Sword Art Online - Volume 10 - Alicization Running

by Reki Kawahara

  ...The sword's... memories.

  These words were revived in my ears again, and was immediately covered by my roar.

  “O...OOOOOOOHHHH!!!”

  I squeezed out what remained of my strength and will, and raised my right foot—forward.

  *ZUN*. The moment my right foot landed on the floor, the intensity of the energy caused by the clash between the two swords crossed the limit and exploded.

  That was caused by a high level combustible Sacred Art spell, blowing Uolo and me away while we're unable to resist. However, both of us refused to back down as we continued leaning forward and steady our feet. The soles that were hardened rubbed against the floor of the arena, and small whiffs of smoke rose. We dragged two lines of burnt marks as Uolo and I stopped right at the edges of the arena.

  Both sides had their swords deflected greatly. Uolo's «Avalanche» ended as the orange light effect faded gradually.

  However— My «Vertical Square» continued to activate even with my hands holding my sword.

  “SEIAAAAHHH!!”

  I let out my momentum, stamped backwards and let out the final hit by releasing an overhead slash. The sword drew a bright blue arc... right at Uolo's undefended chest—

  *Chuu*. It gently grazed by, stopping just right in front of the broken tile on the floor. The Vertical Square was not a lunge attack. I tried my best to extend its range, but it wasn't enough to reach through the entire arena.

  Uolo and I stared at each other from close range[6]... At that moment, a sharp voice rang.

  “THAT'S ENOUGH!!”

  I instinctively leapt back, pulled my distance and lowered my sword. Uolo did the same on the other side as he got out of battle mode.

  Once I realized this, I looked over at the source of the voice in a skeptical manner, wondering who dared to decide this over the head swordsman trainee in this spar that didn't have any umpire. Then, I was speechlessly shocked when I saw Miss Azurika, the dorm supervisor of the novice trainees.

  Why would she, a mere dorm supervisor instead of an instructor, do such an umpire-like decision? And why did Uolo actually listen to her obediently?

  I stood blankly while these two heavy doubts surrounded me. At this moment, the head swordsman trainee who lowered his sword whispered to me from the left,

  “That lady's decision has to be abided by.”

  “...Eh, well... Why is that?”

  “Because that woman was the first swordsman representative of the Norlangarth Empire during the Four Empire Unity tournament 7 years ago.”

  EHH—!?

  Uolo Levanteinn turned back to me, with my eyes nearly popping out, and nodded with a pilgrim-like expression instead of the sword berserker chilling expression from before.

  “The punishment for you has ended, novice trainee Kirito. Be careful not to stain other people's clothing with dirt in the future.”

  After saying that, Uolo sheathed the sword back onto his left waist and turned away.

  The white and blue uniform casually crossed through the entire arena, and at the moment he disappeared through the exit—

  "UWAAHHH!!" A tremendous applause rained down on the entire large practice field. Shocked, I looked around, and saw that the almost 100 students and even the teachers on the spectator stands were applauding. At the frontmost row, standing right beside dorm supervisor Azurika, who was applauding away with the usual serious expression, was my teary partner— Eugeo, clapping away. I raised a left fist at him gently. Beside him was the large frame of his mentor, Golgosso-sempai who had appeared unknowingly.

  Finally, I glanced at the sword in my right hand, checked whether it reverted back to its original size, and sheathed it back with a chiin sound— at that moment.

  *BOSSN!*

  My shoulders were slammed hard, causing me to jump up slightly. The white slender hands clumsily turned me around, and I saw Solterina-sempai giving a teary expression that was worse than Eugeo.

  “...I thought you were about to be sliced down.”

  I heard this in a voice that probably only I could hear, and nodded.

  “Yeah... I thought so too.”

  “...You knew and yet you wouldn't surrender...... You, big idiot.”

  Sempai closed her eyes, and her eyebrows twitched slightly. However, it seemed that she finally managed to stop her crying with a saving roll as she took a deep breath and opened her eyes wide. Her navy blue eyes had a gentle light I had never seen before.

