No one's POV
Everything happened in slow-motion for the brown hair girl named Kotone Takemiya as she can only helplessly watched her boyfriend Sora Yatagami got stab with the syringe in the chest by one of the murderers behind the Death Gun's incident, Atsushi Kanamoto or famously known as Johhny Black, a survivor member of Laughing Coffin, an infamous Player Killing orange guild in Sword Art Online.
It's all began with Sora, Kazuto, Kotone, Asuna, and Shino met at Dicey Cafe a few hours before the incident took place. As they discussing BoB and STL, Asuna noticed that it was nearly six o'clock, thus prompting the group to finish their conversation and leave the café.
Sora escort Kotone back to her house. When the two reached a small park near Kotone's house where they typically parted ways, the couple was approached by a man, who asked for directions to the station.
However, having realized that the man had been following them since they had left the cafe, Sora confronted the man who later identifies himself as Johnny Black or known by his real name, Atsushi Kanamoto.
Prioritize Kotone's safety, Sora pushed Kotone out of the way when he saw Atsushi produced a syringe filled with succinylcholine from within his jacket and rushed at them as he did the same at the man.
Kotone's eyes widen in shock when she saw Atsushi injected Sora with the drug by pressing the needle-less injector against his shoulder, while the black-haired boy use his feet to kick right into Atsushi's face. Both of them then lurched over and toppled onto the street, fainted.
Kotone: Sora!
(Timeskip)
Having accompanied her injured boyfriend to the Setagaya General Hospital for treatment following the attack, Kotone waited in front of the operating room for Sora's's surgery to be complete.
After calling 911, Johnny Black was then arrested and taken into custody while Sora was rushed to the hospital. Due to the injection, Sora went into Cardiac arrest and his heart had stopped. Just as Kotone was sat down on a bench next to the operation room, Kazuto, Asuna, Suguha, and her parent Midori Kirigaya came running in from the corner and saw her, clenching her hands tightly worried of Sora's safety.
Kazuto: Philia!
Kotone turned her head at them with a sad frown. When she was transferred to the hospital, she immediately called Sora's relative's to come to Setagaya General Hospital after telling them what happened to their son. Kazuto who was taking Asuna home immediately went there with Asuna tagging along when she heard what happened to Sora.
Kotone: Kirito, Asuna, Sugu, Ms Kirigaya...
As time went on, they all were waiting around the operation room and Kotone, Asuna, and Suguha were looking at Sora's slow heart, while Kazuto was holding his Mother's hand telling her that Sora will be alright. The surgery almost took all night, but the moment the red light turned off, all 5 of them went inside where they all saw Sora hooked to different machines and was slowly breathing and the doctor came up to them.
Doctor: We believe he's no longer in danger.
Midori: Is that so?
Doctor: That said, since his heart was stopped for more than 5 minutes, his brain may have sustained some kind of damage.
Everyone gasped at the sudden news, shocked to hear that Sora might have sustained permanent brain damage due to the long period of cardiac arrest.
Doctor: His mental or physical abilities, or perhaps both, may have suffered lasting damage. Worst case, he might never regain consciousness.
Sugu: No!
Kazuto: Is there something you can do about it!
Kotone and Asuna simultaneously looked at Sora in the other room with a worried expression. After everything happened this time, they can't afford to lose the man they love after everything they go through.
Doctor: We won't know the extent of the damage until he's had an MRI. I'd advise you to transfer him to a better-equipped facility. I'll get you started on the paperwork. This way, please.
Midori: Okay.
Kazuto: I'll join.
As Midori and Kazuto were signing the paperwork to transfer her son and brother, Sora, to a better facility for magnetic resonance imaging, Asuna, Suguha, and Kotone sat down on the benches. Asuna and Suguha then hold Kotone's hands and they were starting to tear up thinking about the possibility of Sora never waking up.
???: Kotone, Asuna, Suguha.
They looked up and saw it was Kikuoka.
Kotone: Mr. Kikouka?
Kikuoka: Can you tell me where I can find Sora's parents?
Kikuoaka, Asuna, Kotone, and Suguha all walked in and Kazuto was surprised to see Kikuoka.
Kazuto: Kikuoka?
