Alicization Dividing Read online

  Copyright

  SWORD ART ONLINE, Volume 13: ALICIZATION DIVIDING

  REKI KAWAHARA

  Translation by Stephen Paul

  Cover art by abec

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  SWORD ART ONLINE Vol.13

  ©REKI KAWAHARA 2013

  Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS

  First published in Japan in 2013 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2018 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Yen On

  1290 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10104

  Visit us at yenpress.com

  facebook.com/yenpress

  twitter.com/yenpress

  yenpress.tumblr.com

  instagram.com/yenpress

  First Yen On Edition: April 2018

  Yen On is an imprint of Yen Press, LLC.

  The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Yen Press, LLC.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Kawahara, Reki, author. | Abec, 1985– illustrator. | Paul, Stephen, translator.

  Title: Sword art online / Reki Kawahara, abec ; translation, Stephen Paul.

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2014–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2014001175 | ISBN 9780316371247 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316376815 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296427 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296434 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296441 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296458 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390408 (v. 7 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390415 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390422 (v. 9 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390439 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390446 (v. 11 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390453 (v. 12 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390460 (v. 13 : pbk.)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Science fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure.

  Classification: pz7.K1755Ain 2014 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2014001175

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-39046-0 (paperback)

  978-0-316-56105-1 (ebook)

  E3-20180327-JV-PC

  INTERLUDE IV

  JULY 6TH, 2026

  The floating science facility Ocean Turtle, a mammoth structure nearly a quarter mile long and over an eighth of a mile wide, consisted of twelve decks, also known as levels.

  By comparison, the world’s largest cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas, was smaller and had eighteen decks—so there was an air of even greater luxury on the Ocean Turtle. However, given that its purpose was not leisure but oceanic scientific research, it made sense that the various observational and analytical devices would need extra room. Asuna certainly wasn’t going to complain about having more space overhead.

  The first deck under the waterline was the float deck; the second, just above it, was the mechanical deck; and decks three through eight were dedicated to various types of research: marine biology, deep-sea resources, plate structure, and so on. The ninth and tenth decks were for cabins; the eleventh was for recreation: sporting lounges, gyms, and a pool; and the twelfth and top deck contained radars, antennas, and observation points.

  Officially, the Ocean Turtle belonged to JAMSTEC, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, but that was only half the truth. As the craft was propelled by a domestically produced nuclear power reactor, it had to be constructed with the help of the Self-Defense Force, and it continued to be manned by SDF soldiers at all times for security now that it was operational.

  Beyond that, the composite titanium-alloy pillar that ran through the center of the ship—the Main Shaft—was completely under SDF jurisdiction, where they conducted top-secret research that had nothing to do with marine science. They were replicating newborn souls and growing them within a virtual environment in an attempt to build the world’s first true bottom-up artificial intelligence: Project Alicization.

  7:45 AM, Monday, July 6th, 2026.

  After paying a visit to Kazuto Kirigaya (Kirito) in the medical area of the Upper Shaft, where he was still recuperating, Asuna Yuuki took breakfast in the eleventh-deck lounge with Dr. Rinko Koujiro, an expert researcher on full-dive technology.

  It wasn’t a luxury cruise liner, but the buffet-style food was actually pretty good—not that Asuna was going to complain about that or her cabin, given that Lieutenant Colonel Seijirou Kikuoka could snap his fingers and have her sent to the brig, if the facility indeed had such a thing.

  Across from her, Rinko stuck her knife through a white fish fritter and held it up to examine the meat. “Do you suppose they caught this fish here?”

  “I…I don’t know…,” Asuna said, looking at the same thing on her plate. She brought a piece up to her mouth. The pale fish was soft and crumbly, yet had a juicy texture. It was obviously very fresh, but she didn’t know whether you could simply toss a reel out in the open ocean like this and catch something.

  Asuna put down her knife and picked up her glass of iced tea as she turned her gaze to the window on her left. The calm ocean surface was dark and flat, revealing no fishing craft, much less any actual fish.

  Thinking about it, all she knew was that the Ocean Turtle was located somewhere in the Izu Islands, which were widely spaced across a large expanse of ocean, north to south. Hachijojima was in the center of the archipelago, and that island itself was nearly two hundred miles from Tokyo.

  If she could freely use her phone, she could have just pulled up a map program to pinpoint their location, but for various security reasons, she wasn’t allowed to connect to the megafloat’s Wi-Fi. She could still listen to her saved music files, which was better than having the phone confiscated entirely, but there was definitely something frustrating about having a smartphone and being unable to use it to instantly look up information. She hadn’t even been this frustrated during SAO, when she had neither Internet-searching capabilities nor any news from the real world whatsoever.

  Asuna swallowed the lump of annoyance along with her iced tea and tried to change her mood. Being this angry about lacking Internet access was simply a reflection of her overall deficit of necessary information.

