But Leafa did not stop moving.
“Ura… AAHHHHH!!”
As a great amount of blood splashed out while she roared furiously, she activated a Sword Skill that she had activated who knows how many tens of times — or how many hundreds of times.
The katana «Verduras Anima» sliced horizontally towards nothing with a green glow. After a moment of power concentration, the curve of light around her expanded silently, and the bodies of countless enemy soldiers were torn apart.
A few enemies seized the opportunity of her cooldown time after she activated that huge skill, charging at her. She leapt back at the last moment, but although she managed to dodge most of the attacks, a long halberd still managed to slice off her left arm.
She stamped both feet hard on the ground to stabilize her body, which had almost fallen from the impact…
“HAAAHHH!!“
Her sword slashed horizontally once, and three men expired then and there.
Leafa picked up her arm that had dropped to the ground, placed it onto her wound, and stamped her right foot hard on the ground.
Flowers and grass sprouted from the ground with a flash of green light, then disappeared. Her health was restored to normal, and although her gruesome wounds were still present, her left arm was reattached.
In this sort of situation, the infinite regeneration granted to Terraria’s account could no longer be called the grace of a god.
Rather, a curse would be a more appropriate moniker. No matter how many wounds she suffered, how intense the agony she tasted, she was never, ever allowed to fall. She was not able to die, yet she was not invincible; she was facing unthinkable torture.
The only thing that still kept Leafa going was faith.
— If it were Onii-chan.
He would never fall from just these wounds.
So I can’t fall either. It’s just three thousand people, of course I’ll get rid of them all myself. Because… I’m… Onii-chan’s… the «Black Swordsman» Kirito’s…
“— Little sisteeeerrrrrrr!!“
Crimson light shot from the tip of the katana in her grip.
Zoom! The katana stabbed forward with a low, metallic sound, shooting out a gigantic spear of light that pierced directly through the hundred meter-wide battlefield. The bodies of enemies were twisted, and finally disappeared.
“… Huff… Huff…….”
Her rapid breaths quickly become mouthfuls of blood.
Leafa wiped her mouth, stood shakily, and a spear came roaring, striking her right in the left eye and exiting through the back of her head.
She staggered back a few steps — but Leafa did not fall.
She gripped the spear handle with her left hand and wrenched it out in one go. A sensation that was not pain surged through the inside of her skull.
“Urgh… Uraaaaaaagh!”
She screamed, stamping her foot violently to recover her HP. The temporarily missing left half of her vision regenerated with a blip.
At a glance, before she had noticed, there were only around one hundred enemies left.
Leafa grinned, reached her bloodied left hand forward, pointed her palm upwards, and moved her clasped fingers.
Against the legion that came storming towards her, emitting utterly desperate howls, she swung her katana with a heavy whoosh.
“Eeyah… AAAAAHHH!”
The sword flashed.
Blood sprayed into the air as Leafa plunged fearlessly into the obstructed center of the enemy legion.
Roughly three minutes later, after the final enemy had fallen, Leafa’s body had been stabbed with ten more pieces of metal.
Her limbs lost all feeling as she wobbled and fell backwards, then was suspended in midair by the swords and spears protruding from her back that had hit the ground.
Listening to Rirupirin and the others screaming her name, as well as the footsteps running towards her, Leafa closed her eyes and murmured softly:
“I… did my best, didn’t I… Onii-chan…”
***
As Yanai pulled the trigger, a muffled shout simultaneously came through Higa’s left earpiece.
“Higa-kun, dodge!!”
Huh?
Dodge… dodge the bullet?
While this dull thought floated into his mind, Higa heard the whistling sound of something falling from a very high place.
Clang!
That was not the sound of a firearm discharging. It was the sound of something falling from the opening of the cable duct high, high above and colliding with Yanai’s forehead.
Yanai’s eyes widened and swiveled upwards. His left hand gripping the ladder suddenly slipped.
“Whoa… Wait…”
Higa suddenly forgot the pain in his shoulder, clutched the ladder, and brought his body as close to the cable duct as possible.
A wrench so big that one questioned where it had come from fell past first, and then a small handgun still wafting the smell of gunpowder crossed his vision.
Finally, Yanai’s unconscious body wedged itself into the gap between Higa and the duct, then stopped.
“Hee… Heee!”
Higa’s shoulders unconsciously shrunk back, and he pressed his back hard onto the wall.
Yanai’s body slid down slowly, smothering the stink of sweat onto Higa’s shirt, inching past —
“……… Ah.”
As Higa made that noise, Yanai plunged 50 meters straight down into the hole. Several clangs from colliding with the ladder sounded, and then came a final boom as he landed at the bottom.
“………. Um.”
