Prologue, Chapter 1:
In the Flesh?
It began as a dream, as it always did. The soft breeze blowing, the pleasant clatter of the rocking chair, and the sound of her slow, even breathing - the last moments of beautiful contentment before everything went to hell. But then he tried to pull her close, and felt her no more, as the dream quickly dissolved into a nightmare. The late-autumn light was snuffed out, the wind grew to a frigid howl, and the very walls of their cabin disappeared into motes of blue light. Finally, when there was nothing left - save for the unfinished, still-rocking chair, and the darkness - Kirito shut his eyes and screamed out Asuna's name.
"Just sitting there with your head in the sand isn't going to help at all, you know."
"Huh?" Kirito opened his eyes to see the spitting image of his final days in Aincrad. Clad in his signature black coat and sporting both
Elucidator and
Dark Repulser, was himself, standing before him. Kazuto stared at the mirror image with glowing yellow eyes before him, and the mirror stared back.
"Have you been enjoying life back in the world?" Had he? "Can you name one thing you've done since you got 'home?'"
Naturally, Kazuto had the perfect answer.
"Ummm… what?"
"Have you?" The mirror tilted his head and kept staring as Kazuto racked his brain for an honest answer.
"... rehab?"
The mirror sighed. "Anything else?"
At this, Kazuto was silent.
The mirror gave a deep sigh. "So nothing at all. Then I have a suggestion." A ring of blue torches flickered to life in the dark void, and revealed what had once been the chamber of The Gleam Eyes.
Kazuto felt himself tremble. "W-Who the hell are you?"
Somehow…he knew in his gut. His impression of him being a mirror… wasn't far off, was it?
"Who am I? I'm you, of course." said… Kazuto decided to call him
Kirito. "And
we belong back
here." The mirror spread his arms wide, gesturing to the site where he took on a boss by himself, and won.
Kazuto felt his stomach crater to the ground.
"It is over," he said, shakily. "Kayaba is gone, Aincrad is gone. The time of the Black Swordsman is over."
Kirito gave a sly grin. "But do you really wish it to be? Were you happy when it all ended?"
"I was! I don't miss fighting for my life day in and day out!" Kazuto was exasperated. Just who in the hell did this… shadow think he was?
Kirito tilted his head. "Then why haven't you kept your promises then? You haven't talked to anyone else from the game, the most conversation you've had with Suguha since you got back has been 'dinner's ready,' and the only reason you have any plans other than staying inside on the couch is because Kikuoka twisted your arm, in some vain hope that they'll tell you why Asuna will be stuck in that helmet for the short remainder of her-"
"Shut up!" Kazuto shouted at his doppelganger, enraged. "Not. Another. Word. About. Asuna."
"Ahhh… temper, temper, you know I only speak the truth…" Kirito chuckled, without humor. "The deep, dark truth that you turn away from in fear. But you and I know this world won't work for us. So let's go back to what does." Kirito snapped his fingers, and the NerveGear reappeared on Kazuto's head. "To stats and skills and swords and monsters. Simple, sensible things."
"No… I won't go back… I'll never-"
"On the contrary, we
will." And for a second time that night, Kazuto Kirigaya let out a scream of agony in his tortured mind.
When Kazuto opened his eyes again, he was in his room. His real room. In his real house. In the real world. Kazuto looked at his old NerveGear, sitting on his shelf. Not on his head, thankfully. Now, what time was-
"Big brother, breakfast is ready! Hurry up, or you'll be late!"
Time to face the world, either way. Kazuto rubbed his eyes and grabbed his phone. Opening it up to check his calendar, he noticed an app with a strange-looking eye, that he could've sworn had never been there before.
Sunday, January 5th, 2025.
Morning.
Suguha Kirigaya was, in many ways, the polar opposite of her brother. He was a computer nerd who spent all of his free time gaming. She was a nationally-ranked kendo practitioner. He could get perfect grades in math without trying. She was an honors student through meticulous studying. He was carefree, and ran on his own schedule. She was punctual, showing up on the dot.
But before all of that, he was her brother, and she was his sister. And that meant something. Or so she once thought.
