"Here."
Satoru and Sheeta sat together in the Safe Zone.
Compared to the countless times they had sat on cold, hard floors, listening to the low breathing of nearby beasts, this felt almost unreal. Now they were leaning against a cherry blossom tree, watching the colors sway around them, sharing food with someone else.
Maybe he had simply never imagined they would be able to spend time together like this again.
Sheeta accepted the generously filled sandwich. He had bought it specially before coming here. Food made by players with the Cooking Skill not only gave better buffs, but naturally tasted far better than anything sold in NPC shops.
She held the sandwich in both hands and began munching the moment she opened her mouth. She clearly could not fit that much into one bite, yet she stubbornly tried to stuff it all in anyway. As a result, her cheeks puffed up like balloons. Especially with the way she seemed to be nibbling with only her small front teeth, she really did look like a hamster.
Satoru smiled softly, shook his head, and lit another cigarette. The tobacco glowed red as it caught fire, giving off a faint crackle. The rising smoke was scattered backward by the breeze.
"Yoo nod eading?" Sheeta lifted her bright eyes and forced the words out through her stuffed mouth.
"Watching you eat is enough to make me full," Satoru said with a smile.
In SAO, not eating would not affect much. The only problem was that the realistic sensation of hunger would keep clinging to you. But in the end, it was still just a simulated feeling. Forcing yourself to ignore it was simply a matter of willpower. After spending enough time in the Labyrinth Tower and using up all the food in his inventory, he would naturally let things be.
A world where illusion and reality blended together.
After living here for so long, aside from the great trial of life and death, even his perception of everything else had grown hazy.
Time included.
Had it already been a year and a half since he came here?
He looked at Sheeta beside him and hesitated for a moment.
"Do you want to go back to that world?"
"Wha?"
"I mean the real world."
Satoru unconsciously lowered his voice. In this place, not discussing that topic had become something close to common sense.
"During the first six months, everyone wanted to escape this place, because the threat to their lives was so close. But after a year, some people realized that as long as they were a little careful, those monsters weren't actually that frightening. They could be beaten easily enough."
"And now, there are even Guilds for so-called scenery enthusiasts. People are gradually adapting to this place."
"Even though we've only cleared a little over thirty floors, the difficulty increases the higher we go. The time needed to clear each floor went from several months at the start, to one or two months, then to a few dozen days, and now it has become one or two months again."
"At this point, people with different experiences have started to feel differently about Aincrad."
"Then what does Nero think? Do you still want to leave as soon as possible after all?"
Sheeta had somehow finished that large sandwich and returned to her quiet, pretty-girl appearance, hugging her knees as she asked.
"It doesn't really matter to me either way. If the game is cleared, I'll leave. If it isn't, I'll keep strengthening myself," Satoru said quietly. "At least here, becoming strong is much easier."
"Is this place better than the real world?" Sheeta tilted her head.
"I don't know."
Satoru slowly took a drag from his cigarette.
"This place is very free. You can live freely with a sword in hand and wander wherever you want. But at the same time, the ones freed from the shackles in their minds will also act without restraint, just like what happened earlier."
As he said that, his eyes narrowed slightly.
"...And I have no intention of letting them go."
I've already killed one person. In that case, doesn't that make the rest of what I can do much simpler?
"That person was called Didos," Sheeta suddenly said.
"You know him?" Satoru asked, a little surprised.
"Mm-hm. He was very strong... and very similar to Nero," Sheeta said softly.
"Similar in how pitiful we are?"
"Is it the happiness of long-lasting, muddled bliss, or the happiness of ambition left unfulfilled?"
Makoto Kaizuka's hoarse voice, growing more and more excited in the middle of the slaughter, surfaced beside his ear once again.
"The things hidden in your eyes are very similar. But he... probably isn't here anymore, right?" Sheeta said.
"You really don't hate me."
Satoru smiled bitterly.
"Not just hate me. You don't even feel the slightest bit awkward. I'm a murderer, you know. According to Kayaba Akihiko, I did kill a person with my own hands."
"But when that person left, he didn't have any unwillingness or regret, and he didn't hate Nero either, did he?" Sheeta asked.
"..."
Before Makoto Kaizuka died, he showed none of the ugliness an ordinary person would have at the end of life. He had even endured the attack of the Forgotten War Statue and driven the Azure Gap Halberd deep into the chest of that blood-red armor, standing there as he quietly shattered and vanished.
It had been so peaceful, yet Satoru had not found it strange.
That man's end should have looked exactly like that. He even thought that when his own death came, it would be the same. He would simply close his eyes and accept the embrace of the god of death.
Judging by his last words, that guy had handed the hell that came next over to him.
"Nero did make mistakes, of course. But those mistakes feel as if fate branded them onto you. Rather than hate you, I was more worried that Nero would sink even lower because of them."
"Thankfully, you didn't. Because I know Nero has something he holds on to in his heart too, and that conviction isn't something bad."
"Though I can more or less imagine that once I leave this game, the police will probably come knocking."
The one I killed was not only him, but also his family. Even if his death sentence had already been declared in the hospital, before that happened, I was the one who snatched the scythe from the hands of his own fate and pointed it at him.