Is he… dead? No, by the looks of it, he probably broke two or three bones… No, probably five or six…
Just as Higa’s cognition was about to halt, what sounded like a scream rang out in his ear, interrupting his thoughts.
“Higa-kun… Hey, Higa-kun!! Are you all right?! Answer me, hey!!“
“………. Ah, no, I was just surprised… that even you can make that sort of sound, Rinko-senpai.”
“How… How are you able to say something like that now?! Are you hurt?! Did he shoot you?!”
“Ah, um…”
Higa looked towards the wound on his right shoulder.
The amount of blood he was losing was somewhat frightening. His right hand had lost all feeling, and he felt very cold. Even his thoughts were not as quick as usual.
But Higa sucked in a deep breath and, after collecting his strength in his stomach for a moment, said as cheerfully as possible:
“No, I’m completely fine! Just a scratch. I’ll continue the operation, please go back to monitor Kirito-kun’s situation, Senpai!!”
“Are you really okay?! I’m going to believe you, okay?! If you try and trick me I’ll never forgive you, okay?!”
“About that… Just trust me.”
Higa looked up and carefully waved his hand at Rinko, who was poking her head into view at the entrance tens of meters overhead. The great distance, combined with inadequate lighting, should have made it hard for her to see that he was bleeding.
“Then… I’ll head back to the main control first, and if the image changes I’ll come right back! Good luck, Higa-kun!!”
The instant her silhouette was about to leave, Higa couldn’t help but call out to her in a low voice:
“Ah… Rin-Rinko-senpai.”
“What, is something wrong?!”
“No… Um, uh…”
— Did you know? In university, not only were Kayaba-senpai and that bastard Sugou obsessed with you, even I was too.
Higa wanted to say this, but he kept feeling that if he said something like that, his own survivability would drastically decrease, so he said something random to tide it over.
“Um, after this is all taken care of, would you like to grab something to eat together?”
“… I got it, I’ll treat you to burgers, or beef bowls, or whatever, good luck!!”
Then Professor Koujiro’s silhouette disappeared from Higa’s sigh
t.
— She’s really cheap.
Come to think of it, on the scale of «famous last words», that wouldn’t be too different.
Higa smiled bitterly, then turned back to the laptop in his left hand. He placed his numb right fingertips onto the keyboard and began carefully typing commands.
STL #3… Connected to #4. #5, #6… Connected.
Possibly due to loss of blood, the words before Higa’s eyes began to double themselves. He shook his head and murmured silently to himself.
— All right, Kirito-kun, it’s almost time to get up.
***
Through a curtain of tears, Asuna gazed at the figure of her lover, praying.
— Please, Kirito-kun. I’m willing to devote my heart, my life, my everything… So please, wake up.
— Kirito-kun.
***
— Kirito.
***
— Onii-chan.
***
……… Now… Kirito…
5
Kirito.
Someone seemed to be calling my name —
I was brought back from my light slumber.
Lifting my eyelids, I saw innumerable miniscule particles floating through orange light.
My hazy vision gradually regained its focus.
Fluttering white cloth — Curtains.
A silver window frame. Old-fashioned glass.
A swaying tree branch. An airplane contrail slowly streaking across the sky, tinted red by the setting sun.
I took a deep breath of the dust-filled air, lifted my upper body, and saw a sailor uniform from behind, standing in front of the deep-green chalkboard. A brush swished around, scrubbing away the last words inscribed in white chalk.
“… Um, Kirigaya-kun.”
I heard someone calling my name again. I turned to look, and met eyes with another female student peering down at me with an expression that looked timid, yet somewhat cross at the same time.
“I’d like to move the table.”
By the looks of it, I’d fallen asleep during a class meeting again, all the way until it was time to clean up.
“Ah… Sorry.”
I muttered, then lifted my bookbag from its hook beside the table with my finger, and stood up.
My head felt leaden.
It felt like the fatigue I had after finishing a really long — an unfathomably long movie. I couldn’t remember any of the story, but the detritus from countless emotions seemed to linger in my mind. I shook my head hard.
I looked away from my female classmate who was giving me a funny look, and took a few steps towards the door at the back of the classroom, murmuring softly:
“What… Was it a dream…”
(To be continued)
Afterword
Thank you very much for reading Sword Art Online 17: Alicization Awakening.
(Please note, there will be plenty of spoilers below!)
I deeply apologize for making everyone wait for so long after the last volume, ”Exploding”. The meaning of this volume’s subtitle, “Awakening”, means “awakening”, so does that mean Kirito-san, who’s been slumbering since Volume 15, is finally going to wake up?! Everyone might be thinking about that, but I’m terribly sorry, because for a number of reasons, I can only leave you to wait for the answer in the next volume, with a “Will he awaken…? Or continue slumbering…?” cliffhanger. To be honest, I really wanted to include the entire ”Chapter 21: Awakening”, but that would make this volume very thick and Volume 18 very thin, throwing off the balance, so I could only tearfully cut it off here. It doesn’t exactly make up for it, but everyone shouldn’t need to wait too long for the next volume. It’ll be the «next» volume after the «next», so please wait for a bit, everyone…!