The truth was, even before
Sword Art Online stole him away for two years, Suguha and Kazuto had been drifting further apart ever since he'd discovered the truth, as her parents had told her, by finding his adoption records. But by the time she had noticed, he had put the helmet on and left the real world.
Now her cousin was back, and just a few days into the new year, he was being sent off to a different high school.
Not that she could find fault with any of it; the parents of the younger survivors wanted everything back to normal, as if their kids had never left, and the Task Force obliged them. All school-aged survivors, after being deemed psychologically stable, were to be offered admission back into school. Kazuto had weathered the storm quite well, so his old transcripts had been among the first to be circulated among potential schools.
Pretty quickly, Shujin Academy had called dibs, and offered the Kirigayas a full ride, courtesy of the Task Force.
Suguha didn't want to mouth off that boiling feeling bubbling up her stomach, that irrational feeling that this situation felt so…
Suguha looked up from her breakfast in time to see Kazuto clatter down the stairs, dressed in a white turtleneck with a black blazer and the distinctive plaid pants of the Shujin Academy uniform. His eyes were gloomy, and the skin below them dark from sleepless nights, as he opened the rice cooker and scooped out a bowlful.
While the man from the Task Force that looked over Kazuto during his time in SAO - this Kikuoka guy - didn't give much details on what happened while he was inside that game - who could tell at this point? - he confirmed that his brother had been some big figure inside the game…a Clearer, was the term he used. A player on the front lines of the game.
Bypassing the initial shock of seeing her cousin doing such things, Suguha then proceeded to reflect on the sort of things he must have seen there. Never mind being face to face with monsters, the knowledge that seeing someone die in the game meant their brain got cooked was probably enough to keep him awake for nights - at least Suguha felt that would be the case with her.
Then again, she didn't know Kazuto as well as she thought… For the last few years he felt more like a stranger living in their home than her brother.
Not that she had done much to help on that front.
"Another nightmare?" asked a feminine, yet strong voice. Mom.
Any other woman in the situation of Midori Kirigaya would have been a wreck after the slew of tragedies of her life. Lost her sister and brother-in-law, had to take upon her wing to care for her sister's son, and then deal with the fact that he was constantly putting his neck at risk in that mad, mad world created by Kayaba Akihiko, all while her husband and Suguha's father, Minetaka, was forced to stay overseas for his job and juggling her job as an editor on a coveted magazine about computers.
Yet, even then, she kept walking forward for her family's sake - and for her own sake as well.
He grimaced.
"...yeah," he said, munching on his breakfast. Suguha noticed that he felt…more confused than anything, which felt different from his usual skittish behavior after a bad night. Maybe he didn't have dreams as scary as before?
Midori bit her lips.
"Kazuto…you know the government is always offering-"
"It's alright," he interrupted. "I… I'm okay. I'll deal with it."
…Suguha hated how he looked. The forced smile he put in an attempt to not worry mom. How his body still trembled, barely having got out of rehab and still looking as if a breeze could snap him like a twig. He looked so…fragile.
Midori lowered her hands.
"Alright," she said. "We´re leaving in ten minutes. Suguha, take care of the dishes while we´re out."
The girl gave a silent nod as Kazuto continued to eat.
'...come on, talk,' she said to herself. How she wanted to put all the things that went through her head in the last two years out of her mouth. To ask Kazuto what he had been doing all of these years, what he thought of her, how he felt about their family -
And he was gone. Giving a silent farewell, Midori helped him to the car and then left.
The kendo champion shuffled away from the kitchen. The plates could be done later. Right now she just wanted to be someone else.
It had been a few years since Kazuto had last been to Tokyo.
Much of the beating heart of Japan had remained the same in his absence. But much had also changed - and save for the time Suguha had dragged him along to window-shop with her one cold December day years ago, Kazuto had never been a regular visitor to Aoyama.
It was not all that far from his home in Kawagoe: all told, it would take about an hour and a half for Kazuto to get to school. And yet, after spending so much time cut off from the real world, Aoyama felt like an entirely different planet.
And Shujin looked about as inviting as the prison below the Black Iron Palace.
It was almost enough to get Kazuto to hum that old English rock tune. But on the contrary, Kazuto did need some education. He just wasn't sure Principal Kobayakawa would be the right man to take charge of it.
