Sword Art Online - Volume 4 - Fairy Dance

by Reki Kawahara

  Then gently pulled it open.

  Part 2

  Forgetting to breathe, Suguha looked at the girl asleep on the large bed.

  At first, she thought the girl was not a human, but a fairy - the legendary ALF living at the top of the World Tree. The girl had such an otherworldly atmosphere.

  Kazuto stood quietly for a time, then finally breathed out a low sigh and said:

  “I shall introduce you. She is Asuna… the sub-leader of the «Knights of Blood», Asuna the «Flash», whose sword speed and accuracy were even greater than mine…”

  After a little break in his speech, Kirito lowered his eye to the girl and said:

  “Asuna, this is my sister, Suguha.”

  Suguha walked forward a bit, then nervously said:

  “…It is nice to meet you, Asuna-san.”

  Of course, the sleeping girl did not answer.

  Suguha moved her eyes to the dark blue headgear on her head. After seeing it nearly everyday, she had come to hate the «NERvGear». Only the three green lights indicated the continued existence of the girl, Asuna’s consciousness.

  While Onii-chan was trapped in that game for two years, she had felt immense pain, and Kazuto was feeling the same right then. Suguha’s heart trembled like a tree leaf on the surface of the water as she thought that.

  This beautiful, fairy-like girl’s soul, was locked up in an unknown world somewhere. It was too cruel. We should return her as fast as possible to the real world, back to Kazuto’s side, and he would finally be able to regain his sincere smile, she thought.

  But at the same time, standing next to Kazuto; his face, silently staring at the girl, was something she didn’t want to see, so she silently looked down. Just a little bit, she regretted coming to this place.

  When she had offered to accompany Kazuto, she thought she would be able to properly confirm her feelings today.

  Since the time her mother, Midori, told her the truth, she wanted to put straight those two years of regret and longing-filled days. Was it the affection for Kazuto as an older brother or would it be falling in love with him as a cousin? She had been asking herself what she could expect from Kazuto.

  Always wanting to be together - like the good relationship between siblings. Was it really only that? Training and eating together, was there anything else she wanted beyond that, or should she say there was nothing in her heart and stop there?

  Since he came back two months ago, that was a question that she have been asking herself time and again.

  She thought the answer would appear if she encountered the «girlfriend» occupying his heart.

  Now, standing in silence in the golden room, she noticed her heart was afraid. It was scary to find out the answer.

  Not looking at Kazuto’s face, she opened her mouth wanting to say : ‘I will go out to the hall so I won’t disturb you’ but Kazuto suddenly started walking and her timing was lost. He went around the bed and sat down in a chair at the other side. Naturally, he came into her field of view.

  Kazuto took Asuna’s small hand which peeked out from under white sheets in both of his hands, and silently gazed at the face of the sleeping girl. And as soon as Suguha saw his face -

  “Ugh…”

  A scathing pain pierced deep into her chest.

  What kind of eyes were those, she thought. They were the eyes of a traveler that sought his eternally fated partner… No matter how long it took, in this life or the next, no matter how many times he was reincarnated. Eyes filled with such a gentle, calm light, containing within them a crazed feeling of love. Even their color seemed different than usual.

  At that moment, Suguha knew what her heart truly wanted, and at the same time, she understood that she would never be able to reach it.

  She didn’t remember what she talked to Kazuto about on the way home.

  When she came back to awareness, she was lying down on her bed, looking at the sky-blue poster on the ceiling.

  The cell phone on her headboard made a sound. Instead of a ringtone, it was the alarm she had set before going to sleep last night. The time after the regular server maintenance was complete, 3:00 pm, and the gate to that other world opened once again.

  She did not want to shed any tears in the real world. If she cried, conversely it would mean she couldn’t give up, she thought.

  She would let herself cry a little bit in fairyland. Then, as the cheerful Lyfa, she would quickly regain her laugh.

  Suguha shut off her alarm and picked up the Amusphere next to it. She placed it on her head, laid down on her bed, closed her eyes, and let her soul fly.

