A huge moon hung in the cloudless sky, the forest below shaded blue-green in the moon's light.
ALfheim's night is very short, but there's still some time before dawn. Normally, such a dark forest would be a cause for concern, but it's that same darkness which makes retreat possible.
Lyfa, hidden in the shadow of a giant tree, raised her head to look at the starry sky. For the moment, there doen't seem to be any ominous presences in the sky. Lowering her voice as much as possible, she spoke to her nearby teammate, "When your wings recover, we'll take off immediately. Prepare yourself."
"Ah— but I'm still dizzy..."
Her partner answered in a very reluctant tone.
"You're still feeling sick? Don't you feel embarrassed? You ought to get used to it."
"Even if you say that, scary things are still scary..."
Lyfa sighed with frustration.
Squatting next to the tree was a teenage player named Recon, also Lyfa's friend in real life. They had started playing ALO —ALfheim ONLINE— together. In other words, he and Lyfa have played this game for almost a year. However, no matter how much time passes, Recon was still unable to overcome the feeling of vertigo while flying. In ALO, strength in air combat is the only measurement that matters, but after only one or two scuffles, he would already be exhausted. This made him somewhat unreliable.
Even though Recon was like this, Lyfa didn't hate that part of him. Or rather, it was more like she just couldn't ignore this "little brother" of hers. His appearance often exposed a delicate body with bobbed yellow-green hair, long ears which hung down toward the ground, and an expression that made you think he was just about to burst into tears. Although it was randomly generated, his appearance in game bore a close resemblance to reality. When Lyfa first saw him in game, she couldn't help but break into laughter.
For Recon as well, Lyfa looked too much like her real appearance. As a Sylph, she had well-defined, very neat eyebrows, beautiful eyes, and a slightly large-boned body for a member of her race.
Originally she had wanted a character that would be considered more «Graceful». Her current appearance was not only in keeping with this desire, but could also be considered extremely cute. However, she could be considered fortunate. Many people were not so lucky, and in order to be satisfied with their appearance they chose to pay additional fees to reconstruct their character. Compared to these people, Lyfa had absolutely nothing to complain about.
The additional payment did not affect a character's performance at all, but Recon had played around with his eyes until they matched his sense of aesthetics; he'd thought their balance was off.
Lyfa held Recon's equipped Blest Armor from the back and pulled. Looked at his four transparent wings surrounded by a thin green phosphorescence, indicating that he could fly again.
"Well, you can fly again. It's time to fly out of this forest."
"Eh ~ we'll definitely get chased again. Let's rest for a bit. Rest~"
"Naive!! There's only one Salamander there who's any good. If we're careful, we won't be seen. Neither of us can afford another air battle, so just bite the bullet and fly!"
"Ohh..."
Recon reluctantly answered, holding his left hand up in the air. A translucent joystick —the remote control used for flight— appeared in his hand. The front-end held a small ball; this was ALO's assisted flight controller. As Recon pulled the controller toward himself, four wings extended to the sides, growing brighter as they lengthened.
After seeing this, Lyfa began extending her own wings, flapping them two or three times. She did not use the control stick. This was a high level skill called «Voluntary Flight», proof that the user was a first-class warrior in ALO.
"Well let's get out of here!!" Lyfa whispered.
As her wings fully extended themselves, she kicked off the ground, racing toward the moon. Her field of vision gradually widened until she saw all of ALfheim stretched out before her, offering the sense of endless freedom.
"Ah..."
Flying toward distant heights, Lyfa gave a cry of joy. What she felt now was irreplaceable. She let out a whoop. Since ancient times, man has had the desire to fly like a bird. This had finally become a reality in this fantasy world.
The flight time limit set by the system was the only thing that marred this experience. To fly as freely as the heart desires would be worth paying any price.
Originally, this was the wish of all players fighting in ALfheim: to reach the top of «Yggdrasil» before any of the other races and enter the legendary aerial city. There, one would transform into a real fairy, «ALF», lift the time limit on flight, and become the ruler of a truly infinite sky.
Lyfa had no desire to acquire rare items or increase her status. The reason she fought in this world was for just this one thing.
Lyfa aimed toward the full golden moon which had not quite set, using her glass-like wings. Particles of light scattered behind her like a comet dragging a green tail through the night sky.