  “That was beautiful... Really an exciting match, Kirito. Allow me to thank you first. It's a pity I can't have it to myself... But, you showed me a fight with all you had as you promised... Thank you.”

  “Eh... But, the result was a draw...”

  “Are you still unhappy that it was a draw, even if it was against that Levanteinn?”

  “N-No, that's not it.”

  As she saw me shake my head like a wave, sempai let out a rare giggle, put her lips at my ears and whispered.

  “It's not a question of winning or losing here. Your performance in your fight showed me something important... Something very important. I feel thoroughly proud to be the inheritor of the Celulute-style... and happy... to be able to be your mentor too.”

  *Pon*. Rina-sempai knocked me on the shoulder, straightened herself, and said with some traces of smile on her lips,

  “There's still some time until the curfew. How about you come over to my room to celebrate? You can bring Eugeo-kun too... As for his mentor, well, I'll let him in too.”

  On hearing sempai's words, I showed a grin and nodded. I turned around, raised my hand at Eugeo, and pointed at the exit. I saw him and Golgosso-sempai walk there, and I walked side by side with Rina-sempai out of the still energetic arena.

  During this time, what took up 70% of my mind wasn't the hidden stash of red wine sempai had, not about Golgosso-sempai's continuous passionate sword skill history lectures—

  ...I could actually surrender when sparring while a punishment's carried out!!!

  But that.

  From the corner of my eyes, I saw that Rainos and Wanbell were giving weird stares over here, but I basically ignored them and didn't bother.

  Part 6

  In the floating city of Aincrad that once existed, there were alcoholic drinks that were like rich red wine and light colored beer.

  But logically speaking, even if I gulped down one large barrel of strong alcohol, it would be impossible for me to get drunk. That's because the physical body lying in the real world never took a single drop of alcohol.

  Here, what was most shocking was that in this world, the alcohol was all the real stuff— In other words, I would get drunk if I drink a lot. The theory behind it was most likely because the Fluctlights had the signal «Drunken state» and that prompted it. However, it seemed like the designer who designed such a merciless world had a small sense of conscience as even if drunk, it was 'an active state where people don't lose their minds'. Since there won't be drunkards who would make a huge ruckus and start bawling, there wouldn't be people breaking the law by getting drunk.

  —Even so, nobody could guarantee whether this protective function would be effective on me, so I stopped after drinking two glasses of grape wine in the 'celebratory event' held in Rina-sempai's room. However, sempai opened a secret stash that was kept for more than 100 years, causing me, a complete amateur to grape wine, to exclaim that it was good wine, so this self-restrain cost quite a lot of willpower from me.

  Sempai, Eugeo, Golgosso-sempai and I got together as we talked about our memories through this year, our predictions for the graduation/promotion duels, and the passionate lectures about sword skills and styles. Time flew, and it was 15 minutes till the curfew of the novice trainee dorm.

  I reluctantly retreated from the elite swordsmen dorm and returned back to my dorm with Eugeo. I left my partner who was so drunk he wouldn't wake up in the room and walked to the flower pot on the west side. Even though it was a rest day, I had to water the Zephyria flower
s. I walked down the stairs from the second floor and opened the gates of the dorm.

  During the time I laid Eugeo on the bed and put my black sword into the drawer, the last trace of light disappeared from the sky, and the outside was shrouded by the night.

  I closed my eyes gently and slowly took in the cooling night breeze and the smell of Anemone into my chest— while I was doing so, I inadvertently frowned. There was some form of fragrance that was different from the flowers being planted, the sticky animal-like odor was mixed in slightly. Also, I had an impression on this smell. It was what I smelled at dinner last night... But, this was a smell that shouldn't exist.