  The Sylph girl awoke in an inn at the outer edge of Alfheim’s capital city «Aarun».

  Last night - the early hours of today, to be exact, Lyfa had barely succeeded in escaping from the underground world, Jötunheimr. Carved into the roots of the World tree was a very long set of stairs. Climbing up those stairs, they had finally reached the long-awaited streets of Aarun. A few seconds after emerging from those stairs, the big hole behind them had closed and you couldn’t even tell that it existed, and it wouldn’t be opened again from this side.

  After that, they checked into the first inn they found, and, rubbing her eyes, Lyfa fell asleep the second she rolled into bed. Though they could only afford one room.

  Lyfa got up and sat on the edge of the bed. The noise of the city, the smell of the air, even the color of her skin had changed, the only thing that didn’t change was the pain piercing her heart. As if changing form, the pain gathered at the corner of her eyes and dripped out as tears.

  A few dozen seconds later, the shadow of a new person appeared along with cool sound effects. Lyfa slowly raised her head.

  The boy wearing only black watched Lyfa with wide eyes, but immediately spoke in a soft voice.

  “What’s wrong… Lyfa?”

  He seemed so much like Kazuto, with a gentle smile like a night breeze. Seeing his face, a trickle of tears fell down Lyfa’s face and became grains of light, dancing through the air. Lyfa managed to squeeze out a smile and said:

  “You know, Kirito-kun… I… I was rejected in love.”

  Kirito’s dark eyes were looking straight at Lyfa. Fairly mature in appearance, for an instant she was tempted to tell this mysterious boy the entire story, but clenched her teeth and throttled down the impulse.

  “S… sorry, saying strange things to a person I just met. It’s against the rules right, bringing problems here from the real world…”

  Lyfa said quickly, trying to keep the shape of her smile. However, the tears which streamed down her face wouldn’t stop at all.

  Kirito gently extended his left arm, and placed his thin gloved hand on her head. Twice, three times he moved his caring hand.

  “- On the other side, or here, in the hard times, it is good to cry. Just because this is a game, there is no rule forbidding you to express your emotions.”

  In this illusion world, there is always some clumsiness in moving or speaking. However, Kirito’s soft, rhythmic voice and the movements of the hand that patted her head were very smooth. That information slowly wrapped around Lyfa’s sensory nerves without anything hindering the flow.

  “Kirito-kun…”

  Whispering that, Lyfa lay her head on the chest of the youth sitting beside her. As her steady tears fall to Kirito’s cloth, they dissipated in a watery light.

  ‘- I love onii-chan.’

  As if to confirm it, deep in her chest came a whisper. However, it continued at once.

  ‘- This feeling must never pass my lips. It must be locked very deep in my chest. So that someday it would be forgotten.’

  Even if they were cousins, Kazuto and Suguha were raised as big brother and sister. If she showed her emotions, Kazuto, father, and mother would all be confused and troubled. More importantly, the only one in Kazuto’s heart is that beautiful person…

  I must forget it all.

  Changing herself to Lyfa, laying her head on the chest of that mysterious
youth, someday she might be able to do it, she thought.

  Staying like that for a very long time, Kirito continued to pat Lyfa’s head without saying anything.

  Hearing a bell sound coming from far outside the window, Lyfa lifted her head and looked at Kirito’s face. This time she could make the same everyday smile. Before she realized it, her tears had stopped.

  “…I’m all right now. Thank you, Kirito-kun, you are very kind.”

  Hearing this, Kirito scratched his head, looking really embarrassed.

  “A lot people said the opposite. - Do you want to log out for today? I was thinking of doing something even by myself.”

  “No, I have already came this far, so I’ll accompany you to the end.”

  Lyfa jumped off the bed and stood up. Turned a half circle, she faced Kirito and stretched out her right hand.

  “- Let`s Go!”

  With a smile beginning at the edge of his lips, Kirito nodded and grasped Lyfa`s hand. Standing up, he suddenly started scanning the sky, as though he had forgotten something.