"Ly, Lyfa-chan~ Waaaaait for me~"
—Weak sounds from below called Lyfa's attention back to reality. She stopped and looked down; clutching his controller, Recon is desperately chasing after her. The maximum flight speed is relatively low when using system assistance, and if Lyfa were serious, Recon would never be able to catch up.
"Hurry it up! Do your best!"
Lyfa spread her wings and hovered while waiting for Recon. Raising her head to look at her surroundings, in the distance, at the far end of a sea of trees, she saw Yggdrasil, towering above the darkness. From this fixed point, even the direction of Sylph territory can be more or less determined.
When Recon reached just about the same height, Lyfa matched his speed as they flew together.
Recon flying by her side, showed an expression of great reluctance and spoke, "High, somewhat too high, right?"
"You don't find the high altitude pleasing? If your wings are tired, we can always glide."
"The second she starts to fly, her personality changes..."
"What did you say?"
"No- no. Nothing!."
Recon quickly shut his mouth as they headed for the southwest area of ALfheim, that is, Sylph territory.
Earlier today, Lyfa had formed a party with four reliable, like-minded players and travelled to a dungeon area in the northeastern neutral territory. Fortunately, they were able to hunt without encountering any other teams, so the harvest was very fruitful, and they acquired a great deal of money and items. Upon preparing to return to Sylph territory, however, they were ambushed by a party of eight Salamanders.
There is fighting between different races in ALO, but it is uncommon to run into large groups of bandit players who band together and rob other players. Today's ambush was especially strange, considering it was a weekday afternoon in the real world. They didn't expect that they'd be attacked, particularly not on such a large scale... They'd been careless.
While fleeing, they had engaged twice in mid-flight team battles «AIR RAIDs», during which both sides had lost three men. They'd started off with fewer people, and now only Lyfa and Recon were left. Taking advantage of the fact that Sylphs' flight speed was greater than that of the Salamanders', they'd managed to avoid capture, and make headway toward Sylph territory. However, because of vertigo experienced during two consecutive battles, Recon became seriously disoriented and they had not been able to reach Sylph territory. Instead, they had hidden in the forest to give Recon time to recover. Just as Lyfa lost all sense of tension, and turned back to the forest behind her—
From underneath the side by side growth of dark green trees, flashed a point of orange light.
"Recon, dodge!!" Lyfa cried, swinging rapidly to the left. Immediately after, from the ground, three vicious lines of fire shot forth, passing through the gaps left by the leaves of the tree.
Fortunately, they were flying much higher, and the long trail of a fire-ray stopped just short of them, and disappeared into the night sky.
There wasn't any time to appreciate how close things had been, though. The attack magic released earlier from within the sea of trees caught the attention of the other pursuers, and five red and black shadows were rapidly approaching.
"Damn it, how stubborn!!"
Lyfa complained and looked northwest. She still had yet to catch a glimpse of the light of the Tower of Wind, standing in the center of Sylph land.
"There's no way around it! Get ready to fight!" Lyfa called, pulling a curved longsword from around her waist.
"Uwah, don't!"
Recon cried as he took out his daggers and positioned himself.
"There are five enemies. There is no way to win, but I won't give up so easily! If I pull out all the stops, I can take at least one with me."
"That really is the right way to look at it."
"Occasionally, I also want you to see my good side."
Recon moved his shoulders slightly. Lyfa's face tensed, and she assumed a diving posture. Tightening her body, she circled once before shooting downwards, her wings bent at a sharp angle. To the Salamanders, in V-formation, this move simply seems unplanned.
Even among veteran ALO players, online from the beginning, the experienced, well-equipped Lyfa has only suffered defeat for two reasons: numerical superiority and the recently devised Salamander formations. At the expense of mobility, they equip heavy armor and lances and take advantage of the extra weight to perform powerful thrusting attacks. Facing an onslaught of so many lances is like staring down a ferocious wave. The Sylphs' advantage is in their lightweight, agile movements, but for them to fight a protracted battle is difficult.
But Lyfa, having fought this enemy twice already today, roughly understands the flaw in their style. With courage born from desperation, Lyfa dove fearlessly at the vanguard of the enemy group. She closed the distance in practically no time, but all of her attention was focused on the razor sharp tip of the silver lance the enemy prepares to attack her with.
The Sylph's lunge issued a high-pitched screech even as the friction caused by the movement of the Salamander's gripped metal looses a discordant howl. The moment the two cross, the air rumbles in an explosive roar.