  I suddenly opened my eyes wide, focused my gaze on the path that divided the flower beds into two sides, and two figures appeared on the other side of the darkness. They were wearing grey uniforms, just like me, the novice trainee uniforms. However, they undid more than 3 buttons in front of their chest, seemingly baring the weird colored shirts inside for others to see. The one who wore the sticky glossy red shirt was Rainos Antinos, while the one wearing a slightly fluorescent light yellow shirt was Wanbell Jezeku.

  Why would they, who weren't assigned the job of planting and didn't look like they had any interest in planting, be in the garden... Once this thought appeared in my mind, a bad premonition reached me. I, who took a step out from the door on the west wall of the dorm, stood rooted. Right in front of me, Rainos and Wanbell came right at me, and then stopped 1m away from me.

  “Oh my oh my. This is really a coincidence, trainee Kirito.”

  Rainos used a sly... yet crude voice that was full of ill intent.

  “I wanted to look for you now. This would save quite some work.”

  Wanbell, who was standing right behind, let out an energetic cackle, seemingly giving a melody to these words. I turned back to Rainos, and coldly spoke,

  “...What do you want?”

  On hearing these really cold words, Wanbell's face twisted, but Rainos swung his right arm to stop him and answered my question.

  “Of course, I want to offer my praise to your splendid battle. Who could have thought that a valet who was given a restriction could fight to a draw with that Levanteinn-dono?”

  “Oh my my, that's true. Those toying-like sword skills really caused the chairman-dono to have quite the hard time.”

  “Ku ku ku.” Both of them chuckled in unison once they finished. I lowered my voice even further, and spoke,

  “Are you praising me? Or are you going to have me sell a fight to you?”

  “Hahaha. How can that be possible? High class nobles will never ask peasants to sell anything! Of course, the dorm would still be the dorm!”

  After laughing happily for quite a while, Rainos reached his left hand into his uniform pocket, and pulled out something thin and long.

  “To praise you for your act... excuse me, for your courageous duel, allow me to offer this. You have to take this.”

  Rainos took a step forward and stuffed something into the chest pocket of my uniform.

  “...Then, we'll take our leave first. Sweet dreams, Kirito-dono.”

  Raino's muttered slightly to me from close distance as he smirked. He shook his blond hair and passed by me. Wanbell then followed him and brought his face over.

  “Don't get too cocky, you peasant without a family name.”

  He left these words and followed Rainos.

  *BAM!* Even after both of them walked into the door and seemingly slammed the gate shut, I was unable to move for the time being. That was because—

  What Rainos stuck into my chest was a flower bud that had a near-blue leaf and was about to be released. I used my icy cold right hand to take it out from my pocket and stared at it carefully.

  The tender stem was violently snapped, and it was not any of the «Four Sacred Flowers» grown in the flower beds. It was the West Empire produce, the Zephyria flowers that I continued to grow painstakingly no matter how many times I failed during this half year.

  Once I realized this, I gritted my teeth with enough force to crush the bud. If I had my sword now, maybe I would have rushed into the dorm and sliced Rainos and Wanbell up into countless pieces. I gripped tightly onto the light watercolored flower bud in my right hand and charged towards the garden. I ran past the cross junction of the road and into the shed near the wall on the other wall. The white porcelain planted laid at a corner of the shed entered my eyes.

  “...Ah, ahhh....”

  My throat let out such a hoarse voice.

  The 23 Zephyria seedlings that sprouted from the seeds I bought from the spice merchants, these seeds that usually grew in a foreign land, and were about to sprout out— were all mercilessly snapped in half.

  Round flower buds were devastated as they fell around the planter, and they had lost their unique blue-green color. The stems left in the dirt were sagged, and obviously, their Lives were decreasing drastically.

  In the midst of these dead flower buds, the weapons for this massacre were standing there like tombstones. Those were long and narrow sickles used for plants with round fruits. Some people... No, Rainos and Wanbell swung these sickles and mercilessly hacked the flower buds down.

  The strength was sucked out from my legs, and I knelt down in front of the planter with a thud.

  I blankly stared at the flower buds that were scattered around, thinking with my mind that was half numb.