  Was what Seijirou Kikuoka and Takeru Higa told her about their project yesterday the whole truth? Were there more secrets about their test universe, the Underworld, that they hadn’t explained yet? And was Nurse Natsuki Aki being honest when she claimed that Kazuto would wake up from Soul Translator Unit Four tomorrow…?

  The first two were one thing, but she had to cast aside her doubts about the third. Now was the time for her to have faith. On July 7th, Kazuto’s damaged neural network would finish its repair, and he would awaken. Asuna had to leave on a helicopter for Tokyo that evening, but she would at least have time to speak with him. She’d have time to hold the body that had sacrificed itself to protect her.

  The thought of this moment brought some strength to her mind. She resumed eating and asked Rinko, “Do you know where
exactly this ship is located? All I heard was that it’s in the Izu Islands.”

  “…You know, that might be the extent of my knowledge, too…”

  Rinko had already finished her fish. She put her hand into her coat pocket to take out her phone, then remembered she wouldn’t be able to connect to the Internet anyway and scowled.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure that Higa said we were a hundred miles or so west of Mikurajima…or was it Miyakejima?” she wondered, then turned her eyes to the window, which was large for a ship. Asuna followed her lead and looked out at the blue-black surface of the water again.

  The morning sun was coming up through the windows behind them, meaning that they were looking to the west now. If it was true that the Ocean Turtle was on the western side of the Izu Islands, they wouldn’t see either Mikurajima or Miyakejima, and certainly not the Japanese mainland of Honshu…

  As her gaze swept from right to left, Asuna couldn’t help but gasp. There was something out there she hadn’t seen the last time, shining in the morning sun. Something artificial and narrow in the distant sea—a ship. It was hard to grasp its scale without knowing how close it was, but it seemed very large.

  “Rinko, look there,” she said, putting down the knife and pointing.

  The other woman squinted and muttered, “That’s a ship. It’s…probably not the fishing boat that caught our breakfast…”

  “It’s not? How can you tell?”

  “It’s too big for that and too plainly colored. Plus…it’s got a whole load of antennas on it.”

  Rinko got up and walked over to the window, so Asuna joined her. Asuna’s eyesight was perfectly fine, but the water vapor coming off the surface made the distant ship vague and wavering. And she was right that the mast in the center of the boat seemed to be sporting a number of round satellite dishes. It resembled the massive antenna mast that rose from the top deck not far above this lounge. The design of the ship seemed pointed, angular. Not like a fishing boat but like a transport ship or…

  “A warship…?” Asuna murmured.

  Behind her, an officious voice stated, “That is a Japanese ship. The country does not possess any battleships.”

  The two women turned around and saw a man in a pure-white short-sleeved uniform, carrying his breakfast tray—Lieutenant Nakanishi.

  “Good morning, Mr. Nakanishi.”

  “Good morning.”

  The tall man set down his tray on a nearby table and crisply gave them a bowed salute. “Good morning, Dr. Koujiro, Miss Yuuki.”

  “Would you like to sit with us?” Rinko offered. He appeared to think it over, then accepted. Asuna and Rinko waited for him to bring his tray over before they sat down again. The officer’s breakfast was a hearty military one, the plate piled high with eggs, bacon, and salad.

  “How does it compare to the breakfast in the SDF?” Rinko asked, a rather sensitive question.

  Nakanishi grimaced and lifted his fork. “To be honest, it’s slightly better here. The tomatoes and cucumbers are grown on the ship, for example.”

  “Whoa, there’s a garden here?” Asuna exclaimed.

  The officer beamed with pride. “That’s right, on the rear eighth deck. It’s an experiment in large-scale marine farming.”

  “So that’s why the tomatoes tasted a bit salty,” Rinko joked.

  “Really?” he said, popping the slice into his mouth. Asuna couldn’t help but giggle. She picked up her fork and knife to continue eating, then recalled the first thing Nakanishi had mentioned.

  He had said that Japan had no battleships, but that couldn’t be true. He was an SDF naval officer, so he worked on a battleship…right? Or was the logic that the SDF wasn’t a proper military, which meant that their ships weren’t “battle” ships? So the ship out there must have been…

  Asuna looked out the window again, staring at the large, angled silhouette. “Then if it’s not a warship, it’s…a self-defense ship?”

  “Close. SDF naval vessels are called escort ships,” Nakanishi replied with a grin. He turned his head to look at it, too. “That ship is our latest general-purpose craft, the DD-127 Nagato. Unfortunately, I can’t reveal the reason why it’s traveling this stretch of…hmm?”

  His concise explanation trailed off, drawing her interest back to the ship. The gray battle—er, escort—ship was beginning to change direction. In less than ten seconds, it turned so its stern was facing the Ocean Turtle, and it began to chug away.

  Nakanishi abruptly stood up and turned away from the women so he could remove a thin device from his pocket. He pressed a few buttons and brought it to his ear to murmur, “This is Nakanishi. I’m sorry to bother you on your break, Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka. I believe the Nagato was scheduled to accompany us until twelve hundred hours two days hence, but it just turned to move westward…Yes, sir, I’ll be right there.”