Sin is not something you can throw away.
Even if everyone carries some of it, more or less.
"But... do I have something like conviction too?"
"Mm. Though you don't seem to have realized it yourself yet." Sheeta looked at him and smiled.
Satoru felt the girl's gaze beside him and hesitated.
"You really don't hate me?"
"I'm selfish and pragmatic. One month after this game began, I used MPK on the Field of Night to frame other players for my own gain. After that, I joined the Divine Dragons Alliance and secretly embezzled Col. After Didos, I still kept chasing that group of people. During all of that... I also..."
"But you have that kind of self-awareness," Sheeta suddenly said. "You have that self-awareness... and you show such a sad expression."
"The self-awareness of wanting to live truthfully more than anyone else."
"And such complicated feelings."
"That's why I..."
"..."
Sheeta did not continue.
Satoru spoke first.
"I only just realized that you've changed a little from before. You're better at expressing yourself now."
"That has to be a good thing, right?"
"Of course. People only understand things once you say them out loud. Ordinary people can't read minds or anything like that, can they?"
Satoru lifted his head and looked toward the clear sky.
"The world created by that so-called god really is astonishing. He created a new world, making people who should never have had anything to do with each other form new bonds and new grudges. When you think about it, everything should be on his shoulders. That's the part I understand the least."
"A genius scientist who threw away morality and guilt. What kind of obsession could support him enough to act so silently?"
"I've played plenty of games. Inside the worlds their creators built, I overturned their initial designs and forced them to patch things. But with Aincrad, doing everything I can just to understand it is already my limit."
"What does he want to see from so many people struggling?"
"What if he simply wanted to make a floating castle in the sky real?" Sheeta said. "At the beginning, obsession has no distinction between good and evil."
"So once he lost all restraint, he became a madman like those people? Thinking about it that way, my so-called desire for tit-for-tat revenge really doesn't amount to much compared to the convictions they carry."
This time, he was silent for a long while.
Only after the cigarette had burned all the way down did he speak again.
"Sheeta, I am Yurnero, but more than that, I am Satoru."
"Yurnero can cut down monsters several meters tall with a single slash, but Satoru struggles just to lift a case of water."
"Yurnero can wander anywhere with a hood over his head, bearing the pressure of the front lines and constantly forcing himself forward. But Satoru can't fit into society. In the end, all he can do is work hard in front of a computer."
"And the one who can save you when you're in danger can only be Yurnero, holding a curved sword and happening to have the level needed to keep you safe."
"In this vast Aincrad, Yurnero has a unique-grade weapon, a rare Unique Skill, and a level beyond everyone else. He has even faced a Floor Boss alone. But once all of that is stripped away... Satoru is pitifully empty."
Fake things were still fake, even if they could protect your life in this world.
The difference between reality and falsehood was this.
Kayaba Akihiko could use the real him to create this false world that trapped ten thousand people.
But Satoru could only use the false him to barely keep two or three people alive.
In the end, here...
One was a god.
The other was a trapped beast.
So what if he could defeat most players?
He was still in the creator's palm.
So what if he could force them to patch the version?
The creator only had to change a few things, and he could make him start all over again.
The clash between developers and players had never been fair to begin with, and it never would be.
That was the gap between reality and a game.
And he had always been aware of it.
"If the one you can trust is Satoru... then that would be wonderful."
...
Before he could receive an answer, the Field Boss Argo had mentioned spawned in front of them. The cherry tree she had referred to was the very one they had been leaning against.
It looked like an ordinary, unremarkable boy, the kind of NPC you might see on a random street corner. His face did not carry even the slightest sense of pressure. He did not look anything like a powerful, terrifying Field Boss.
"Laputa is about to fall."
Satoru heard the boy speak that strange sentence.
So this was what Argo had mentioned, a battle that began after dialogue?
He immediately looked above the boy's head.
Pazu.
For the first second or two, he went still.
Then the golden flame in his eyes slowly began to burn.
For an instant, he felt as though the entire world had gone silent. He could not even breathe.
For the second time, Satoru raised his head and looked at the sky. He wanted to see through the clouds, through the underside of the floor above, all the way to the eyes of that researcher.
He clenched his hand, but it felt as if he could grasp nothing at all.
"I see..."
His voice came out hoarse.
Just as Didos had said, that man had granted him a living hell.
Silently, he drew the Blade of the Ancient Scroll and walked toward the boy, step by step.
...
"What a beautiful sword..."
Sheeta looked at the one-handed sword stuck in the ground after the boy shattered.
The Healing Crystal in Satoru's hand burst apart, pulling his lost HP back up by a large amount. Without a word, he walked forward and opened the sword's information.
Unique Sword, Sakura Fang.
Cherry-colored patterns wound around the firm blade. Rather than a weapon meant for battle, it looked more like something meant to be admired. Yet the madness with which the boy had wielded it moments ago was still vivid in his mind.
"Nero, you take it. I have Flameforged, so I'll be fine."
The girl was not greedy at all.
Satoru opened his mouth and looked at her.
When he turned back to the Unique Sword lying on the ground...
He could no longer hold back his tears.