Lyfa gritted her teeth, and with a slight movement of her head, avoided the lance tip. She ignored the blazing heat where the lance grazed her cheek, and charged in, attacking the blood-red helmet with her sword.
"YAAAAAA!"
A straight thrust.
"Aaaaaah!!"
Taken by surprise, the enemy's eyes opened wide with dismay before disappearing behind a burst of yellow-green light created as a special effect. The ferocity of the attack caused the heavy armor of her opponent to shudder in response.
Unable to resist the blow, the enemy quickly plummeted toward the ground, and upon impact, received additional damage due to the weight of his armor, resulting in his HP decreasing by about 30%. Not a fatal blow, but due to the strong blow to the head, it's impossible for him to re-join the formation. Lyfa immediately switched targets, heart crying in hope.
—It's here!!
With the heavy assault tactics the enemy uses, their weakness is that when their formation is broken it takes time to get reorganized. While the four remaining Salamanders were unsure about what to do, Lyfa stretched her wings as far as possible and forcibly moved left.
This made her body groan in pain because of the forced movement and excess friction. Lyfa endured the pain. In order to rotate as quickly as possible, she beat her right wing strongly while braking with her left wing. Using such an absurd action she quickly brought the next enemy into her sights.
The targeted Salamander, despite recognizing her intent, couldn't possibly hope to match that movement. Her turn completed, Lyfa's sword struck the Salamander.
The enemy on the left side took the blow perfectly, further disrupting their formation.
—If this continues, we can do it!
Of the five enemies, only the leader, dispatched just a moment ago, was capable of "Voluntary Flight;" the rest can only use the secondary flight controllers. Since Lyfa is using "Voluntary Flight", her agility greatly exceeds the Salamanders during melee combat.
At this point she was searching for Recon, who was fighting the Salamander on the right. Despite an unreliable appearance, he is also a veteran player. In close combat, his ability with his daggers is something to be reckoned with.
Lyfa, with longsword in hand, brought her attention back to the enemy she was targeting, and continued to deal precision damage. This might just work, she thought. The only element that made her uneasy was the previous magical attack. That fire magic meant that among the five, at least one of the Salamanders was a Mage. The possibility exists that among these metal armor-clad five all have some magic ability, that is to say, they might all be magic swordsmen. Even if the level of their magic was rather low, its power was still quite fierce. In accordance with the common sense of formations, the mage is probably arranged on either the right or left flank, Lyfa thought. In other words, the person she should now defeat is the seemingly frail opponent currently engaging Recon. At this distance, he shouldn't have sufficient time to cast any spells. So, if we can just take down those two, the survivors can be easily be dispatched in 5 minutes.
"Yaaaa!!"
Lyfa once more delivered a two-handed strike she could be proud of. Beautifully wounding her opponent's shoulder, his already red HP reduced even further.
"Damn!!"
Her enemy screamed curses even as his body was wrapped in crimson flame. Accompanied by the sound of burning, his body turned to ash before spreading to the four winds, leaving behind only a small red flame. This flame is called «Remain Light», after it had disappeared, resurrection spells and items could be used. However, after one minute in this state, the player was automatically returned to the hometown of their race and brought back to life.
Lyfa shook off this thought and focused on the next enemy. The remaining three have slightly dull movements. They seem inexperienced in the use of a lance, and are very slow in close quarters combat. Watching them continue to execute extremely lame and slow surprise attacks, Lyfa, who can see through it all, feels their efforts were wasted. Attention drawn again to the other side, Recon was almost run through. His HP had been reduced somewhat, but not to the extent of needing recovery magic. At this rate, even with the overwhelming disadvantage of five vs. two, it is possible to win. With this in mind, Lyfa again lifted her sword.
However, in the next moment an eddy of flame engulfed Recon.
"Oaaaaaaaa!"
Recon screamed pitifully as he froze in mid-air.
"Stupid, don't stop, keep moving."
This sentence had not even reached Recon before he was pierced through by the nearly dead Salamander's lance.
"Sooooooooorry."
With the sound of this last apology, Recon's body was wrapped in a green whirlwind. This effect is called «End Frame», and only appears at death. Dissolving, Recon's body disappeared, and as with the Salamanders earlier, left only a Remain Light.
To Lyfa, it is unpleasant to see the Remain Light of a fallen companion, even if she knows it will disappear immediately as they revive. She bit her lip, knowing that such sentiments are a luxury she can't afford. In order to avoid the blasts of flame coming from below, she desperately rolled to the side.
