＰＣs, with a young girl timidly hiding behind his back along with an old woman, gallantly protecting them from two Dire Wolves.

Even if they died, they surely would respawn once the village resets tomorrow, so rationally it made sense to pass them by without a second thought. However, Mito brandished her large scythe with all her might and yelled over to them:

“All of you, down!!”

The guard saw Mito, abruptly turned around to lay down and covered the woman and the child with his body. And without wasting a second, Mito charged the sword skill «Ｍｏｗｅｒ» to slash the wolves. Mower was a basic skill for scythes, and yesterday Mito must had used it countless times so much so that she had raised its proficiency level so high to the extent that she just about one shot the two wolves with one slash.

Without waiting for the wolves to burst and scatter apart, Mito ran towards the three ＮＰＣs to check if they still had enough ＨＰ, and asked to the now standing guard:

“Is there a safe place where you can take refuge?!?!”

“At…At the south of the village, in the church…”

“Well, then call the other villagers and hide there!”

“Ro…Roger that!”

The guard yelled immediately, and Mito nodded back turning to the north in the direction of the hidden bar. Just before she began to run, someone called out to her from behind:

“Miss!”

She turned around, spotting the girl with one hand holding that of the old woman, and the other hand pointing to a street in the west.

“There are other misses like you in the plaza, they insisted they would stay there! Rescue them!”

“Eh!...”

She strangely referred to them as «misses», so it only made sense that she must have been referring to Yuna and Ashley, other players like herself. One of them most likely casually exited the bar at the very moment of the attack, or they themselves decisively left in order to protect the villagers.

Mito had a hunch that it was probably the latter. Then, she shouted back to the girl:

“…Leave it to me! Get safe everyone!”

Strongly wishing that the young guard could protect the two people, Mito turned back around and ran.

Roesel was a small village, so Mito wouldn’t have to run more than a hundred metres to get to the plaza, yet she encountered and dispatched three rounds of monsters, all in about two minutes. The ＰＫｅｒ must had come with way over a hundred monsters to turn the village into such a state.

Mito prayed that they were safe, though when she got to the plaza…

“……!!”

Taking in the scene before her, Mito couldn’t breathe.

She saw not less than ten villagers gathering around an old statue in the centre of the square plaza. They were crowded by layers and layers of groups of monsters, so many that she couldn’t count them all in that instant. The majority were wolves and lizards, but there also were a considerable number of scorpions and snakes, monsters that didn’t spawn around the village’s surroundings.

The villagers were made up of only women, children and elders, none carrying any weapons. But even so, all of them had still more than half of their ＨＰ, thanks to two… no, three swordsmen that were protecting them.

Mito saw to the right was Ashley with her flashy thin curved sword. On the left was Yuna with her dagger ready. In addition, further to the left side was an old man wearing a white shirt with a sword so thin that it looked like a needle, the ＮＰＣ barman.

It took Mito half a second to access the situation, that Yuna’s skills apparently were about one, two degrees inferior to Ashley’s and the barman’s skills.

It was reasonable. Yuna spoke earlier at the bar that, until yesterday, she had never stepped outside the Town of Beginnings before, so this was her first time battling with monsters during her «runaway». That being said, it was truly admirable that she decided to take up arms in such a drastic situation.

But then that also meant Yuna was approaching monsters with nothing more than the basic dagger skills: the low stab «Ｐｈｅａｓａｎｔ» and the upper stab «Ｃａｎｉｎｅ», so the majority of combat was being managed by Ashley and the barman. Both had to fight with two, three enemies on them at once, and although they were managing to take minimal damage, their ＨＰ bars were still slowly decreasing.

Mito wanted to assist them immediately, but if she began attacking the group of monsters from behind, then she would end up trapped, attacked from all directions. So, she needed to break through them, but without attacking them, if she wanted to get ideal positioning next to Yuna.

After analysing several options within a second, Mito finally decided. It would be her first time doing it, but she had no other options.

——--‘Here I go!’

Yelling inside her head, she sprinted with all her might. The moment she felt she had reached her top speed, she kicked the ground with all her force and leaped.

Mito’s build was more focused on strength than dexterity, so there was no way she would be able to jump over the nearly four metres thick line of thirty, forty monsters that were surrounding her friends. So, she ended up landing inside a group of wolves.

If she made a mistake, a whole horde of sharp fangs would rain down on her. So, enduring the dread, she carefully waited for the perfect timing. ‘Wait… Wait… NOW!’

“Yaaa!”