  “Yui, are you there?”

  Before that sentence was finished, light started to converge, and a familiar small pixie’s figure appeared in the space between them. Rubbing her eyes with her right hand, she stretched in a big yawn.

  “Fuwaa~~ Good morning Papa, Lyfa-san.”

  The pixie landed on Kirito`s shoulder. While looking at her face, Lyfa returned the greeting and asked a question.

  “Good morning, Yui-chan. - You know, I have been wondering since yesterday… do navigation pixies actually need to sleep at night too?”

  “No way, I don’t do that. When papa is not here, the input signal is cut off. So I take that opportunity to verify and organize the accumulated data. You might say that it’s an act similar to human sleep.”

  “But just now, you yawned…”

  “Isn’t that what people do during their start-up sequence? As for papa, the average is around eight seconds…”

  “You don’t need to say such strange things.”

  Kirito poked Yui on the forehead with his index finger, then bringing up the navigation window, equipped the greatsword on his back.

  “Now, let’s go!”

  “Yeah!”

  Lyfa nodded, and hung her own katana at her waist.

  The two headed out of the inn with the morning sun fully in the sky. The NPC run shops, like the armor and item shops, were mostly open, while night places like taverns, strange item shops and other questionable industries had a ‘CLOSED’ sign in front.

  In real world time, it was a bit after 3pm on a weekday afternoon. After the regular weekly maintenance, the monsters and items reset and respawn, so there were far more players than expected.

  Although this morning she was sleepy so didn’t look around too much, but now, looking at the large number of people out on the street was a fresh surprise.

  There was a Gnome with a squat, beefy body wrapped in metal armor, carrying a huge battle axe on his back. A Puca with a little body, only standing as tall as her waist, holding a silver harp. An Imp with dark lilac skin, wearing leather armor, while walking and happily chatting with characters of various races. On a stone bench nearby, a blue-haired young man of the Undine race and a red-headed young woman of the Salamander race were looking at each other intimately, while a Cait Sith passed by with a huge wolf by his side.

  Instead of the totally green cityscape of Sylvain, this was extremely bright and colorful scenery, full of vitality which set the heart ablaze. Lyfa somehow forgot the constant pain deep in her heart and had a smile floating on her face.

  Even a Spriggan-Sylph couple would fit in here - thinking of that Lyfa hurried to dispel the idea. Turning her attention toward the street again -

  “Wow…”

  But, suddenly there was an incredible view.

  Aarun was the central city of ALfheim, and from its center rose a super huge conical structure. Looking at Aarun like a panorama, it had the shape of many concentric rings, and they were still considerably far from the center.

  Standing tall on the surface of Aarun’s streets were some structures that were not made with light gray stone. Instead, many huge moss-green cylinders wound upward. The diameter of one of those was equal to a two-story building.

  The cylindrical objects Aarun was built around are actually tree roots. From Jötunheimr deep below, they run through the thick ground, winding and twisting up, becoming bigger and gathering at the top of Aarun. In other words, it could be said that Aarun mirrored the gigantic icicle below in Jötunheimr.

  Lyfa looked farther up. At that moment she felt excitement running down her back.

  Starting from the roots, words could not describe how massive the trunk was, it rose straight into the sky. Covered by moss and other plants, a glossy golden green trunk, which as it rose into the sky blended and faded into light blue. Around the trunk, laid a white haze which surrounded it before long. It was not fog, but clouds. They were marking the flight boundary, but the trunk continued higher and higher.

  Just below the point where the trunk faded into the sky, you could somehow grasp that branches radiate outward. Thin and broad leaves covered the outer layer to where Lyfa was at as they blocked the sky. From its excessive size, the top of the world tree might have actually extended past the atmosphere of ALfheim to space - if that existed - and beyond.

  “That is… the World Tree…”

  Kirito whispered in an awestruck voice.

  “Yes… Incredible….”