"Here at Shujin Academy, we pride ourselves on having Japan's best and brightest students. Many of our alumni go on to do great things. And young man, I am certain that despite your… unique circumstances, you will be proud to call yourself a student of Shujin Academy."
He seemed nice enough. Magnanimous, even. But Kazuto had spent too long in a place where you always had to watch your back - and something about his new principal put him on edge.
"Naturally, our students are held to the highest standards, so we expect you to l be on your best behavior. Is that understood, Mr. Kirigaya? I would prefer to not have any issues with you."
"Yes, Mr. Kobayakawa." Like Kazuto had ever been one to get in trouble. Unless there was a computer involved - but that was ages ago, in junior high.
"Good. Now, you will be in Ms. Chuono's class." Kobayakawa gestured to the raven-haired woman in a purple dress standing next to him.
"It's nice to meet you, Kirigaya-kun. I am Tomoko Chuono." She spoke Japanese with a hint of an American accent.
"I'll be in your care." Kazuto gave a brief, respectful bow.
"I have your ID card here." Ms. Chuono handed Kazuto his student ID. He gave the card a once over. Plain, simple, emblazoned with the school crest - and the most dead inside he had ever looked for an ID photo.
"Wonderful. Since you are joining us so late in the year, you will have a few weeks to get situated in your studies, and then we will assign a tutor to help you cover anything you might be struggling with before the end of the year. Does that sound alright?
"Yes, sir." Truth be told, Kazuto didn't think he'd need a tutor. But he went along.
It was probably just a thinly veiled attempt at surveillance, all things considered. As was that app that had showed up again not long after he had gotten in the car.
The principal clasped his hands together. "Great. Now, did you have anything you'd like to ask, Mrs. Kirigaya?"
"Nope. I think we've covered everything."
"And did you have anything more to add, Ms. Chuono?"
Ms. Chuono looked at Kazuto with an appraising eye. "No, sir."
"Then that will be all for today." Principal Kobayakawa lumbered out of his seat, and gave a short bow. "I hope you have a productive time here at Shujin Academy, Mr. Kirigaya."
Kazuto and his mom gave their own bows. "Likewise, Principal." An empty platitude. Kazuto made to turn towards the door but was stopped by a final comment from the principal.
"Oh, and Mr. Kirigaya? If you know of any… students from your… unique cohort who would be a good fit for Shujin, please send them my way."
Funnily enough, Kazuto couldn't think of any survivors
Shujin would be worthy of.
"Let's go over it again. Take the Tojo to Ikebukuro, and then the Yamanote to Shibuya. And then…"
"The Ginza line to Aoyama-Itchome." Kazuto parroted back at his mom.
"And backward?"
"Ginza to Shibuya, Yamanote to Ikebukuro, Tojo to Kawagoe." Kazuto rattled off the route as they walked down the stairs to the busy streets of Shibuya - the beating heart of Tokyo.
Midori nodded. "Now, since you have a student pass, you shouldn't need to worry about the fare…"
As Midori gave her son instructions on what the next few weeks were going to look like, Kazuto's attention drifted. He was more focused on his phone.
And that blasted app, which was now front and center on the screen.
'What a pain in the ass!' he thought. The boy was sure of having deleted the damn thing, but he looked at the phone while in the car and there it was. He kept trying to delete it, but the damn thing just wouldn't stop popping back up!
Kazuto was so focused on trying to get the app to do
something - or better yet,
go away - that it took him a few seconds to notice that his mom had stopped.
How the city itself had stopped.
How
the entire world had stopped.
Kazuto looked all around himself at Shibuya in freeze-frame. He glanced at the businessmen in the midst of their phone calls, at the students discussing where to go for a snack.
He stared at the flaming mass in the middle of the Scramble, forming itself into the figure of a man.
Kazuto stared at the flames. The flames stared back at him, and smiled. And for just a moment, Kazuto saw himself - eyes gleaming yellow, just as they did in his nightmare.
"Kazuto? Kazuto! Are you alright?"
Kazuto snapped out of his trance. "Umm, yeah. I'm okay. I'm fine." He looked around for a moment. Shibuya was in motion once more. "Is something wrong?"