With all her might, she used the head of her scythe to thrust it in a gap between the wolves. The pointed metal fixtures solidly grasped the cobble paving in the gap, whilst holding the grip of her scythe with both hands, she bent down into it using all her body weight.

Of course, that could potentially break her scythe, and it certainly would be in the instance that the grip were made of wood, but in Mito’s case, the large «Iron Scythe» that cost her almost all the money she had on the first day, was almost entirely made of metal, so the grip endured the pressure and the sprung pole-vault effect bestowed her with a second leap.

Rolling her body mid-air, she finally landed between Ashley and Yuna. Yuna jolted with shock, but Ashley immediately noticed that the intruder was Mito and exclaimed “Glad the cavalry has arrived!”

“Don’t thank me yet! I’m here to support you, so, Ashley, Yuna, use this chance to potion up!”

“Roger that!”

“Y-yes!”

After hearing their responses, Mito activated the sword skill «Ｆｅｌｌｅｒ». It performed the same horizontal slash as «Mower», but on a lower trajectory with a much vaster range.

The blade of her large scythe shone of a purplish red colour whilst casting a slash effect that cut the wolves’ forelimbs, giving them a movement disability debuff. They fell face-first right on the spot, becoming an obstacle and blocking the way for their partners pushing through from behind.

With that, Mito gave valuable seconds to Ashley and Yuna, who took advantage to drink their recovery potions in one go. Mito then turned her gaze from Yuna to see the barman at her side, who obviously hadn’t remained undamaged, but impressively still had about ninety percent of his ＨＰ bar.

In his right hand he held a small piercing weapon that appeared to be an estoc, something that made you question what type of character he was, but now wasn’t the time to get distracted. The four of us right here needed to fight a whole crowd of about forty monsters with pace, because if they failed, they would all be wiped out. The villagers behind them could revive later, but Mito, Ashley and Yuna couldn’t.

From here on out, not a single miss could be made.

The two girls finished recovering and Mito shouted back to them:

“Excuse me, barman and Ashley, please lead the flow of the enemies towards this direction! Yuna, take charge of the ones I miss!”

Ashley and Yuna answered again with “Roger that!” and “Yes!” respectively, and the barman let out a polite “Understood!” like when he was serving cocktails.

With «Flow Control», Mito referred to a technique that, in theory consisted of throwing sword skills that move in only one direction, such as from right to left, to knock back groups of enemies and carry them towards one spot, where an attacker would be waiting there to use powerful AoE skills on them. This time around, Mito was the one to act as the attacker in order to exterminate them.

Mito’s beloved large scythe looked wickedly sharp, but in fact, it’s weapon type specialized more on area attacks and debuffs rather than on attack power. She would need to power boost her sword skills with maximum acceleration to be able to one shot strong enemies like Ｄｉｒｅ Ｗｏｌｖｅｓ and Ｒｏｃｋ Ｓｃｏｒｐｉｏｎｓ.

Of course, afterwards she would suffer a harsh cooldown from the post-skill stiffness. When that happens, Yuna could attack instead of her, but it wasn’t completely safe, since the wolves and the scorpions’ pincers could still slash against her body, steadily reducing her ＨＰ bar.

The same thing would apply to Ashley and the barman, that both their attacks and potions weren’t limitless. What would be over first? The monsters in the plaza or the ＨＰ bars of the four of us…?

‘…Why I am so terrified to die? Wasn’t that what I was searching for?’

Such doubts crossed Mito’s mind whilst the fierce battle unfolded.

‘…Could it be that it’s because I don’t want Ashley and Yuna to die? No, they have nothing to do with it, it’s simply me that doesn’t want to——…’

“Hg…Hyaaaaah!”

She ferociously roared killing both her thoughts and the monsters. Using her whole body to swing the slanting sword skill «Ｐｒｕｎｅｒ» through two lizards and one wolf at the same time.

“…!”

Taking a breath to look around, she realised there were still a dozen enemies left. At this rate they would be annihilated before they could finish up with all the monsters, so it made sense to escort the villagers to the church in the south whilst continuing to eliminate the remaining monsters. The sun would rise in two or three hours from now, so the ＮＰＣs had to take refuge in the church during the meantime to reduce their casualties to the minimum...

In that instant, as if it was waiting for Mito to lower her guard whilst thinking about the future…

A ferocious howl reverberated throughout the plaza.

“……?!”

Eyes jumping wide, Mito saw a sharp snout pointing upwards from a conspicuously gigantic wolf.

“Dammit, that’s a Boss wolf!”

Ashley cursed from the left.

Mito had to swallow hard her matching impulse to curse.