Kikuoka: I was informed of the final Death Gun member was taken into custody and Sora's condition. There's only one facility in the world that's sufficiently equipped. If we take him there, Sora can get the treatment he needs.
(Timeskip)
Later that evening, Kotone and Asuna currently patiently stood outside of the National Defense Medical College Hospital, the institution where Sora was supposed to be currently hospitalized under Seijirou's advice.
Suguha: Thanks for waiting.
Kotone: Where's your mom and Kirito?
Suguha: She said to go ahead and sign in while she park the car. Kazuto is accompanying her.
Asuna: I see. So this is the hospital where Sora's being treated.
Suguha: Yes. They say he was transported by ambulance earlier today.
Kotone, Asuna, and Suguha entered the hospital and made their way up to the receptionist. Once they reached their destination, Suguha gave the receptionist a paper that has Sora's's pieces of information.
Suguha: We'd like to visit a patient.
Doing her job, the receptionist took the paper and started inspecting it.
Receptionist: Sora Kirigaya, is it? One moment, please.
As she started to search for Sora's name, something popped up on the screen of the computer, making her eyes widen in surprise. Kotone, Asuna and Suguha noticed the surprised expression on the receptionist's face got curious.
Receptionist: Umm... I need to go check something with my manager. Please wait a moment.
Just like that, the receptionist stood up from the chair and went to check something with her manager, leaving Kotone, Asuna, and Suguha, stand there, looked at each other with a confused expression.
(Timeskip)
Up above, the pale-white moon was visible through the window, intersected into four pieces by the window sash. The sylph capital of Swilvane in southwest Alfheim was shrouded in the thick curtain of night, and most of the businesses were locked up tight. Even the number of players moving along the main street was slim, given that it was four o'clock in the morning in the real world, the least active period of the day.
This was the virtual home owned by Leafa's in the world of ALfheim Online (ALO). A lamp that flickered in different colors cast light on the gleaming, rainbow-shell walls of the circular room, giving the scene a fantastical feeling. The girls, Liz, Silica, Yuuki, Sinon, Asuna, Leafa, and Philia, along with Kirito were all sitting there as they told how they refused access to Sora or even remote footage of his bed.
Yuuki: You didn't get to see him?
Philia: Because he's being treated with specialized equipment, they said no visitors until he's recovered.
Silica: But can they really do something like that? I mean, you're his family! You can't visit, let alone see him?
Sinon: Something doesn't seem right.
Kirito: That's right. We thought it was strange too, so we did some digging.
Leafa: According to the data, he's definitely a patient, but the ambulance that transported my brother never arrived at the hospital.
Asuna: We know for certain that Sora was taken out of the hospital in Setagaya in an ambulance. And there's a 'Sora Kirigaya' in the records of NDMC... but no one has seen him there, and there's no sign of him on the security footage.
Yuuki: You mean, Zora's not actually there?
Sinon: Didn't Kikuoka tell you anything?
Kirito: He's phone's been out of range, and he hasn't returned my emails. When I called the ministry, they said he's been away on business since yesterday.
Liz: No matter how you look at it, that' suspicious! That geezer has to be up to something!
Kirito: Yeah, I know. That bastard, he's probably making my brother do something again.
Silica: That can't be! Zora's unconscious, remember?
Silica protested, clenching fists out of concern for Zora's predicament. Kirito's black eyes looked down at the table, then narrowed with the focus of a hunter on its prey.
Kirito: That's right. But that's how it looks on the outside. But, if they use a machine that can access the soul itself...
Philia and Asuna: Ah!
Philia and Asuna gasped, stunned that they hadn't thought of that yet.
Kirito: Right? If you think of it that way, you can imagine a group that would fit the profile of our enemy. A group that has a completely unique device that accesses the soul and was using Zora for a test run just days ago.
Philia: The Soul Translator?
Kirito nodded her head in affirmative as everyone other than Sinon and Asuna looked at the two with a confused expression, don't know about this STL yet since Zora only told Kirito, Philia, Asuna and Sinon.
Yuuki: Soul Trans...
Liz: What's that?
Philia: There's a new type of dive machine that can read human souls. It's being develop by a company named Rath.
Leafa: Rath? Isn't that the company Big Brother Sora was working for part time?
This surprised Philia as she leaned forward.
Philia: Wait, you know about Rath, Leafa?