  “Isn’t there a city in the tree, there…”

  “The fairy king Oberon and light fairy ALF lives there, and the first player race to have an audience with the king will become an ALF… That has been said.”

  “…”

  Kirito looked at the giant tree in silence, then with a serious expression asked:

  “That tree, can you climb up from the outside?”

  “The area around the trunk is a restricted area, so climbing it is not possible. Even flight is impossible, you would hit the flight limit before you reached the top.”

  “I heard that people who piggybacked were able to exceed that limit…”

  “Oh, that story.”

  Lyfa laughed and continued:

  “They got close to the lowest branch. The GM[1]s were in a panic, and it was soon fixed. Now, a little bit above those clouds, there is a wall.”

  “…I see… Anyway, let’s go to the base of the tree.”

  “Yes. Understood.”

  With a light nod the two began to walk down the main street.

  After a few minutes of weaving back and forth through the mixed groups of players, they came to a grand stone stairway leading up to a large gate. Through the gate lies the central city of Aarun, which lies in the center of the world. Soaring into the sky, the World Tree could only be seen as a wall in all directions.

  While faced with that atmosphere, they began to climb the stairs. They were going to pass the gate when -

  Yui suddenly pushed her face out of Kirito’s breast pocket, and with an unusually serious face looked at the sky.

  “Oh, hey… what’s wrong?”

  Kirito whispered to avoid notice by the people surrounding them. Lyfa also looked at the pixie’s face. However, Yui remained silent with her eyes wide open looking at the top of the world tree. After a few seconds, her voice finally leaked through tight lips.

  “Mama… Mama is there.”

  “Wha…”

  Kirito’s expression instantly stiffened.

  “Really!?”

  “There is no doubt! This Player ID is Mama’s… the coordinates are straight above!”

  Kirito, who heard those words, looked into the sky with burning eyes. His face became white and he clenched his teeth so hard you could even hear them grinding–

  Suddenly, he expanded his wings. Flexing his dark gray wings, which suddenly glowed incandescent, Bang!! With that explosive wind sound, he disappeared from the groun
d.

  “Wa… Wait, Kirito-kun!!”

  Lyfa hurriedly cried, but the boy in black continued to soar at tremendous speed. Unsure what was going on, Lyfa spread her wings and kicked off the ground.

  Straight up zoom, the same as straight down dive, are skills Lyfa excelled at, but she could not catch up to Kirito as he flew like a booster rocket, the black figure shrinking to a point as she watched.

  Passing between the countless spires rising from Aarun, it took a few seconds to escape the city. From tower terraces, some players looked to see what was happening, Kirito just flew past their noses and kept heading straight up.

  The buildings were finally lost to sight, replaced by the golden-green precipice of the World Tree’s trunk. Flying parallel to the trunk, Kirito was like a black bullet zooming through the sky. As Kirito steadily approached the clouds, Lyfa followed and desperately cried out while enduring the wind pressure.

  “Be careful, Kirito-kun!! The barrier is right in front of you!!”

  But Lyfa’s voice did not reach his ears. He was like an arrow connecting the heavens and earth, moving with enough speed to punch a hole in the virtual world.

  What made him go so far? Who is this person at the top of the World Tree that is so important to him?

  Yui called that person «Mama». A woman - ? A person that can make Kirito search like this - ?

  As she thought that, a familiar ache started in Lyfa’s heart. It felt like the pain Kazuto had caused her, but it was a false pain.

  Concentration disrupted by confusion, her zoom speed dropped. Shaking off the idle thoughts, Lyfa focused her concentration on her wings.

  A few seconds after Kirito, Lyfa also broke into the sea of clouds. Her vision was stained with an intense white. She had heard of it before, just beyond the clouds was a restricted area where entry is forbidden. Lyfa slowed down a bit as she passed through the clouds.

  Without any warning, a dark blue world spread out before her. Different from the view from the ground, the totally clear azure blue sky spread endlessly in all directions. Overhead, the World Tree and its branches gave the impression of a pillar supporting the heavens. Kirito was accelerating further as he aimed for one of the branches -