The alpha wolf in front of them was a higher class of Dire Wolf that would rarely pop, its name was «Dire Wolf Leader». It looked just like a normal wolf but bigger, with augmented combat capabilities, and a dreadful special skill named «Calling» that allows it to summon groups of other wolves. If you unluckily encountered this enemy, the most important thing you must do was to keep it from howling.

Unfortunately, this alpha wolf had already howled.

The plaza they stood in was wide-open with various connecting roads, so the howl easily propagated and could be responded to from everywhere. So, immediately, a great grey mass vigorously emerged from the north, south and east.

“Too many…”

Ashley cautioned.

The fast grey torrent contained several Dire Wolves and Wily Wolves. There were about fifty, no, more than that. It wasn’t only the wolves summoned by the «Calling» skill, but also all the raging wolves that were spread throughout the village and its surroundings.

‘It’s impossible’, Mito realized.

It was impossible for only four people to fight so many enemies. If they were surrounded by this many wolves, they would be annihilated in less than five minutes.

‘What can I do? How can I save Ashley, Yuna, the barman and the villagers?’

Working at maximum speed, suddenly, Mito’s brain sparked with an idea.

The now vanished ＰＫｅｒ managed to guide the Dire Wolf Leader and all the wolves towards Roesel Village. Mito could do the same.

It was impossible to run against the flow of enemies towards the village gate at the east, but she could guide them towards the west, where absolutely no enemies were coming from.

“Ashley, Yuna, I’ll leave the rest to you!”

As she yelled, Mito kicked away the remaining wolves in front of her and began running from her position.

Her objective was the Dire Wolf Leader that stood in the northeast corner of the plaza. Upon getting close enough, it stood up on its four legs and bared its wickedly long sharp fangs.

“Mito!”

“Mito, no!”

She ignored the two voices that came from behind her, and sped up even more to slash the sharp snout of the alpha with her large scythe.

“GYAUUUU!”

The alpha wolf let out a high-pitched shriek, but its ＨＰ bar barely decreased by less than ten percent. Its yellow eyes searing with anger, it lowered its head, and jumped towards Mito.

Without a moment to spare Mito had already turned her body to run towards the west.

“GRROOOOO!”

Booming from behind, the alpha let out a roar strange for a wolf. Shortly after, more new spawned wolves also howled in unison in response.

Mito looked back for an instant, taking in the leader and a crowded group of fifty wolves running after her.

What matters is that she had their attention. The new wolves that appeared across the plaza hadn’t targeted her yet. Therefore, by attacking the leader, the alpha wolf, Mito wanted to make sure all the wolves were to target her collectively.

In addition, this action would lead the crowd away from Ashley and Yuna.

However, Mito didn’t believe she had a high enough dexterity stat to reach the field before the wolves would reach her.

So, there was only one solution to counter this manic swarm. Ashley and Yuna would scold her for this, but Asuna would probably be more forgiving.

Mito ran towards the road that extended from the western side of the plaza, intently going straight without turning right or left.

She could hear the resonating claws clashing against the ground and the heavy pants of the Dire Wolf Leader breathing down her neck, and behind it, a tempestuous horde of footsteps chasing after her.

——--‘keep following me, just a little more!’

Mito prayed whilst continuing to run towards the road she recalled passing by before. She ascended and descended a stone stairway, passed under a ruined arch, and then, the place she was aiming for appeared before her.

It was an oval shaped open plaza cut in half. The stone paved ground ended just a dozen meters ahead.

It was the place where she first heard Yuna sing—the border of Roesel Village, no, the border of Aincrad.

Mito didn’t feel any fear. On the contrary, she earnestly ran the remaining distance and used the wooden bench as a trampoline to give a determined leap.

Her body fell downwards, and the ground disappeared. From that point, she only saw a continuous pitch-dark empty void.

…‘Oh! I should have thrown away my scythe on the way. I’m not going to need it anymore, anyways.’

That could have been Mito’s final thought.

But then, *Gak!*, an impact shocked Mito’s body and she stopped falling.

“Gwraaaaaa!”

The Dire Wolf Leader furiously roared as it passed in front of her eyes. Immediately afterwards, several other wolves followed from above it.

Mito’s plan was to cause all the wolves to chase after her and then jump from the edge of Aincrad along with her to get rid of them all at the cost of her life. The boss wolf didn’t have the intelligence to stop chasing after its prey, and so along with its whole army of wolves, they all plunged into the void, swallowed by the infinite night sky, no longer able to be seen, and thus the village would be harmed no more.

Her strategy was a success, except for one single thing.