"You were just staring into the distance for a bit. And you look pale." Midori sighed. "I'm starving. Let's go get something to eat."
The diner off Central Street was a popular option to grab a bite to eat and relax. And regardless of the cold, with Sunday came the afternoon rush of customers on their day off. Four friends sat around a table discussing some new drama. A dark-haired boy sat in the corner with a sketchbook, watching the patrons as they dined.
And a mother and son sat across one another at a booth. Except she wasn't really his mother, and he wasn't really her son.
"You used to beg me to go to Shibuya all the time when you were younger. Wanted to get parts for your computers," Midori laughed. "I always said I would buy them, but you kept insisting to follow me to choose the parts you needed yourself. I guess even back then you already had an independent streak…"
Midori looked at her son's face. There was a ghost of a smile. "I guess I did…" Kazuto let through the briefest of laughs. "That, and Akihabara. I could never get enough Dampla, could I?"
"Oh, don't remind me. We're
still finding bits of plastic from that." Midori smiled. And for a moment, Kazuto smiled too.
Then the smile turned sad, and the moment was gone.
"I will probably not be able to take you to the school every day, Kazuto," Midori said. "If I happen to have some work to do in the area, I might be able to take you, but you'll have to rely on the train to get to the school when I don't. Do you think you can walk for long with no issue?"
"I'm already using my bike, mom," he said. "I'll be fine."
'I'll be fine.' Kazuto had said that a lot since he came back from
Sword Art Online.
Midori could've seen right through that lie even if she hadn't raised him.
Maybe he would be fine. Maybe it would all turn out okay. Maybe Asuna, the girl he visited every chance he got, would wake up and everything would be right with the world.
And maybe it wouldn't. And there might be nothing Midori could do.
"Well, you better eat up, or else you won't have energy for tomorrow. You've barely eaten your Salisbury steak!"
"I guess…" Reluctantly, Kazuto set about eating the rest of his food.
He may have not been her son, and she may not have been his mother. But she'd be damned if she didn't try.
By the time he got back, Kazuto was almost ready to pass out on his bed. He settled for a less dramatic sit-and-lie-back routine instead. Automatically, he brought his phone up to pass the time for a bit before heading off to bed.
Which brought him face-to-face with that eye, yet again.
Kazuto had seen enough. He sat up, walked to his desk, and turned his computer on. Two years stuck in a death game or not, Kirito was a talent extraordinaire when it came to hacking, and this little eye would fall like everything else.
Except, it didn't. After eight hours of tinkering and trying everything under the sun to reverse engineer the app - minus the half hour he spent eating dinner after Suguha dragged him from his computer by the ear - Kirito had nothing to show. The app would show up 10 minutes later every time he deleted it. All it had was a field for a name, a location, and a "distortion", whatever that meant. Worst of all, the app didn't even seem to exist on his phone in a way he could reverse engineer - no packages, no bundles, no nothing.
Kirito yawned, and glanced at his clock - and did a double take. "How is it one in the morning already?!" This was bad. He had school tomorrow. Finally conceding the fight for the day, Kazuto trudged out of his room to shower up for bed.
It began as a dream, as it always did. The cool wind washed over his face, the rocking chair clattered along, and she rested on his chest, as she always did in those last moments of beautiful contentment before everything went to hell. But when he tried to pull her close, he felt no more, and the dream became a nightmare. The late autumn light gave way to darkness, and the very walls of their cabin vanished into shards of purple light. Finally, when there was nothing left, save for the unfinished chair, still rocking gently, Kirito shut his eyes and screamed out Asuna's name.
But this time, when he bolted awake, Kazuto found himself not in his real-world bedroom, but on a hard slab in a room with deep purple walls. As he roused himself to his feet, he noticed - with a slight amount of alarm - chains shackled around his arms, and a ball and chain around his ankle. The perfect accessories to match his new striped pajamas.
Outside of his cell, he saw the twin girls clad in the same deep velvet as the walls, with white hair and black eye patches to cover their
yellow eyes. Curious - and fearful, Kazuto walked up to the bars, and looked outward.
Staring back at him was a strange man sitting at a desk, with a deep voice and a long nose.
"Trickster, welcome to my Velvet Room."