  He turned back to them, phone still in his hand. His face was suddenly stern and pensive. “Doctor, Miss Yuuki, I’m afraid I have to leave you now.”

  “That’s all right. We’ll clean up the meal for you.”

  “I appreciate that. Good-bye,” he said with a nod, then practically sped out of the lounge.

  “…I wonder what that was about.”

  “No idea…,” Asuna said, turning to the window again.

  Something about the sight of the escort ship gradually fading through the morning mist made her uneasy. Quietly, Asuna clenched her left hand.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ALICE THE INTEGRITY KNIGHT, MAY 380 HE

  Creak.

  Creak.

  With the repetition of each tiny sound, I felt my heart shrink.

  The sound came from the tip of my still-unnamed black sword, which was just barely sticking into the gap between Central Cathedral’s roughly one-inch-thick white marble blocks.

  My right hand was damp with sweat where it clung to the sword’s hilt, and my elbow and shoulder joints were screaming with pain, ready to disconnect at any moment. Which made sense—my assuredly not-beefy arm was supporting the weight of two people, one ultra-high-priority longsword, and a full set of armor.

  There wasn’t a single handhold in the mirrorlike smoothness of the wall, so there was no way for me to wedge the sword farther into the surface. There was nothing below me but an endless expanse. And in addition to the pain in my right hand, my left was also reaching its limit as it clung to the lady knight in her heavy suit of golden armor.

  Physical fatigue in the Underworld was slightly different from in the real world. In terms of long-distance walking, sprinting, fierce training, and lifting heavy objects, it was the same sensation. The difference was that fatigue acted like injury in the way that it reduced one’s “life,” the numerical value of vitality in the Underworld—i.e., your hit points.

  In the real world, hardly anyone ever literally died of fatigue. Before the body could reach a state of serious, permanent injury, fatigue rendered you unable to move. But here, it was possible at times for strength of will to override physical possibility. In other words, it was theoretically possible that you could run, resisting pain and exhaustion, until the moment your life reached zero and you instantly died.

  At the moment, I was supporting an unbelievable amount of weight with my body. My life value was slowly but surely decreasing as long as this state continued. I could keep both hands clenched out of sheer determination, but eventually my life would reach zero, and I would die. In that instant, my hand would probably let go of the sword, and the knight with me would plunge to the ground hundreds of feet below and die as well.

  I wasn’t the only one suffering damage. My beloved sword was supporting more weight than it could handle, with only its very tip for leverage. And I’d already used the immensely taxing Perfect Weapon Control twice in the day’s battles. I couldn’t open its Stacia Window to check numbers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if its life reached zero within a few minutes. When that happened, the sword would shatter and no longer recover its strength by mer
ely returning to its sheath.

  It would be a terrible shame to break my sword before I could even give it a name, not that it would matter for long once I plunged to my death. I needed to do something and fast, but just holding on took all my strength, plus…

  “That’s enough! Let go of me!” shrieked the woman dangling from me—Alice Synthesis Thirty, the golden Integrity Knight with the Osmanthus Blade. “I would rather die than live with the shame of having been saved by a criminal sinner like you!”

  She struggled and rocked, trying to break herself loose from my grip. Her gauntlet slipped a little bit in my sweaty palm.

  “Arghk…stahppit…” I tried to control the shaking while uttering nonsense. But the vibration of her thrashing worked the blade’s tip a tiny millimeter out of the wall. When all was still again, I glanced down and yelled, “Stop moving, idiot! You’re an Integrity Knight; you should know that getting suicidal here isn’t going to solve anything! Idiot!”

  “Wha…?” The pale face visible between my feet turned red. “Y-you…you dare insult me, you rogue? Take that back!”

  “Shut up! I’m calling you an idiot because you are an idiot, you idiot! Idiot!” I yelled, uncertain whether I was doing this to engage her in negotiating for help, or whether I was just working out my frustration. “Do you understand the situation? If you fall off and die here, Eugeo’s going to keep climbing up to Administrator’s chamber all by himself! It’s supposed to be your job to stop that from happening! Shouldn’t your top priority as an Integrity Knight be to sacrifice anything you can to stop him?! If you’re too stupid to see the logic there, then you’re an idiot!!”

  “Th-that’s eight times you have insulted me now…,” Alice said, glaring up at me with her cheeks reddening; I doubted she’d ever been called an idiot since she became an Integrity Knight. She raised her Osmanthus Blade, eliciting chills as I pictured an attack that would send us both to our doom. But it seemed that her sense of reason won out, because the sword soon dangled at her side again.

  “I see. There is a logic to what you say,” she admitted, her pearly teeth gritted. “But why don’t you let go?! Can you prove that your reason is not pity, a fate more painful than death?!”