Having watched the wolves’ deaths, she turned her gaze upwards. There, she saw the large scythe grasped by her right hand was caught on a protuberance, attached only by the gentle curved tip of her scythe’s blade to a joist of wood that projected from the edge of the ground, that being the scarp of Aincrad.

“…Why…”

She murmured giving a little sigh.

She could have ended along with it all. She could have told Asuna that she had no other option and used all her might to do it——.

Disappointingly, at this point it would count as suicide if she stopped grasping the grip of her scythe with her right hand. But she neither had the energy to climb back up.

The night breeze gently whistled around her and Mito’s body swung gently in tune.

Suddenly, she heard a *Gish* sound and her body dropped one centimetre.

Mito concentrated her view on the joint of wood, noticing that it was due to her weight, that the blade of her large scythe was slicing through it. At this rate, her scythe would cut right through the joist of wood and finally let her fall into the dark void below.

A cracking sound resonated again. She only had to wait one minute… no, thirty seconds more.

Mito closed her eyes and tried to recall Asuna’s smile. However, when Mito visualised her at the door of her memories, she only saw a scolding look across her face——.

“…Mito!”

“Mito!!”

Two voices suddenly emerged from above Mito, and she turned her face upwards to meet them.

There, two meters above, she saw the outlines of Ashley and Yuna leaning from the edge of Aincrad.

“Mito, we’re going to pull you up, hang in there just a little bit longer!”

Ashley shouted, trying to reach the pointed blade of the large scythe attached to the joist. Mito hastily shouted back:

“Stop, you’ll fall too!”

“No such thing! Nobody’s going to let you die here!”

Ashley tried to reach the scythe with clear desperation, but she was already hanging over the edge by her waist. Only ten centimetres more and she would certainly lose her balance.

“Stop!! It’s over! I’m already done for!”

Mito continued letting out a frantic voice as she felt her blade slicing more and more through the joist.

“I… I’ve ran away and abandoned my most beloved partner… my closest friend! I have no reason to live anymore! So let me end it all here!!”

“…Mito…”

Ashley opened her eyes wide as Yuna suddenly brought her back up from behind:

However, she didn’t do that to stop Ashley from her intended rescue of Mito.

“Ley, hold me by this rope!”

With that determined order, Yuna made Ashley hold a rope that was somehow tied around her waist.

“Ro…roger that! I’ll count on you Yu-chan!”

Ashley nodded, disappearing from Mito’s sight as she wrapped the rope around her own body.

*Gish*, the scythe continued slicing the joist. It had but only two centimetres left.

As if following on queue, Yuna threw herself from the edge and the rope strained. Yuna’s gaze was clearly expressing dread as she was hanging, but that didn’t stop her desperately stretching out her right hand.

Her slender fingers grasped the blade of the scythe. They were outside the Area of Protection, so the sharp blade cut into her skin and damage effects scattered from it.

“Yuna, no!”

A little more force and her fingers would be cut straight off. Better that than the alternative. If the scythe didn’t cut her fingers, it would completely slice the joist, and Mito’s weight would drag Yuna with her and their weights would break the rope, or even drag Ashley down with them.

“That girl, Asuna, I… I want to go with her now! So, let me go Yuna!”

Mito demanded vehemently whilst raising her gaze to see one meter above her and——.

“She’s alive!”

Yuna shouted back, whilst stretching her left hand towards Mito.

“Mito, you didn’t see her die, right?!?! Then she is alive! I’m sure… I’m definitely, completely, absolutely sure that she’s alive!!”

Yuna spilled tears from both eyes, as her right hand was pouring blood coloured light effects that tapped against Mito’s cheeks.

There was no way she was alive. Mito herself saw how Asuna’s ＨＰ bar dropped to one single point.

It’s true that Mito didn’t see it directly, since she was so afraid that she purposely dissolved their party as to not watch her die.

A strong wind blew and Yuna’s hat fell to the void.

Mito’s body shook intensely and the blade of her scythe sunk even more.

“You… You just have to believe.”

Yuna whispered, and Mito saw Asuna’s smile in Yuna’s face.

‘Can I believe it? Believe that I can meet with Asuna once again in this world… no, that I even deserve to wish such a thing to be true?’

‘I can’t do it’

‘But——.’

When Mito noticed that the tears were also unconsciously streaming from her own eyes, she raised her left hand to catch the grip of her scythe.

With that hand she slowly pulled her body upwards, and with her right she let go of the grip to stretch towards Yuna’s left hand with all her might.
 
(The End)

To the twinkling stars up in the sky…

and to the gentle winds blowing through the hills…

Bestow your blessings… and guide the travellers…

​that wander toward the ancient city…

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