Leafa: Uh, no, nothing specific. But I did hear that the company's in Roppongi.
Sinon: Then Zora could be somewhere in Roppongi.
Kirito: But Roppongi's a big area...and I don't think the police are going to spring into action based on a tip that a company named Rath is based somewhere around there and Zora might be with them.
Sinon bit her lip. Leafa and Yuuki looked down in worry. Philia hesitated, then spoke up.
Philia: Listen...I didn't bring this up before, because I didn't want to say until I knew for sure, but there is one very fragile link between Zora and me. But it's quite possible that it broke at some point...
Sinon: What is it?
Philia: Remember when I explained to Kirito, Asuna about the thing he has, Shino-non?
Philia said, tapping her chest over her heart, before bringing out her menu and brought out the heart app for her phone and everything was stagnant.
Sinon: Oh, right...that heart monitor. You said it was sending information to your cell phone over the Internet...
Silica: What? What's that?
Philia: The signal died out a while back, but it's possible that if we retrace the source of the signal to when he was in the fake ambulance, we might pin down his location. So I asked for an analysis of the information.
Yuuki: Who?
Philia: Rio? Yui? How's it going?
Two little burst of light appeared a few inches above the table and coalesced into the form of a tiny person. Then it flashed a bit brighter and went out. What remained was a miniature of two female avatar, barely four inches tall. The little fairies's long eyelashes rose so that her big eyes could look at Philia, then Asuna, Leafa and Sinon. Apparently, their AI determined Sinon to be the most important person to address, and so she made a formal bow as she hovered in the air.
Rio: It's good to see you again, Sinon.
Her voice was like a plucked harp string. Sinon grinned a little bit.
Sinon: Good evening, Rio, Yui...or should I say, 'good morning'?
Yui: The present time is 4:32 AM, and today's sunrise is marked as 4:29, so I believe it is appropriate to consider this morning. Good morning, Leafa, Silica, Liz, Yuuki, Aunty, Papa, Mama.
Rio and Yui were formerly a player-counseling AI in the old SAO. She turned sixty degrees to address each person individually, then resumed hovering in front of Philia and Asuna.
Rio: We are ninety-eight percent finished tracing the packets sent from Papa's biomonitor to Mama's cell phone.
Kirito: Very good. So if it turns out that the packets were sent from around Roppongi, it will add quite a lot of credence to our theory.
Kirito suggested, and Philia nodded. Everyone looked at Rio and Yui expectantly.
Yui: We will now announce the results thus far. Unfortunately, the defense on the cell tower relays is rather imposing, though not as much as the National Defense Medical College's, and therefore I have only identified three signal sources.
Yui said. She waved her hand, and a holographic map of Tokyo appeared on the tabletop beneath her. Her wings stopped so she could land, and she took a few steps to point at a particular location. A red dot appeared with a soft bing.
Rio: This is Setagaya General Hospital, where Papa was first taken. The first transmission location is here.
She took a few more steps and pointed to a new light.
Rio: Aobadai 3-chome in Meguro Ward, around 20:50, June 29, 2026. We will indicate the predicted travel route.
A white line appeared along the roads between the two points. Yui moved to the southwest again and indicated a third point, which the line expanded to reach.
Yui: This is the second position. Shirogane-dai 1-Chome, Minato Ward. At around 21:10 on the same day. Next...
The route was heading a bit too far south to be straight from Setagaya to Roppongi, Philia noticed apprehensively, but she waited for Rio and Yui to continue. To their surprise, Yui pointed to an area of reclaimed land along the coast —far to the east of Roppongi.
Yui: Kaigam 2-Chome, Minato Ward, at around 21:20, on the same day. Since that time, there have been no signal from Uncle.
Leafa: So he's not in Tokorozawa or Ropponggi?
Asuna: Yui, Rio, what's at that address?
Rio: It seems to be a warehouse located in the harbor district.
Kirito: Why would they take him there?
Philia: Minato Ward?
(Timeskip)
Later that night, Kotone, Suguha and Kazuto were all on their way to the harbor location to try and locate Sora and Ryutaro had agreed to drive them there.
Ryutaro: It's nighttime, and there's no traffic, so we'll be there soon.
Kotone: Klien, thank you so much for driving us!