...Damn, the mage turned out to be that guy at the beginning!
If I knew that earlier, I'd have chased him down and run him through. But it's too late for regrets. The situation is now absolutely disadvantageous.
However, she didn't give up. Until the end, even at an extreme disadvantage, she continued to look for a way to turn the situation around. These are the beliefs that she has cultivated over many years and which have become stronger since she took on the role as a swordswoman.
With the cover fire coming from the Salamander on the ground, the two in the air got in position and began high-speed thrusting attacks.
"Come!!" Lyfa shouted, raising her sword in challenge.
* * *
"Uaagh!!"
After a seemingly endless descent, accompanied only by my unseemly screams, I found myself in some nameless place. A surprised grunt escaped as I landed on my face rather than my feet. Remaining in that position for a few seconds, my face buried in the underbrush, I slowly righted myself.
The free-fall now ended, my heart relaxed, and I lay on the ground and glanced at my surroundings.
It was now night time. I found myself in a deep forest somewhere.
This forest was made up of giant trees that are probably hundreds of years old, all stretching up toward the sky for as far as I could see. However, the foliage was so dense I couldn't see very far. A full moon hung in the black starry sky, emitting a golden glow.
All around me, insects buzz and nocturnal birds sang. In the distance, I heard the roar of a wild beast. The fragrance of plants tickled my nose. The breeze gently brushed skin. Terror enveloped me as my senses took in the world around me. This world felt more real than reality— those were my feelings regarding this illusory world.
I had been a little skeptical when Agil said that «ALO» was the equal of SAO in the quality of its high-precision modeling and structure, but it seems that is indeed the case. Despite the fact that there was less than a year of additional development time, a far greater amount of information is running between my nervous system and the game than was the case with SAO.
"I...In the end, I still came back..."
I closed my eyes. In the two months since being liberated from that world, I had given up on ever coming back to a «VR WORLD», but here I was once more. Ah... I really never learn, do I? This thought flashed across my mind, and I could not help but laugh.
However, this world was a little different. Namely, even if my HP reached zero, I wouldn't die in the real world, and I was free to depart at any time and from any place. As I thought this, something else drew my attention.
What was with the abnormality in the imagery and that mysterious relocation...what on earth had just happened? Why had I been brought to this place? I should be at the starting town of the Spriggans, at least according to tutorial.
"Hey, no way...It can't be..."
My face began to spasm, I quickly lifted my shaking right hand, with the index and middle finger together. Nothing happened. I break into a cold sweat and quickly tried a few more times before remembering what the tutorial had just said, the menu and flight controller are both operated with the left hand.
I held out my left hand and repeated the action. This time, when I waved my fingers, sound effects and a burst of light occurred, then a translucent menu window opened. It had almost the same design as SAO. The menu has many buttons lined up side by side along the right edge.
"There, it's there."
At the bottom of the menu the «LOG OUT» button is flashing. I tried giving it a press. A warning message popped up to confirm the exit, along with «YES» and «NO» buttons.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Propping myself up on one arm, I sat up.
Looking around again, I seemed to be in the middle of a dense forest. Surrounding me was an expanse of trees that stretched endlessly in all directions, so far that not even the light of the stars above could be seen. I had no idea why I fell down here. Well, let's take a look at the map first, I thought. I looked back at the menu window. Pointing with my finger, what I saw displayed there made me freeze.
"Whaaaaa...!?"
I couldn't refrain from crying out.
At the top of the window, my nickname was displayed: Kirito, and my race: Spriggan. Below those were my Hit Points and Mana Points, which read 400 and 80, the beginning values. No problem so far.
What surprised me were the learned skills in the following column. I don't remember choosing any, so of course all I should have are empty columns. Instead, there are no less than eight listed skills. Perhaps these were the Spriggan starting skills, but it's still a bit much. Not quite believing my eyes, I touched the skill bar with my finger for more detail.
In the skills window, I saw several skills side by side. These skills included: «1-H Swords», «Unarmed skills», and «Parry», the Combat skills, as well as «Fishing», a support skill, but the proficiency values were abnormal. Most were at just about 900, and some had even reached 1,000 and had a tag denoting «MASTERY». Usually within MMORPGs, these skills require a very long time to complete, which meant that having skills maxed out from the first log-in is impossible.
No matter how I look at, this must be a BUG. That might also explain why I somehow flew to this place, maybe the system really is a bit unstable.