  Why? While I knew the motive and methods clearly, but why were they able to do such things? Deliberately destroying other people's goods was completely against the Taboo Index. Even high-ranking nobles shouldn't be able to break this absolute law.

  In Underworld, the possession rights of all the items were indicated without error. I knew that only after going on my journey. When opening my unique «window», those considered my possessions would have a small P marker at the corner. On the other hand, those without a P marker would not be mine, so it's impossible for them to steal it or wreck it.

  It's true that these growing plants didn't belong to anyone, but the authority of the soil, the land belonged to everyone. The plants planted on whoever's land would belong to that person. The Anemones grown at the flower beds belonged to the Academy. Also, I thought the zephyria flowers that were in the planter would similarly belong to me as personal items I bought from the market in the 6th district and planted in the planter in front of me. That was what I thought.

  My mind, which was befuddled by rage and despair, thought till here. I thought of something that caused me to widen my eyes.

  Soil. The black soil that was contained in the planter... wasn't dug from the land of the Academy nor bought from the market. It was brought over from the land outside Central, in the wilderness that didn't belong to anything. I once told this to Miller of the planting committee and the rest. Rainos' group knew of this and decided,

  “Since the soil is from the wilderness that didn't belong to anyone, these flowers don't belong to anyone', right?”

  If that was the case... then, this was a mistake I made. Since I left it in the flower garden that anyone could access, I should have cautious thought through the ownership issues.

  The people of Underworld would definitely not break the law. But this didn't mean that all the residents of this world were kind. Some of them were people who even thought that 'anything not restricted by the law can be done'.

  I should have realized this during the Zakkaria swordsmanship tournament.

  “...I'm sorry...”

  I picked up the flower buds that were scattered on the floor with my right hand and gathered them in my left. However, what was originally a blue-green color got obviously greyer in my palm.

  The moment I picked up all 23 stems and flower buds, their Lives dropped to 0. The flower buds formed dream-like blue-green light particles and dissipated in mid-air.

  Tears inadvertently rolled out from my eyes.

  I forcefully tried to turn my lips into a smile, seemingly trying to laugh at myself for having bad kids
snap my own flowers. However, my cheeks merely numbed up. The accumulated tears finally fell, and a small puddle landed on the bricks beside my feet.

  I finally understood what I was putting my hopes into these Zephyria flowers for.

  The first reason for growing these flowers was to test the power of imagination in Underworld.

  The second reason... was to grant the wish of Rina-sempai, who once said to me 'I want to see authentic Zephyria flowers for real once'.

  However, there was a third reason I had never discovered till now. I was definitely trying to use these flowers as my vestige by desperately trying to make the flowers bloom on foreign land. I wanted to share my burden with these flowers, the loneliness and burden... of leaving my beloved people in the real world, and who I had no idea when I would return back...

  Tears continued to roll and glide down my cheeks, dripping on the floor.

  I desperately held back my sobs and curled up, trying to use my hands to support myself from the floor.

  I again remembered that voice.

  —Go and believe.

  —Go and believe in the power of the flowers that are growing in foreign land. Also, believe in your own power for growing these flowers till now.

  I heard this inexplicable voice many times during my long journey. It seemed to be a female voice, but it wasn't a voice I was familiar with. Also, it wasn't the voice of the young girl I heard at the cave passing through the Mountain Range of the Edge 2 years ago. It was a calm, wise, gentle and warm voice...

  “...But, they're...all gone.”

  I muttered. That voice calmly answered.

  —It's alright.

  —The stems growing in this world are still trying their best to survive. And...do you feel it. The many Sacred Flowers in the flower beds are trying to save their small friends. They want to give their power of Life to them. You can pass these wishes to the Zephyria stems.

  “...I can't do it. I can't use those high level Sacred Arts.”

  —Spells are all just a way to arrange thoughts and guide «emotions»... The power of imagination used through ones' mouth. Right now, spells and mediums are unnecessary.