Ryutaro: Come on, I keep telling you there's no need to thank me! Still, I just saw him in GGO the other day. I really hope Zora's okay.
Suguha: Seriously, he's always getting tangled up in one thing or another.
Kazuto: If only I could be there for him, like always.
Kazuto gritted his teeth in frustration. He and Sora always tackle every problem together. During their time in SAO where the two of them always partied up together, ALO when the two of them went to go save Asuna, GGO for Death Gun, and during the Ordinal Scale problem. This is the first time that Kazuto was unable to stay by his brother's side.
Ryutaro: By the way, didn't you say that this Rath is in Roppongi? Shouldn't we be searching there, too?
Kazuto: Asuna and the others are on their way there. But Rath is still a complete mystery.
Philia: Rio and Yui throughly investigated it for us, but could only come up with its location. There was nothing about the structure or nature of its business.
Suguha: As for the 'Soul Translator' we couldn't find anything at all, including any patients they applied for.
Ryutaro: Reading and writing the human soul is one hell of an invention, and they haven't even applied for a patent? Talk about thorough... Oh! We are almost there.
After arriving at the harbor, the four of them made it to the entrance and they all put on their Augma to see Rio as she popped out. Suddenly, they got a call from Asuna.
Kotone: Asuna?
Asuna(phone): We did find Rath, but the security here's pretty strict. They wouldn't even talk to us. What's more, we had Yui check all the security cameras around here, but there's no sign that Sora was ever brought here.
Kotone: Really? I see.
Kotone hung up her phone and look at Rio.
Kotone: Rio?
Rio: Yes, Mama. I've checked the security cameras in this area. Yesterday at 21:20, a helicopter took off from that clearing over there.
Everyone gasped when they heard that.
Suguha: Helicopter?
Rio: Yes. I believe Papa may have been on it.
Suguha: Then you mean my brother's been transported even farther away?
Kazuto: But wait, Rio. This is the last place that any signals were picked up, right?
Rio: Yes, Uncle.
Kotone: Even if Sora really get carried away, by helicopter, they'd ultimately have to transport him to some kind of facility. I can't believe he'd be that far out of range.
Kazuto: It's unthinkable for a cutting-edge start-up to be out of range for cell signals. And even if they put him somewhere that shielded his signal, he would have connected at some point first...
Rio: Right. One possibilities is that he may have been transported overseas.
Ryutaro: Overseas?!
Rio: Under the circumstances, that would be the most likely scenario.
Kazuto: If that's the case, then there's no way for us to go after him.
Suguha: Big Brother... where did you go?
Kotone: Sora.
And if Sora's abduction was part of some top-secret national project, there was nothing simple teenagers like them could do about it. It would be beyond even the scope of the police. Kotone felt the weight of her own helplessness bearing down on her. She glanced the little fairy watching her.
Rio: Please cheer up, Mama!
Kotone: Rio.
Rio: Papa never give up on you nor anyone else he consider close to him. Even after losing Rumia, he continue to move forward. He saved your life many time in SAO. He saved Uncle, he save Aunty, he save Leafa, Sinon, Yuuki, and all of us. How he risked his life to help you regain your memories even if it means losing Yuna again!
Kotone: But...
Rio: This time, it's your turn to search for Papa!
Despite the fairy's claim that all her reactions were the result of a simple learning program, Rio's encouraging smile was astonishing in its gentleness and warmth.
Rio: The thread that connects us to Papa must be intact. I believe that even the government of Japan cannot sever the connection between you two.
Kotone:...Thank you, Rio. I'm not going to give up. If the government is our enemy, then I'll march right into the National Diet Building and take it up with the prime minister directly!
Rio: That's the spirit!
Kazuto: He'll come back. He always does. There's sure to be a connection that will lead to my brother. If we can just find one more clue.
Kotone: Assuming that Rath has something to do with where Sora is now, Kirito, do you remember anything Sora might've mentioned?
Kazuto: Not much. I think he said the machine at his part-time job in Roppongi was based on the Medicubiod.
Kotone: The STL. The Medicuboid... I remember him telling me something once. That the one who created the basic design for the Medicuboid was, Akihiko Kayaba, but that someone else developed it further for the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. I think he mentioned that her name was Rinko... Kojiro.