"Is this game ok? Is there GM support available?"
Looking down at the skills again, I'm hit with a slight feeling of déjà vu. Looking at the proficiency values again, it felt like I'd seen them before. 1-H Swords: 1000, Unarmed skills: 991, Fishing: 643.
It hit me like an electric shock; I finally made the connection. I started breathing hard.
I'd seen these before. These were the skills that I had spent two years developing in SAO. Unfortunately, «Dual Blades» is not there— probably because the «Dual Blades» skill doesn't exist in ALO. The skills of the «Black Swordsman Kirito» that caused the destruction of the floating city Aincrad had appeared before my eyes again.
I was truly confused, impossible things were happening; I couldn't even imagine what was going on. SAO and ALO are completely different games administered by completely different companies. If the saved data could've moved like that... Could it be that— here is...
"SAO?" I uttered, as I fell to my knees.
Shaking my head vigorously to clear such ridiculous thoughts, I turned back to the skills window.
I still wasn't sure what was going on, but hoping to gather more information, I navigated back to the main menu. This time I opened the items window.
"Whaaaa... what's this."
I can't understand anything. Displayed in front of me are dozens of lines consisting of numbers and characters. Enigmatic characters, numbers, letters, and pictures are all mixed together.
It appears these are really the items I possessed in Aincrad. Sure enough, for whatever reason, the save data for Kirito seems to have come to this world.
"So...wait a second."
I suddenly thought of a possibility.
If these are the items from Aincrad, —then «that» should be here too. I touch the item window, and scroll down the menu with my fingertip.
"Please, please, please be there."
I quickly scroll down the list, ignoring all of the gibberish. My heart started beating faster and a feeling like ringing bells resounds through my body.
"!"
My fingers unconsciously stopped. Below my finger was a line of letters like all of the others save it was emitting a warm green color. «MHCP001».
Almost forgetting to breathe, I touched the name with trembling fingers. After selecting the item, the color reversed. Moving my fingers I pressed the button labeled "Use Item."
A white glow appeared in the center of the window and spread toward the edges as it stretched out in my direction. As it emerged, it turned into a colorless, tear-shaped crystal.
Clutching the precious stone in my hands, I raised it, feeling its warmth. Realizing all this, I felt a little feverish.
God, please, I beg you... I prayed from the depths of my heart, gently tapping the crystal twice with my finger. Pure white light exploded forth from the crystal in my hands.
"Ah!?"
My astonished voice unconsciously leaked from my mouth as I crouched down and placed the crystal on the ground, retreating a few steps. The crystal floated off the ground a couple meters before stopping. The light coming from the crystal gradually grew until even the moon seemed pale in comparison and the surrounding trees were dyed in whitish-green.
I blinked, a spectator of the scene in front of me. From the center of the swirling light, a shadow appeared, taking on shape and a whitish hue. Wisps of long black hair drifted in all directions, along with a snow-white dress and long, slender limbs. Eyes closed, hands crossed on her chest, the figure of a beautiful young girl appeared. She, like the embodiment of light, slowly sank to the ground.
The bright light disappeared as quickly as it began. The girl, who was floating in the air, slowly opened her eyes with a fluttering of eyelashes. Her eyes, deep as the night sky, slowly fixed on me.
I couldn't move. Or speak. Or even blink.
The young girl looked at me, and her cherry-colored lips slowly opened. Words can't describe the beauty of that angelic smile. I gathered my courage and said to her, "It's me...Yui. Do you understand?"
Finishing, I glanced at myself. My attitude and appearance in this world are completely different from in that world.
However, such concerns were unnecessary. The girl's —Yui's— lips moved, and in a nostalgic voice so much like silver bells, said, "We meet again, Papa."
Tears in her eyes, Yui stretched out her arms and flew into my chest.
"Papa...Papa!" Yui called again and again, her thin arms tightly clasped around my neck, her face nestling mine. Hugging her little body tightly, I couldn't keep the sobbing sounds from escaping my throat.
Yui, Asuna and I had lived together in the world of SAO for three short days, before she disappeared. Although it was only for a short time, it was an irreplaceable memory so deeply engraved in my mind that it could never be erased. During the long hard battle that was Aincrad, there was little happiness but for those few days, we were truly happy.
The feeling of sweet nostalgia wrapped around me as I stood there tightly holding Yui. Miracles were taking place in front of me. So, Asuna, we'll definitely meet again. We'll definitely return once more to those blissful days. This was the first time, since returning to the real world, that'd I'd felt such conviction.