Now, I’ll talk a bit about the content of this volume. As Gabriel, Vassago, and Critter have schemed, VRMMO players from the US, Korea, and China mass-invade Underworld and begin a fierce battle with the Human Empire Army and the Japanese players. When I wrote this portion of the plot in the web version ten years ago, it was because there had been an atmosphere of exclusion against foreign players present in the world of Japanese online games back then, so I hope that everyone can properly reconsider that part after reading it. But since my writing ability wasn’t up to scratch, I instead created something that resembled what happens when anger is incited against a common enemy, and this has always made me very ashamed.
While I was editing this into the Dengeki Bunko version, at one point I considered completely rewriting this section, but then I felt like that would only be fleeing from it… in the end I didn’t change the general plot. As to how Kirito will resolve the enmity created by the «Inciting PKer» Vassago/PoH, who is also beginning to take action from the shadows in Progressive, please wait for the next volume for that information as well, everyone.
Fifteen years have transpired since SAO was conceived in a corner of the Internet. I cannot help but marvel that it has managed to survive for this long. But now there will be a movie, video games, and many other projects that will keep expanding the SAO world, and I ask for everyone’s continued support from now on. Finally, to abec-san, who so majestically and beautifully portrayed Leafa, Sinon, and the others who charged into Underworld, and Miki-san, who is beginning an all-new challenge as my editor, thank you so much!
A certain day in March 2016
Kawahara Reki
Credits
Translation:26
defan752, luacs1998
Editing:
CJ, David Ruegg, defan752, ZeHaffen, Shiina, DarthMewtwo, FatedWolf
Scans:
http://ruranobe.ru
Illustration Editing:
Mttblue2
Consultation:
SAO Wiki
Thanks!
Compiled:
SAO Archive Team
Notes
[←1]
Kawahara made a typo and wrote “Seventh Day” instead. It has been corrected here.
[←2]
Referenced in Volume 4, when Kirito fights the guardian monsters to attempt to ascend the World Tree and save Asuna.
[←3]
Referred to in previous volumes as “Guards”. Retconned to make it sound better.
[←4]
Game Master.
[←5]
Player Character.
[←6]
Automatic gun. Sinon is used to playing first-person shooter games.
[←7]
BGM-71 TOW, a widely used US anti-tank missile. More info here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGM-71_TOW
[←8]
Approximately 90 meters tall. (The book includes metric units because they are more familiar in Japan.)
[←9]
Approximately 29 meters wide.
[←10]
A sando (参道) is the road approaching a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandō
[←11]
Kawahara means “racing suit”, which is tight-fitting full body wear for auto racers.
[←12]
Incarnation (心意, shin’i) is a foreign concept to Vector, so he repeats it aloud in Japanese here.
[←13]
旋車, literally, “whirling wheel”
[←14]
There is wordplay here. The word “betray” (裏切る, uragiru) conjugates into 裏切り (uragiri) when it transforms into a noun, which is pronounced the same as “Unseen Slash” (裏斬)
[←15]
See Volume 12, Chapter 7, Part 1. Cardinal explains that reproduction in the Human Empire must be officially approved to successfully conceive children.
[←16]
Kawahara made a typo and wrote “Seventh Day” instead. It has been corrected here.
[←17]
Unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone. Aircraft without a human aboard that can be remotely controlled to attack targets. More info:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_veh
icle
[←18]
Fighters who fall in battle and are brought to Valhalla by Valkyries. More info here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einherjar
[←19]
Korean. 비겁한 일본인, “Cowardly Japanese”.
[←20]
Korean. 우리 나라를 지키라, “Defend our country”.
[←21]
Chinese. Possibly 趕走他們, “Drive them away”, or 幹掉你們, “Kill you all”. Could also be incorrect Chinese.
[←22]
Sinon mentally translates this to Japanese
[←23]
Invaders: 침략 (chimlyag). Spoken in Korean by the Leader. Likely a callback to 1910, when the Empire of Japan annexed the Korean peninsula under the Joseon Kingdom.
[←24]
Japanese industrial and financial business conglomerate. More info:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaibatsu
[←25]
“871” can be read as “ya na i” in Japanese.
[←26]
Translation from https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-17-alicization-awakening/, https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-17-chapter-21/ and https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-17-afterword/ on February 19, 2017
Sword Art Online Volume 17 - Alicization Awakening Page 23