Kazuto: I know that name. She was looking after Heathcliff's physical body while he was diving. She was doing full-dive technology research with him in the same lab. After Sora got the Seed from Kayaba, he was going to meet up with her. He also said something about her being related to him.
Rio: Let me check.
Rio started to look for Rinko Kojiro through her data base amd found her file.
Rio: The most likely match for that name is currently working in research at a university in California. I've accesses the University database. Looking at her career, she's former member of the Shigemura Lab, at Toto Institute of Technology's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Suguha: Wasn't Shigemura the guy who developed the Augma?
Kazuto: And thats also the Kayaba's research lab.
Kotone: This person might know about the STL... about Rath...
(Elsewhere)
Location: California, U.S.A. The following evening in California, while checking her mailbox, filled with invitations from Kikuoka Seijirou to participate in his project, Rinko reminisced about her days with her lover, Kayaba Akihiko.
The man had once shared his lifelong dream: a large castle, consisting of multiple floors with a palace at the very top. While closing her eyes, Rinko then grabbed the locket around her neck and mutters something softly.
Suddenly, Rinko opened her eyes when she was alerted to a new e-mail has arrived in her mailbox.
Rinko: Again?
To her surprise, when she looked at the new email, she raised an eyebrow when saw it was from someone she had never heard of, rather than being another message from Kikuoka Seijirou.
Rinko: Kotone... Takemiya?
Rinko looked at the mail with a suspicious look. She had had the option to delete it and move on. But for some reason, she hadn't, or more like she can't. She felt like the mail has a chance for her to move on and pushed away from the question she'd asked herself many times in her mind, Rinko opened the email and start to read it.
Kotone(email): A machine called Soul Translator, based on the Medicuboid, the medical full-dive machine you provided the technology for, is now being developed by an organization called Rath. While involved in the test runs for this machine, Sora Kirigaya or rather Sora Yatagami disappeared without a trace.
Rinko: Sora!
Rinko's eyes widened when she read Sora's name that was mentioned in the letter.
(Flashback)
In March 2025, after Rinko was released on bail and later acquitted, she was contacted by Sora via email, asking to talk with her. A week later, Sora met with Rinko at a coffee shop near a Tokyo station to talk.
Sora: It has been awhile, Rinko.
Rinko gritted her teeth as she was reminiscing about something and look at Sora.
Rinko: Yes, it has been awhile, Sora. I've see you've grown up. Your parents Kai and Misaki would be delighted to see that.
Sora: Please don't talk about my parents. They disappear and was presumed dead. Aunty Rinko...
Rinko looked down saddened. The day that Sora's father and mother disappear, Kayaba his Uncle came barging in to his own house telling Sora that his own parent had stole money from the company before they disappear. After she reminiscing about what happened, she look at Sora with face full of guilt.
Rinko: Sora... About what happened...
Sora: Whatever happened happens. I'm no longer bothered by it.
Rinko: That's not it. When you were pressed charged, I turned a blind eye to it all. And I didn't even bother taking you in instead. I didn't know the whole truth, but I doubt it was your parent who stole the money.
Sora: If you didn't know the truth, then you shouldn't fabricate testimony.
Sora didn't seem particularly bothered.
Rinko: But the truth was different, wasn't it?
Sora: Yes. Sugou himself confessed. But that's not why I called you here.
Sora is at the coffee shop where he now sitting on the opposite side of the table from Rinko Kojiro as he called her after he got the world seed. After talking for few minutes, Sora managed to learn about Akihiko's aim of scanning his brain and storing his memories and thoughts as digital codes on the network.
Then, Sora decided to tell Rinko of his meeting with Kayaba when he was fighting Sugou.
Sora: Inside the old SAO server, I met Kayaba's digital ghost.
Rinko's eyes widen in shock when she heard that Sora met with Kayaba's digital ghost. As the accomplice of Kayaba Akihiko, she later was arrested after Kayaba died. While awaited for her trial, much to her shock, she was released by the same person who they press charged themselves Sora Yatagami.
Thus, for Rinko, meeting with the person who saved her from death and at the same time killed her lover, also a relative that she and the rest of her relative put a false charge on, Rinko has mixed feelings about the black-haired boy in front of her.
Sora: It was there I received a certain program. Kayaba called it the World Seed.