I looked around the forest, found a convenient stump that had recently collapsed and sat down.
"So, just what on earth is going on?"
Resisting the urge to talk about Asuna, I asked of Yui, currently sitting on my lap.
With her face nestled against my chest, Yui looked up at me with an expression of supreme bliss.
"...?"
"What I mean is, this isn't the SAO world, is it?"
Yui quickly gave a description of what had happened since I last saw her. She was about to be deleted but instead was compressed and stored as part of the environmental data. After beating the game, the floating city Aincrad disappeared. Afterwards, I'd come to this new world of ALfheim, though I didn't know how my data had ended up here. However, the fact that Asuna still hadn't woken wasn't easy to put into words.
"Please, wait a moment."
Yui closed her eyes, as if straining to hear a far-away voice.
"This is—"
Yui's eyes snapped open, looking at me.
"It seems this world is based on a copy of the «Sword Art Online» server."
"Copy?"
"Yes. The framework and graphic format are produced by the same core program group. I was able to reproduce this form. That is enough to verify this. However, the cardinal system is an older version and the game components are completely different.
"That's..."
I fell deep into thought.
ALfheim Online was released twelve months after the SAO incident. Argus had gone bankrupt, and in the aftermath, RECTO purchased Argus' technology assets and used them to develop a new VRMMO game. If you can take advantage of the game's main engine and feedback processes, development costs would be significantly reduced. In that case, the accuracy of this world wouldn't surprise me as much since the game is running on the same engine as SAO.
In other words, ALO is operating on a copy of the SAO system, which I can understand. But—
"But...why did my personal data appear here?"
"Papa, please let me look at your data."
Yui closed her eyes again.
"There is no doubt. This is the character data Papa used in SAO. The two games utilize an almost identical format not only for the save data, but also for common skill proficiency, so they can be inherited. But because the data denoting hit points and mana points is in a different format, HP and MP are not transfered. Then getting to the items, they are all corrupt. As long as you keep them, it is possible the system's error detection protocol will detect them. It would be better if you throw them away."
"Is that so...then ok."
I touched the item column and selected the garbled items en masse. There may have been items which contained memories, but this wasn't the time for sentiment. In any case, I couldn't even tell what they were, let alone use them.
So, with grim determination, I deleted all of the corrupted items. This left me with just the normal initial equipment.
"There shouldn't be any problems with my skill levels, right?"
"From the system's point of view, no. When compared to your playtime it's a little unnatural, but unless a GM directly checks, there shouldn't be any problem."
"Is that so? Heh. I've gone from Beater to Cheater."
Well, when it comes to character strength, the sky's the limit. I must reach the top of Yggdrasil and rescue Asuna. Besides, I didn't come to this game to enjoy myself, I'm not in the mood to play seriously.
Looking carefully at my status bar, I can tell this world doesn't equate numbers and strength. SAO's agility and strength parameters simply don't exist here, not to mention HP and MP increases are small. Also, as weapon skills increase, the only thing that changes is the number of weapons you can equip, there is no change in attack power. And, of course, SAO's signature Sword Skills, do not exist.
In other words, ALO focuses on the player's natural athletic ability and judgment. In SAO, attacks by lower-leveled opponents won't do too much to lower HP. But this doesn't seem to be the case here.
The only unknown is «magic», which did not exist within SAO. Now, only «Illusion Magic» is registered in the Magic field, so perhaps it is the initial skill of the Spriggan race. I have never used magic nor have I ever been hit by it, so I don't really understand it.
I closed the window, facing Yui who was still clinging to my chest with her eyes narrowed like a cat, and asked, "Now that you mention it, what is Yui supposed to be in this world?"
Despite the fact that I can touch her, Yui is not human. Abnormalities in the SAO maintenance procedures resulted in her birth. She is an artificial intelligence, in other words, an «AI».
As of now, 2025, many research institutions have published papers including one entitled «Artificial Intelligence — Approaching Infinite Wisdom». This paper stated that as long as «rational behavior» processes continue, eventually the boundary between simulation of wisdom and true wisdom will become blurred, resulting in the creation of advanced AI.
Yui may be such an existence, the first true AI. But that doesn't matter to me, I love Yui like a daughter and she thinks of me as her father. That's enough.
"Ah, there seems to be a pseudo-character program for user support in ALfheim Online. They are called «Navigation Pixies», I appear to be classified as such."