Rinko then looked down saddened before looked back at Sora.
Rinko:...If you really hate him, go ahead and disposed of what he gave you. And after everything we've put you through, I don't blame you for hating us. But if there's... If there's something besides hatred inside you...
Sora:...
(Present)
Kotone(email): I found your e-mail address from the address book on Sora's PC. You're the only person who could possibly take me to him and to Rath. Please, please help me.
That was how the message ended. Despite her shock, Rinko had sensed that Kotone Takemiya's words were true. Three times over the past year, she had received invitations to participate in the development of a next-generation brain-machine interface from one Ground Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka.
Rinko had raised her eyes from her monitor and to the night view of Pasadena outside the window of her condo. She had recalled her nephew's face, who came to visit her once before she left Japan.
He had explained to her the illegal human experimentation that Nobuyuki Sugou was attempting and, at the very end, hesitated. Then he had told her about his conversation with the ghost of Akihiko Kayaba in the VR world, and how that ghost had, for whatever reason, given him a shrunken-down version of the Cardinal system.
Thinking back on it now, the high-density, high-output brain-pulse scanner that Akihiko Kayaba had used to end his own life was the basis for the Medicuboid, and now, the Soul Translator. It was all connected, and nothing was over. So was it simply fate that she had gotten this message from Kotone Takemiya now?
Overnight, Rinko had made up her mind and replied to Kotone to accept her request.
(Timeskip)
Looking out of the window, it was a brilliant close-up on whitecaps and breaking waves, nothing like the high-altitude view from a passenger jet. That's what Rinko Kojiro is seeing at the moment.
It's been several days since she received the message from Kotone and currently, Rinko and the other passenger beside her, whose eyes were shadowed behind sunglasses and long golden hair are inside the helicopter, heading for somewhere in the middle of the ocean.
Helicopter driver: It's coming into view. There it is. The Ocean Turtle.
Rinko and the person beside her looked outside of the window and saw what was in front of them and it was a ship. The ship takes the form of a large, four-sided black pyramid with 2:3 ratio edges. The height of the facility is that of a 25-story building. It is 400 meters long and 250 meters wide, with large black solar power panels covering it like a shell.
Rinko: Turtle... I see. It certainly looks like a turtle. Though its face looks like a pig. A turtle-pig. Didn't something like that appear in Alice in Wonderland?
???: Rath?
As the helicopter landed, Rinko and the golden-haired woman were greeted by a young man with a shortcut hairstyle and wearing a coat.
Man: We've been expecting you, Dr. Kojiro. And this is...?
Rinko: My assistant, Mayumi Reynolds.
Mayumi: Nice to meet you.
She said in fluent English and stuck out her hand. The man accepted it awkwardly.
Nakanishi: I'm Lieutenant Nakanishi. I've been assigned as your guide. Now then, this way, please.
He said, motioning toward a staircase at the end of the heliport. They walked about two hundred yards, turning right and left, until they came to a door dead ahead, attended by a man in a navy-blue uniform.
The man then saluted to the three as Nakanishi returned the salute and announced.
Nakanishi: Dr. Kojiro, a visiting researcher, and her assistant, Reynolds, will be entering Sector S3.
Officer: Confirming identity...
He opened a metal device and gave Rinko a piercing facial comparison to the picture on the monitor.
Office: Confirmed.
Once he was satisfied, the clean-shaven guard looked at her assistant.
Office: Excuse me, but I need you to remove your sunglasses.
Mayumi: Sure.
She said in English again, pulling off her large sunglass. Just like he did with Rinko, the officer gave Mayumi a piercing facial comparison to the picture on the monitor.
Officer: Confirmation complete. Go ahead.
After the three walked past the officer, Rinko exhaled and turned to Nakanishi to note.
Rinko: Your security's pretty tight for being in the middle of the ocean.
Nakanishi: Well, at least you don't have to submit to any full body checks. Of course, we already ran you through metal and explosive detectors three times.
He replied, removing a small ID card from his suit pocket and inserting it in a slot next to the door. Then, he pressed his thumb to a sensor panel. A second later, the door slid open, granting them access to the core of the Ocean Turtle.
Nakanishi stepped inside followed by Rinko and Mayumi from behind. Once they step inside the room, Rinko gasped when she saw what's inside the huge screen in front of her. It was a city. The buildings were all made of chalky white stone and had strange rounded roofs.
Crowds of people walked over paths of the same white stone, connected to countless stairways and arches through the trees. Rinko glanced around the scene and noticed that far beyond the expanse of the city was a brilliant white tower looming in the distance, surrounded by four smaller sub-towers. The top of the main tower went right off the boundary of the window into the blue sky beyond it.
Rinko took a few steps forward, trying to see if she could glimpse the tip of the tower, and finally realized that she wasn't looking at a window but the footage on a massive monitor wall.
???: Welcome to Rath.
Rinko turned her head to the left, in the direction of the voice. Just in front of the nearly movie-theater-size monitor was a console setup with a few keyboards and sub-monitors. Two men were standing there. However, Rinko's eyes were focused on the other man resting his back against the side of the console met Rinko's glance and smiled, his glasses glinting.
Rinko: Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka... Why are you dressed like that?
She scowled. It probably wasn't the best way to address someone for the first time in two years. While Nakanishi saluted in his crisp, perfect uniform, Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka wore a yukata of fine Kurume fabric tied with an elegant obi, with bare feet in wooden geta sandals.
Nakanishi: If you'll excuse me.
He headed back through the machines, and when the door shut, Kikuoka leaned back on the console again and drawled.
Kikuoka: You can't blame me. I've been here on the ocean for a month now; I can't wear my uniform all the time.
He spread his hands and beamed again.
Kikuoka: Dr. Kojiro, Miss Reynolds, thank you for making the long trip. I'm so pleased you could visit us here at Rath. It was worth all the persistent invitations.
Rinko: Well, I'm here now, so I might as well accept your hospitality. Though I can't guarantee I'll be any help.
Rinko said, and bowed. Her assistant did the same. Kikuoka raised an eyebrow, and his gaze briefly lingered on that stunning blond hair before the smile returned.
Kikouka: And you are the final member of the trio I considered indispensable to this project. Now I have all three in the belly of this turtle at last.
Rinko: Ah, I see...I should have known one of those three would be you, Higa.
Rinko said to the other man, who was still facing away. He stopped typing and swiveled in his chair toward them. Next to Kikuoka's slender height, he looked tiny. He had bleached hair fashioned into little spikes and simple round glasses. His clothes were just what she remembered from college: faded T-shirt, cropped jeans, and worn- out sneakers.
Takeru Higa gave her a shy smile that suited his baby face. He opened his mouth and spoke the first words they'd exchanged in five or six years.
Higa: Well, of course it's me. I'm the last student of Shigemura Lab, so I've got to carry on our legacy.
Rinko: Well... I see you haven't changed a bit.
In the Shigemura research lab at Touto Technical University's electrical engineering department, Higa had tended to get lost in the shadows of the two giants, Akihiko Kayaba and Nobuyuki Sugou, yet here he was, intimately involved with a massive, top-secret government project. Rinko reached out for a light handshake, impressed at how far he'd come.
Rinko:...And? Who's the third person?
The officer gave her one of his inscrutable smiles and shook his head.
Kikuoka: I am afraid I can't introduce you quite yet. Maybe we'll have the opportunity in the days ahead...
???: Then why don't I say the name for you, Mr. Kikuoka?
That came not from Rinko but from her "assistant," who had been lying low in her shadow all this time.
Kikouka: What—?! Kotone... Why are you with Dr. Kojiro?
Rinko: I received an email from her.
Rinko then give a brief explanation about what happened.
Rinko: So now do you understand why I felt obligated to accept your invitation, Kikuoka?
The lieutenant colonel probably had little experience with the sensation of shock. His mouth opened and closed several times to no avail, until at last he managed to squeak.
Kikuoka: To verify your assistant's identity, I'm positive that we ran all kinds of checks on a photo we acquired from the university database.
Kotone: Yes, I can't tell you how many times they scrutinized my face. But I'd already switched out the photo in the database for my own. We happen to know someone very skilled at getting around firewalls.
Rinko: By the way, the real Mayumi is probably on some beach right now, working on her tan.
Kotone:...Where's Sora?
Kotone said, stood in front of Kikuoka, and sent him a glare, demanding an answer regarding Sora's whereabouts.