Saying that, she made a strange face for an instant. After that, her body suddenly lit up and then disappeared.
"YUI!?"
Sword Art Online Vol 03 - 103.jpg
I cried out in panic. Going to stand up, I noticed something attached to my knee.
It was about ten centimeters in height, with slender arms and legs. Wearing a pale pink mini-dress that looks like it is made out of flower petals, with two translucent wings stretching out from its back. It is, to put it simply, a pixie. With that cute face and long hair, although she looks slightly different, she is, without a doubt, Yui.
"This is the appearance of a «Pixie»."
Yui stood on my knee, and with her hands on her hips, started to flap her wings.
"Oh..."
I exclaimed as I poke Yui's cheek with my finger.
"That tickles!"
Yui laughed, rising up into the air to escape my finger, accompanied by the sounds of flapping wings, before sitting on my shoulder.
"...Then, do you also have administrator privileges, like you did before?"
"I don't..." Yui said in a voice filled with frustration.
"At the moment, all I can do is access reference and wide area map data. I can also confirm the status of players I come in contact with, but I can't access the primary program database."
"Ah, is that so... Actually..."
My expression changed, and I changed the topic, finally getting to the main issue.
"Asuna...it seems your mother is here."
"Oh...Mama!?"
Yui jumped off of my shoulder, and hovered in front of my face.
"What do you mean?"
"..."
I was just about to explain about Sugou Nobuyuki, but I was still a bit hesitant. Yui had been driven to the brink of collapse by the negative emotions of humans in SAO. I did not want to let her be further contaminated by human malice.
"...After the closing of the SAO servers, Asuna did not return to the real world. I obtained information that in this world there was a person who looked like Asuna. It is possible that it might just be a coincidence, and some random character might have been created that looks like her. I might just be grasping at straws here."
"Ah...how've things come to this... I'm sorry Papa, normally I could just scan the player data, but without access to the system I can't do it."
"There's no need to blame yourself. Anyway, I have an idea where she might be. Yggdrasil...she seems to be there. That place, you know it?"
"Ah, this I know. Eh, eh, it's generally to the northeast, but quite a ways from here. If I were to convert it into real distance, it would be about fifty kilometers away."
"Wow, that really is a long distance. That's what, five times the diameter of Aincrad. Actually, why was I brought to this forest anyway?"
Yui lowered her head for a moment at my question.
"I think that your positional data was either damaged or confused with a nearby player, resulting in you ending up here. That's just a guess, though."
"If I'm going to fall anyway, couldn't I at least have fallen closer to Yggdrasil. Mm, at any rate, I've heard you can fly here?"
I stood up, and twisted my head to look over my shoulder.
"Oh, look, there really are wings."
From my back sprouted four long, greyish-blue, translucent wings. They are more like insect wings than anything else. But I don't even know how to make them move.
"How do I fly?"
"There seems to be a secondary controller for flight. Please hold up your left hand, as if to grip something."
I followed the directions of the small girl on my shoulder. Soon after, a joystick-like object appeared in my hand.
"Pull it toward you to rise, push it away from you to descend, left or right to turn, push the button to accelerate, and release the button to slow down."
"Nn."
I pulled the joystick toward myself. The wings on my back started to expand and before long began to glow. I pulled the joystick further toward myself.
"Oh."
Suddenly, my body started to float. I rose slowly until about one meter off the ground before I let my hand return to a natural position. Next, I pressed the accelerate button. My body started to move forward.
Then, I tried to drop and turn; I got the hang of it pretty quickly. This was considerably easier than the flight VR games I had played before and its operation was quite simple.
"I think I more or less get it. Now, there's something I'd like to know. What's the closest town to here?"
"To the west there is a town called «Sylvain». That's the closest. Ah."
Yui suddenly looked up.
"What's wrong?"
"Players are approaching. It seems like there is one person being chased by three others."
"Ooh, a battle. Let's go take a look."
"Papa is as care-free as ever."
As I talked to Yui, I opened the menu and equipped the sword that I received as my beginning weapon. Pulling it out, I swung it a few times.
"Wow, what a lousy sword. It's too light too; well, I guess I'll make do."
I re-sheathe my sword and summon the flight controller again.
"Yui, I'll leave the navigation to you."
"Got it!"
Answering in her bell-like voice, Yui took off from my shoulder. Following her, I too, took to the air.